Explicit Measures Podcast

It doesn't matter if you have the best design skillset in the world, or if you can develop DAX Measures people couldn't even dream about. It doesn't matter if you have incredible vision and understand people's pain points in 2 minutes. What does matter is if you can manage and successfully roll out all 3.  In the BI space, the ability to deliver high quality content, that users can understand, and...

Today is coming from a mailbag! The focus - How do people document their Power BI Solutions? What should included / not included, and when does the documentation get updated?  Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Page. Visit PowerBI.tips: https://powerbi.tips/ Watch the e...

What a perfect day to release our episode! March 2022 Power BI is out, and the major release is the new formatting pane. What are our thoughts, what has changed, and how do we adapt?  Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Page . Visit PowerBI.tips: https://powerbi.tip...

One Power BI, two different worlds?  You love Power BI, but you may have a vastly different viewpoint and experience in the platform depending where you work. Are you FTE (Full-Time Employee) or IC (Independent Consultant)? The guys wanted to know just how different and distinct the experience brings to a Power BI Pro, and what skillsets are developed in each.  We are at the Power Platfo...

The guys dive into the use cases of Drill-Through in Power BI - from single zoom-in's all the way to using cross-report drill-through for Direct Query Reports. We all use it, but it is used as much as it should be? Are we being too redundant with our pages, and what story are we really telling with our drill-through pages? Listen in for what Mike, Seth, and Tommy have to say about where and why dr...

The guys share their deepest, darkest, maybe not best practices in Power BI's DAX language. From the value of Calculated Columns to Tabular Editor 3's DAX Debugger, there are many ways to hack your way to a value and a result. But are they are all worth it? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on th...

if you had $100 to spend on improving the visuals and the experience building our visuals in #PowerBI Reports, where would your money go?  The guys break down their budget and where their focus is (hint, Tables are a big deal). Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Pa...

You have a great process developing and deploying Power BI Reports. I am sure you do. But what about your team? Do they follow the same rules, methods, and process? How can you get a group or entire team of #PowerBI Authors to follow the same process. The guys discuss do you need the carrot or the stick, and what makes up best practices for a team.  Get in touch: Send in your questions or top...

The guys are back and dive into what it means and how important it is to reward, provide goals, and setting up a Center of Excellence that motivates the people involved.  Based on the Power BI Adoption Roadmap, how much do the incentives align with that is possible at most organizations? The guys break down the difference between audiences and levels of users, as well as the difference b...

The guys are back (episode 84 is coming on Tuesday) with a talk on ownership - a conversation in need of discussion in the Power BI space.  Who owns what, and what should ownership consist in regards to data, business, and reports? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcas...

By far one of the most engaged conversations the guys have had: We constantly evaluate if a report is "correct" or relevant for the users. When consumers come back and say it's confusing, does that mean the report is wrong? More so, is that a report problem or a people problem? The guys dive into the ability to scope out and derive what makes a report wrong, and when does it start in the developme...

The guys run through all the ways data can be exported from Power BI, with a few hot takes in between on is it always a positive outcome from consumers. What should be the purpose or the role of exported data, and what does it say about your reports? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the Power...

The guys run through what it means to be productive in Power BI. Is it output, learning, or solutions?  How to estimate your work, how to stay productive (rolling average), and how to break down your work. What methods and tools are used? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips...

If you consider yourself a master of the Power BI arts, there is a good chance you have used and know about External Tools in Power BI. If you have not, then stop listening start learning! What is the role of External Tools, and should it be a requirement for a Pro to know and use them in Report Development? How essential are they? The guys cover this and some tools you may not know about.  I...

The guys discuss a contested topic: What are the MOST IMPORTANT DAX functions in Power BI, and can they even rank them? What makes specific functions essential, important, or widely used? What should you know when you hit a wall, and do you have to know and master these important functions? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the h...

The guys run through what Incremental Refresh is, why use it, and implications for how can impact your process. Mike gives a master class on advanced uses on utilizing XML endpoints for incremental refresh.  Also, Goals in Power BI is a Pro feature now! You do not need Premium! https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/incremental-refresh-configure https://docs.microsoft.com/en-u...

The guys talk through why our reports get complicated, and if we add more elements and objects than needed. What causes this, and how much has to do with the design and the application itself? Or is it a problem of poorly managed objectives? Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips P...

No matter if you have never spoken before, presented once, or never have before, the guys share their own stories and tips on how they started speaking on Power BI at user groups and conferences.  Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Page . Visit PowerBI.tips: https:...

The guys are focusing on all the ways that we connect to Power BI - Basic (SQL), Advanced (API), Frustrating (Dynamics), and Future (Databricks).  What have they seen that works, what doesn't? What to look out for?  Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Page . Vi...

 If you have not heard of Matthew Roche in the Power BI Space, it is time you get familiar with his blog and especially his series of articles on the Problem Domain & Solution Domain. Too many of us are delivering results but not true solutions for our clients, departments, and teams. But what should the Power BI Pro be? How do we change the culture, the delivery, and the overall product...

This is one of our more interesting topics. Based on this article by Toward's Data Science, the current iteration of the Analyst (In our case, the Power BI Analyst) is becoming extinct. Enter the Power BI Analyst 2.0, which requires the ability to communicate, explain, and drive decisions.  The guys dive into their experience, how this article stacks up with the Power BI Pro, and what this me...

What are the different levels of users when building a report? What are they, and how do you approach each? What are the problems with audience types if you are not aware? The guys tackle this in today's episode.  Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips Podcast Page . Visit Pow...

The guys are back focusing on Power BI Licenses - what is the scale, the differences, and what should you look for?  Think this could be a boring topic? Or never thought of it? You should now - The scale between Pro, PPU, and Gen 2 is huge.  Licensing Info: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @P...

The guys are rounding out the year with what else? Resolutions! Can we stick to them? The guys share our #PowerBI resolutions for the upcoming year. What do we want to stop doing, what we want to improve on, and where should we focus our time. Get in touch: Send in your questions or topics you want us to discuss by tweeting to @PowerBITips with the hashtag #empMailbag or submit on the PowerBI.tips...

Based & inspired by an article by Bernat Agullo Rosello , the guys are back from Christmas focusing on what should be considered leaked data in Power BI. Who is responsible, and how do we ensure Power BI Reports do not contain sensitive information?  Topic goes into two main areas of Leaking Data: Leaking data externally, and grabbing data from an export into Excel and "fixing" the data....