Data visualization with Power BI: My Take-Aways

I recently completed a learning requirement for Data Visualization (Bronze Badge). I found great value in these two Udemy courses: Microsoft Power BI - A Complete Introduction, and Powerful Reports and DashBoards with Microsoft Power BI; and I would strongly recommend.

The former is quite detailed and even incorporates some hours of techy DAX and SQL learnings. The facilitator of the latter focused more on the visualizations using almost all the free visualization tools available, and many more. Mind-blowing contents.

Overall, I found out that in the areas of data handling and transformation (prerequisite to creating beautiful, and most especially, insightful visualizations), Power BI is quite like Alteryx, apart from the fact that Alteryx creates re-usable workflows. I am an Excel enthusiast, and I realized that prior knowledge of Excel is a good leverage in data visualization using Power BI, especially in the areas of measures and formulas (DAX formulas and Excel formulas are similar). I think it won’t be wrong to say that these tools (Excel, Alteryx and Power BI) share fundamental principles in certain areas, so Excel lovers are assured that they are not starting from scratch.

It is amazing how one can add value and say a lot from large chunks of data hitherto considered too much. Power BI is indeed powerful; it makes Excel charting (no matter how skilled you are at dynamic charting techniques) seem like a pre-sport warm up. A little late to the party without a doubt, but it is better than never.

Beyond having the ability to tell a compelling story with insightful visualizations, being aware of the possibilities alone is a fantastic push. 

#DataVisualization #PowerBI #Excel #Alteryx #Udemy #Learning