Explicit Measures Podcast

Mike & Tommy dive into Power BI subscriptions as proactive workflow tools, exploring whether automated data nudges can outperform interactive dashboards for busy professionals. Using a real-world data quality monitoring example, they question when the best BI solution is the one users never open, examining the balance between "push" alerts and "pull" exploration, and how subscription-driven reports can save hours while maintaining data hygiene.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 episodes live every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 730am CST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/powerbitipsSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVvSubscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tipsFollow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Mike & Tommy dive into DAX complexity and Power Query ETL tips, tackling how to structure complex measures that balance readability and performance across nested time intelligence, dynamic filters, and multi-grain data. They explore advanced Power Query techniques for reducing refresh times in Fabric Dataflows Gen2 and SharePoint integrations, with practical advice on optimizing step folding and reusing logic across queries.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 episodes live every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 730am CST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/powerbitipsSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVvSubscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tipsFollow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

They dig into CI/CD for Power BI with TMDL and PBIP, debating Fabric Deployment Pipelines versus Azure DevOps and when to use each. The hosts explore how Git integration changes the source of truth and enables selective commits. They walk through rebinding reports across environments, variable libraries, and automation with GitHub Actions and scripts.

They dig into Git practices for Power BI teams, focusing on reducing diff noise from slicer states and matrix expansions. They debate visual folder renames and naming conventions. They outline branching strategies from single-branch to personal branches and how automation can enforce clean commits.

They dig into security differences between public Publish to Web and Power BI Embedded. They debate whether embedding truly protects data when no authentication is used. They compare how row-level security and URL filters behave under each approach. They discuss workspace best practices, licensing tradeoffs, scalability, and when to keep data private or aggregate before publishing.

A time-crunched BI manager asks how to scale a Power BI consulting side hustle while prioritizing family. They discuss building a personal brand with free content and blogging. They weigh referrals versus consistent lead flow and low-hours marketing like speaking at user groups. They cover pricing, cash planning for feast-or-famine cycles, respecting employer boundaries, and knowing when to transition to full-time.

They explore what comes after a big Power BI rollout and whether growth hides sprawl. They debate AI’s role in reshaping work and troubleshooting. They explain Fabric’s schema-driven extraction and using Fabric for app data and intelligent search. They outline a three-year roadmap focused on governance, scalability, semantic model consolidation, and turning BI into a decision engine.

They debate how to submit Fabric ideas that actually get noticed and why many suggestions are ignored. They map where Microsoft is investing in Fabric, from Data Factory to governance and platform admin. They explore agent-driven development, agent-first and API-first design, and practical ways to contribute like proofs-of-concept and community threads. They also discuss signs of Power BI Desktop changes and conference timing risks.

They tackle how to start Fabric with a clean semantic model and avoid fragmented, redundant models. They debate rebuild vs incremental consolidation and how to use AI to audit and merge existing models. They cover governance, workspace and lakehouse design, access controls, training, and strategies to shape team culture toward a single source of truth.

Mike & Tommy tackle AI-assisted TMDL workflows and the hot reload problem, exploring whether direct file editing with AI tools like Copilot is the future of Power BI development or a recipe for broken models. They weigh the tension between "move logic upstream" best practices and the brutal close-reopen cycle when TMDL changes introduce errors, debating whether Tabular Editor 3, MCP servers, or a native Microsoft solution offers the best path forward for safe, validated bulk refactoring.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 episodes live every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 730am CST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/powerbitipsSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVvSubscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tipsFollow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/