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60 posts
December 3, 2025
Mike and Tommy reflect on rebuilding data environments using lessons learned—why semantic models and shared definitions matter more than ever as teams scale. They connect the dots between metric stores, governance, and the push toward a unified semantic layer in Fabric and Power BI.
November 28, 2025
Mike and Tommy react to the argument that centralized data teams become bottlenecks—and explore why embedding data ownership inside product teams can deliver faster, more relevant outcomes. They discuss the tradeoffs: governance, consistency, and how to avoid replacing one silo with many.
July 4, 2025
Mike and Tommy dig into a very real Fabric pain point: connections that get created by one developer and become invisible or unusable for everyone else. They share practical governance patterns—especially security-group driven ownership—and what Microsoft could improve to reduce friction and ‘paper cuts’ in team-based pipelines.
May 30, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down what Copilot Standalone for Power BI is and why it changes the consumer experience for chat-with-your-data. Then they role-play a realistic rollout plan—starting with real problems, measurable wins, and AI-ready semantic models instead of a blanket mandate.
January 29, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down what Copilot Capacity is and how to think about sizing and governance so your organization can safely roll out Copilot features in Power BI. They share practical guidance for planning adoption, controlling cost, and setting expectations as teams move from experimentation to production.
January 24, 2025
In this episode, Mike and Tommy wrestle with a question they keep hearing: is Microsoft Fabric too complex or too simple, depending on who’s using it? They also dig into the ‘myth of the data catalog’ and why getting clear on definitions and outcomes matters more than buying another tool.
January 3, 2025
In this episode, the team breaks down Metric sets in Power BI and why a shared, reusable catalog of KPIs can change how organizations define and trust their numbers. They cover where Metric sets fit in the experience today, what it means for business users, and the practical impact on model design and governance.
January 1, 2025
In this episode, Mike and Seth walk through what it really takes to migrate Excel-based reporting into Power BI without losing trust in the numbers. They share practical guidance on scoping, modeling, and rollout so your migration improves the experience instead of recreating spreadsheet chaos at scale.
December 27, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the new Org Apps experience in Power BI and how it changes the way you package and ship content to your organization. They cover practical setup patterns, governance considerations, and what to watch for as the feature continues to evolve.
December 25, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth dig into the new Organizational Apps (Org Apps) experience in Microsoft Fabric and how it changes the way teams package and distribute content. They break down what’s different from classic workspace apps, where the feature helps, and the preview limitations you need to understand before rolling it out broadly.
December 20, 2024
The crew digs into OneLake data cataloging and governance: what it enables, where the current gaps are, and what to watch for as Fabric’s governance story evolves.
October 2, 2024
In this episode, Mike and Tommy wrap up part 7 of their CLM series by focusing on how (and when) to retire and archive Power BI content. You’ll hear practical guidance for avoiding content sprawl while still keeping history, context, and compliance in mind.
September 27, 2024
In this episode, Mike and Tommy dig into how to design practical Power BI workspace policies that keep your tenant organized without crushing productivity. You’ll learn how to think about personas, guardrails, and enforcement so your governance model actually sticks.
September 25, 2024
In this episode, Mike and Tommy are joined by Seth Bauer to break down three common Microsoft Fabric adoption scenarios—when leadership wants it now, when decision-makers are on the fence, and when the org is starting from scratch. You’ll leave with a practical way to frame the conversation, identify the right “Avengers team,” and define what success looks like in the first 30–90 days.
September 18, 2024
In this episode, Mike and Tommy continue their Content Lifecycle Management series by focusing on how to support and monitor your Power BI content at scale. You'll learn practical guidance for operationalizing your environment so your reports stay reliable, governed, and easy to improve over time.
September 13, 2024
In this mailbag episode, Mike and Tommy dig into why Power BI self-service adoption can stall and what leaders can do to make it stick. They cover practical governance, enablement, and culture shifts that turn ‘build-it-yourself’ into a repeatable analytics habit.
September 4, 2024
Content lifecycle management only works if teams can reliably move Power BI artifacts from development to production without breaking what users rely on. In this episode, Mike and Tommy walk through CLM Part 5—deploying content—and talk about the maturity, process, and tooling decisions that make deployments repeatable.
August 23, 2024
Validation is where content lifecycle management turns from a plan into a repeatable, trustworthy process. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth walk through what to validate, who should validate it, and how to make validation part of your release rhythm.
August 21, 2024
Domains in Microsoft Fabric help you organize content, standardize ownership, and make discovery easier — but they also add a new layer to how teams think about governance. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through when domains help, what to watch out for, and how to roll them out without creating chaos.
July 19, 2024
Mike and Tommy dig into the real-world friction points you hit when rolling out a Power BI / Fabric Center of Excellence (CoE), and what to do about them. The conversation focuses on governance, adoption, and how to keep the rollout moving without burning out the team.
July 17, 2024
Mike and Tommy cover Microsoft Fabric GitHub integration news and share practical lessons learned from working with deployment pipelines. The main discussion breaks down SQLBI’s 3-30-300 rule and how it helps teams build clearer, more usable reports.
March 20, 2024
Mike and Tommy talk through practical sharing strategies in the Power BI / Fabric world — what to share, how to share it, and how to avoid turning collaboration into chaos.
March 15, 2024
Mike and Tommy dig into internal design: how to build Power BI/Fabric solutions that are usable, maintainable, and aligned with how your organization actually works.
February 28, 2024
A BI rollout isn’t finished when the report ships. The team wraps up Microsoft’s implementation planning series with practical guidance on training, support, feedback, and monitoring adoption.
February 14, 2024
Requirements shouldn’t be a dead document—they should be the shared decisions that drive your semantic model, visuals, and rollout. In Ep. 293, the team breaks down solution planning requirements that prevent churn and keep a Power BI build aligned with real business outcomes.
February 7, 2024
In Ep. 291, the team translates Microsoft’s tactical planning guidance into a simple operating model: ship measurable BI solutions, run enablement initiatives in parallel, and revisit the plan every 1–3 months so priorities stay real.
January 12, 2024
Data programs don’t break because DAX is hard—they break because ownership is fuzzy and incentives don’t line up. In Ep. 284, Mike, Tommy, and Seth dig into the politics of data and how to create decision-rights, trust, and accountability that actually scale.
January 10, 2024
Strategic workshops are where BI strategy becomes real: goals get named, tradeoffs get surfaced, and ownership becomes explicit. In Episode 283, the team shares a practical approach for planning workshops that produce a usable roadmap—not just notes.
December 20, 2023
Ep. 277 breaks down BI strategic planning—how to align outcomes, define ownership and governance, and build an achievable roadmap so your Power BI program keeps momentum.
December 13, 2023
Ep. 275 breaks down business alignment for Power BI and Microsoft Fabric—how to connect analytics work to real business outcomes, decision-makers, and priorities. The crew shares practical ways to translate strategy into an operating rhythm your data team can actually execute.
December 1, 2023
Ep. 272 breaks down change management for Power BI/Fabric programs—how to make platform shifts stick through communication, enablement, and an adoption rhythm—plus a practical PSA on Direct Lake data-type gotchas in semantic models.
November 15, 2023
Ep. 267 turns Microsoft’s System Oversight guidance into an actionable playbook: what to monitor, what to standardize, and how to avoid governance-by-surprise. You’ll get practical patterns for balancing tenant controls with empowerment, plus tips for using capacity signals and APIs to keep Power BI + Fabric healthy at scale.
November 10, 2023
Ep. 266 defines managed self-service in Power BI: shared semantic models with clear ownership + certification so business teams can build fast without breaking trust in the numbers.
November 8, 2023
A rapid-fire mailbag: incremental refresh vs full reloads, migrating off Report Server, pragmatic workspace governance, and how Fabric adds new compute choices without changing the core tables→model→report pattern.
November 3, 2023
Low adoption isn’t a mystery—it’s usually a measurement problem. Ep. 264 breaks down how to define adoption for analytics work and which signals (report usage, model reuse, enablement, and outcomes) actually correlate with impact.
October 25, 2023
Ep. 261 uses a hilarious ‘ordering data like food’ skit to unpack why BI requests derail—panic timelines, shifting requirements, and invisible validation work—and what teams can do to align expectations before the next board-meeting fire drill.
October 20, 2023
Ep. 260 breaks down Microsoft Fabric workspace roles (Admin/Member/Contributor/Viewer) and how to assign them with least-privilege in mind—so teams can build fast without turning every workspace into an admin free-for-all.
October 18, 2023
Ep. 259 asks the question every Fabric builder runs into: does a star schema still matter in a Direct Lake world? The answer: yes—especially if DAX is involved—but Fabric changes where the shaping work belongs (upstream) and raises the bar on governance.
October 11, 2023
Ep. 257 tackles a super-common reality: executives live in PowerPoint, while the truth lives in Power BI. The crew breaks down when to embed live report pages vs. ship static screenshots, and how to use slides as a bridge to better data culture (without creating KPI telephone).
October 6, 2023
Ep. 256 explores Power BI’s updated Q&A linguistic schema—how richer relationships and shareable synonyms can improve natural-language questions, and why governance is still the make-or-break factor.
October 4, 2023
Ep. 255 outlines a practical Power BI skills matrix you can use to measure team capability, spot gaps and single points of failure, and turn vague 'we need a Power BI person' conversations into a clear hiring and training plan.
September 27, 2023
Ep. 253 answers a mailbag question every org is about to face: will Microsoft Fabric’s bigger toolbox overwhelm business users—or can you introduce it without killing self-service momentum? Mike, Tommy, and Seth share practical rollout language, guardrails, and adoption patterns that keep Power BI approachable.
September 22, 2023
Ep. 252 clarifies the analytics job-title soup—data engineer, analyst, BI developer, analytics engineer, and data scientist—by mapping each role to the real deliverables your Power BI workflow needs. The crew shares how to set ownership boundaries so modeling, security, and reporting don’t fall into the cracks.
September 20, 2023
Ep. 251 focuses on where AI genuinely helps (and where it doesn’t) in a BI workflow—turning vague questions into clear requirements, accelerating DAX and documentation, and improving communication—while staying realistic about security, governance, and hallucinations.
September 15, 2023
Ep. 250 tackles the practical question every Fabric team hits fast: what belongs in OneLake, and how do you decide the right boundaries for lakehouses, workspaces, and semantic models. Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the OneLake vs. lakehouse naming confusion, then land on governance-first patterns that keep shared dimensions, security, and reuse from turning into a data swamp.
September 13, 2023
Ep. 249 uses Jevons Paradox to explain a familiar analytics reality: when BI gets easier, demand for “just one more metric” accelerates. Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack what that means for self-service, governance, and strategy—so your organization gets more clarity, not just more dashboards.
September 8, 2023
This episode breaks down practical Microsoft Fabric workspace design: how to separate environments, clarify ownership, and keep permissions sane as you scale. If your tenant is starting to feel messy, you’ll walk away with a repeatable pattern you can apply to new teams and new data products.
August 25, 2023
Most orgs aren’t short on data—they’re short on agreement and follow-through. In Ep. 244, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down what ‘data-driven’ really looks like: decisions tied to metrics, shared definitions, and a feedback loop that turns insight into action.
August 23, 2023
If you could spend $100 improving Microsoft Fabric, what would you buy? In Ep. 243, Mike, Tommy, and Seth build a no-nonsense wish list centered on cost clarity, stronger lineage, and admin tooling that scales beyond a single team.
August 16, 2023
Ep. 241 covers a practical Dataflows Gen2 approach to build history over time—and a bigger lesson: solving data problems means addressing technical, business, and adoption realities (not just shipping a clever automation).
August 11, 2023
Ep. 240 is a reminder that ‘the art of the possible’ isn’t just flashy dashboards—real Power BI/Fabric value comes from automation, clarity on the business outcome, and designing for adoption.
July 28, 2023
Ep. 236 breaks down the Fabric ‘SQL vs OneLake’ decision: what’s just different interfaces over the same Delta storage, where governance and permissions still matter, and how to keep architectures understandable as the platform converges.
July 7, 2023
In Ep. 230, Mike, Tommy, and Seth continue their domain roles series and map out how responsibilities shift as you move from Power BI into Microsoft Fabric. You'll learn practical ways to define ownership, reduce duplication, and build trust using clear governance and promotion/certification patterns.
July 5, 2023
In Ep. 229, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down Fabric domains and why they’re only useful when paired with clear ownership and process. They debate central BI vs. business-led models, workspace roles, and the promotion/certification path needed to keep Fabric enablement from turning into chaos.
June 23, 2023
In Ep. 226, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack Microsoft Fabric capacities with a cost-first lens: how to read CU consumption, what ‘hidden’ background artifacts can imply for spend, and which controls (like pausing a capacity) help you experiment without getting surprised.
June 21, 2023
In Ep. 225, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack why ‘workspaces’ are getting noisier in the Fabric era: new item types that appear automatically, what should be hidden vs. governed, and the simple standards that keep teams productive while the platform shifts under your feet.
June 7, 2023
In Ep. 221, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down OneLake and Direct Lake in Microsoft Fabric—what they are, how they work together, and where the sharp edges still are. If you’re trying to pick a durable lakehouse pattern, this episode gives you the mental model for shortcuts, security, and performance before you bet your architecture on the new stack.
May 26, 2023
Ep. 218 is a high-energy breakdown of Microsoft Fabric—why it feels like the next evolution of the Power BI platform, and the governance, capacity, and admin decisions you should consider before enabling it broadly.
April 26, 2023
In Ep. 208, Mike, Tommy, and Seth debate whether the analytics “supply chain” is dying—why a shared metrics trunk and edge-driven feedback loops matter, and what AI changes (and doesn’t change) about BI.
April 5, 2023
Ep. 202 defines what success looks like for Power BI admins—balancing governance and enablement, setting the right tenant guardrails, and measuring adoption with signals that actually matter.