Tag
20 posts
March 4, 2026
Mike and Tommy explore AI-assisted TMDL workflows and the hot reload experience for faster Power BI development. They also cover the new programmatic Power Query API and the GA release of the input slicer.
January 2, 2026
Mike and Tommy revisit Dataflows Gen 2 after giving it a hard time for months — and the verdict? It's actually good now. New parallelization, modern query evaluation, and smarter pricing make it a real option again. Plus, the PBIR format admin setting and creative image visual tricks.
July 23, 2025
Mike and Tommy answer a mailbag question about building Excel dashboards with future migration in mind. They break down practical steps for making the leap from Excel to Power BI easier — starting with Power Query, tables, and pivot charts.
June 13, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle a common frustration: how to give report viewers a simple experience without exposing them to the full complexity of Fabric. They explore SharePoint embedding, org apps, dedicated embedding solutions, and the importance of identifying user personas.
May 9, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and special guest Alex Powers deep-dive into squeezing maximum performance out of Power Query—from Excel origins to Dataflows Gen 2 in Fabric. They cover staging defaults, V-Order optimization, query folding, the ELT mindset shift, and why copy-pasting Gen 1 code into Gen 2 will burn your CU budget.
May 7, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into the Power Query skills every Power BI user should master. From essential daily transforms to advanced M language techniques, they break down what to learn first and what to tackle as you level up.
February 19, 2025
Mike and Tommy compare two practical ways to manage small-but-critical reference tables: Power BI Dataflows Gen1 versus a Fabric SQL database. They break down tradeoffs around refresh, governance, CI/CD, and downstream consumption so you can pick the simplest option that still scales.
April 17, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures (Ep. 311), the team covers Power BI news and the main discussion topic.
December 6, 2023
Ep. 273 breaks down two power-user additions: DAX Query View in Power BI Desktop (plus Performance Analyzer integration) and Fabric’s new `DeltaLake.Table` M function—bringing Power Query closer to Delta tables.
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.
May 24, 2023
Ep. 217 is a practical conversation about Power Query functions—how to build a small library of repeatable helpers, where reuse breaks down inside PBIX files, and when it’s time to move transformations into shared dataflows or upstream pipelines.
May 10, 2023
Low-code is less about ‘no programming’ and more about accelerating real work with guided UI, defaults, and reusable patterns. In Ep. 212, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down how Power BI, Power Query, Power Apps, and automation fit on that spectrum—and what guardrails and ‘wizard’ experiences would make teams faster without sacrificing fundamentals.
August 31, 2016
Create a custom dynamic date table in Power BI Query Editor using M language. Build week-based selectors that automatically update when refreshed.
August 10, 2016
Learn how to load multiple Excel files from a folder into Power BI using a custom function. Combine workbooks with multiple sheets into a single query.
August 4, 2016
Learn how to create a variable query in Power BI to manage file locations. When you move files, update one query instead of changing every source path.
June 16, 2016
Learn how to automatically load only the most recent file from a folder in Power BI. Perfect for automated reports that receive daily data files.
May 19, 2016
Learn how to copy and paste queries to and from the Query Editor using the Advanced Editor. Master the M language to share and model your Power BI data.
April 20, 2016
Learn how to pull data directly from Wikipedia into Power BI and create a beautiful filled map showing US population growth by state.
April 11, 2016
Learn how to troubleshoot and fix broken file connections in Power BI Desktop when your data source has moved or can't be found.
April 7, 2016
Learn how to load multiple files from a folder into Power BI Desktop using the powerful automated data loading feature that will change how you work with data.