Back to basics: Power BI Lessons of adoption #1

I am starting a series of blog posts around the Power BI adoption and the engagement of the users. I have been working and still keep working on different Power BI projects for several years now. With different caps on my head due to my old age and experience, I was able to help with very different aspects. One of them is Adoption and Governance.

The challenges remain the same: How to drive this fantastic product to a full commitment from your users.

Today will be about an elementary and yet super powerful brick in your journey.
Teach the users how to use the product. And by using, I mean to consume it. As simple as that, but so essential. If your users don’t see the point of the interactions in your reports, you will lose the added value of it.

You need to explore with them their different use case of data usage and propose the right solution for each of them.
-The different ways to filter and to slice the data.
-How to save yourself from a wrong filter.
-The secrets of drill-down meaningfully.
-How to prepare a meeting with an existing report.
-How to deep dive in data by connecting an Excel with the model itself.

This session should be followed by all the users, if possible, starting with actual sponsors and future champions.

Also, I recommend to use a simple model as apples and pears but perfectly designed. It will keep them away from the questions about “this data is wrong” that you may encounter if you are using test data from the real environment.

The report to consume itself should be straightforward about the data but should propose all the classic categories and variations of slicers and visuals. This is your chance to introduce the #dataviz and the #data culture! My first slide to enter the subject is the following and it goal is to trigger them out of the comfort zone of Excel grids…

Next post will be about the learning path, the autonomy and the different ways to support the Power BI users in their journey.