Explicit Measures Podcast

Mike & Tommy tackle the often-overlooked "outer context" problem in agentic Fabric development — exploring why request tracking systems like Notion, GitHub Issues, or even ADO matter more than most teams realize, and how building a proper project harness could be the difference between an agent that delivers and one that drifts.
They break down how to map these workflows across corporate tool stacks — Loop, OneNote, SharePoint — and what a minimum viable harness actually looks like in practice.
Inspired by this mailbag question: @HerrHipp
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/powerbitips
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎
Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tips
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Mike & Tommy tackle the surprisingly tricky problem of tracking Power BI app usage at scale, exploring why app-level telemetry is harder to surface than report-level metrics and how teams can map usage back to districts using Entra ID, Admin APIs, and audit logs.
They break down which telemetry sources are actually viable, how to avoid common pitfalls like audience filters hiding true reach and shared devices skewing counts, and lay out a scalable architecture for ~9,000 users across 70 districts built around a centralized semantic model with incremental refresh.
Resources mentioned: Chicagoland Power BI Meetup, Fabric Runtime Release Channels, Deep Dive into Tooltip Options in Power BI Visuals
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/powerbitips
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎
Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tips
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Mike & Tommy tackle why organizations are still dragging their feet on AI adoption even with Microsoft Fabric sitting right in front of them — weighing in on whether the real blockers are skills, data quality, governance, or just unclear ROI.
They break down what "AI-ready" actually looks like in a Fabric and Power BI environment, how to tell AI strategy from AI theater, and what a realistic 30/60/90-day plan looks like to move from experimentation to production.
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/powerbitips
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎
Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tips
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Mike & Tommy tackle the question of whether it's time to hold CEOs and CFOs accountable for data literacy, not just the analysts building the reports. Inspired by a mailbag from jedc at bi.fo, they explore why leaders so often ask for A when the business actually needs B, and what it really takes to build a shared data language across the org.
They also cover the latest on AI-powered Power BI reporting from design to deployment: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/AI-Powered-Power-BI-reporting-From-design-to-deployment-with/ba-p/5190703
Mailbag from jedc: http://bi.fo
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/powerbitips
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎
Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tips
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/

Mike & Tommy dive into the second half of the AI self-service analytics story, tackling governance, skills, and validation — and why giving everyone the ability to ask questions of data raises the stakes, not just the speed.
They break down what a "Skill" actually means in Power BI terms, who owns the wrong answer when Claude writes the query, and how BI teams can build validation checkpoints that create trust without grinding the business to a halt.
Also discussed: Replit's Microsoft partnership and Skills for Fabric in other harnesses.
https://claude.com/blog/how-anthropic-enables-self-service-data-analytics-with-claude
https://open-semantic-interchange.org/
https://replit.com/partners/microsoft
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/powerbitips
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/230fp78XmHHRXTiYICRLVv
Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/explicit-measures-podcast/id1568944083‎
Check Out Community Jam: https://jam.powerbi.tips
Follow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcarlo/
Follow Tommy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommypuglia/