

Explicit Measures Podcast
PowerBI.Tips
Hosted by Mike Carlo, and Tommy Puglia, the Explicit Measures Podcast is a Power BI focused show that is like being around a Power BI Pro’s Water Cooler. With so many available resources in the community that focuses on the “how” in Power BI (how to do Drill Through, how to use DAX, etc.,), the Explicit Measures Podcast is all around the WHY. Why use a particular feature, does it make sense for my users?
Build the toolset, learn the how, and then come to the Podcast to the listen to the why in situations we all experience as Power BI Pros.
Build the toolset, learn the how, and then come to the Podcast to the listen to the why in situations we all experience as Power BI Pros.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 23, 2021 • 54min
42: How Do You Resolve Power BI Technical Debt?
Technical Debt. The concept of buildup of unscalable solutions that causes rework in a solution, and eventually catch up on you. Anyone in the Power BI Space should already see the relationship between Technical Debt and building Power BI models and maintaining reports for an organization.
The guys dive in how this relates to a Power BI Professional, offering different concepts of debt. Have you considered Model Debt, Data Cultural Debt, or even Adoption Debt?
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 21, 2021 • 55min
41: How Do You Clean Power BI Models? Tools and Approaches
It does not matter if you are just starting off in Power BI or a season veteran, or even an all-star: You are going to run into complications with your models. It's not about avoiding messy models sometimes as much as it is about the ability to audit, clean, and optimize one. The guys run through their best approaches and tools that have served them well over the years in cleaning, optimizing, and improving their Power BI Models.
Link's from today's episode:
Export Power BI Report Objects (elegantbi.com)
Power BI Cleaner Gen2 now covers Analysis Services Models as well (thebiccountant.com)
Data Vizioner – Document, review and improve Power BI reports
RuiRomano/pbidevops (github.com)
MikeCarlo/Scripts: Community repository for sharing and discussing scripts for use with Tabular Editor (github.com)
Integrate Power BI Deployment Pipelines with Azure DevOps – Data – Marc (data-marc.com)
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 16, 2021 • 1h 3min
40: I Had $100.... Spending Our Budget On The Power BI Service
One of our more favorite segments, we imagine Microsoft gave us $100 to spend on however we want to enhance the Power BI Service. Where would we have the Microsoft team put their time and effort, and where would we put our dollars on making the Power BI Service a better experience for Consumers, Admins, and Authors?
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 14, 2021 • 52min
39: Where Does Power BI Mobile Fit Into the Story?
We know how important phones and tablets are to our culture. This is the same for companies and users. Microsoft continually enhances the Power BI mobile experience for users on a monthly basis, however do you see the usage of reports on user's mobile devices as you would expect? The guys dive into the Mobile experience, and what role it should play in the Power BI platform.
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 9, 2021 • 50min
38: The Importance of Communication for a Power BI Pro
Today's episode is all about the importance of communication skills for a Power BI Professional. First and foremost, why are even talking about communication in the Business Intelligence space? It is integral to have the ability to listen, empathize, and effectively communicate to our users what their needs are, along with talking data.
What challenges have you faced when communicating as a BI professional? Where have you failed, and how do you actually improve talking data, and what goes into this skill?
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 7, 2021 • 56min
37: Composite Models and Reusing DAX Measures and Objects in Power BI
With some of the major new features available to connect to live datasets in Power BI (Direct Query on Analysis Services) that allows a Power BI report connect to both a Power BI Dataset and other sources, the immediate potential becomes profound. But why should you ensure that this is the way to go, and what are the use cases and also the limitations? This question came in from a mailbag, if you want to suggest a topic, you can do so using the links below:
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Sep 2, 2021 • 55min
36: Developing Insights When There Are None - How To Create Insights In Power BI For an Organization
Based on this amazing article by Microsoft on how they developed their corporate KPI's, the guys wanted to run with it and talk about how any Power BI Pro can begin to help develop for their reports and users goals and KPIs. What are the insights, and how do we help guide our stakeholders in the direction where are reports have meaningful data, and metrics that matter?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/insidetrack/metrics-that-matter-how-we-track-our-digital-transformation
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Aug 31, 2021 • 53min
35: Power BI Filters - Slicers or The Filter Pane
There are more than one way to filter a Power BI Report. You can use the Filter Pane, use Slicers, interact with a visual, or even use drill-through. Now, the real question is what the experience for a user? What should you use, and what are the pitfalls and benefits to each? Join in and listen as the guys discuss.
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Aug 26, 2021 • 44min
34: I.T Datasets vs. User Datasets in Power BI, and the Separation of BI from IT
As companies evolve in their reporting and data systems, there has been an ongoing discussion around ownership of datasets in Power BI, including when IT gets involved. The guys discuss what would define an IT dataset and what makes up a user dataset, and dive into the evolution and the separation of Business Intelligence and data from the IT realm. Is Power BI and BI still a part of IT anymore?
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Aug 24, 2021 • 53min
33: What Makes a Good Power BI Executive Sponsor?
Another bout with the Power BI Adoption Roadmap, this time focusing on the need for and importance of Executive Sponsorship & Support. What entails or successful factors should a Pro look for in an Executive Sponsor? Is it required to be Top-Down (C-level)?
Listen in to hear what the guys have experienced with successful Sponsorship, and what to look for in a promising candidate. Moreover, how do you sell someone at an organization to be that sponsor, and what should they expect of you?
Article Reference from today's discussion: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/powerbi-adoption-roadmap-executive-sponsorship
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/channel/UCPwPrIpZwlfIKcoUpRwl9OQ
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Seth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-bauer/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/