My Approach Starting with Power BI

My Approach Starting with Power BI


A lot has been said about how easy it is to start learning Microsoft Power BI but there is more to getting the best starting point on any new skill or competency required to succeed. I want to share my approach to learning and gaining proficiency in Power BI. So in this newsletter, I will be sharing a few tips that are working for me in my career journey.

Starting from Microsoft's definition of Power BI, "Connect to and visualize any data using the unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI) that’s easy to use and helps you gain deeper data insight", it is best to begin your journey connecting and working with the simple dataset using Power BI. Power BI gives you the opportunity to work with sample data that can be freely downloaded from their website from within Power BI as shown below.

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The next step in taking this approach is to get your hands dirty with lots of practice working with these datasets. A weekly schedule of practice with a project deliverable in mind would go a long way in achieving proficiency at every step you take in mastering Power BI. The more repetition, failures, corrections, and pleasing weekly outcomes, the better and more proficient you become. All the completed projects will be useful and needed to prove your skills whenever you needed them.

Another important step in mastering Power BI is to learn from the Masters. There is a large community of MVPs on Power BI both locally and internationally. These professionals create blogs, publish videos on YouTube and also respond to member queries on Microsoft Power BI. Below is a list of some of these professionals in my network.

  1. Alberto Ferrari - Senior Consultant - SQLBI.COM | LinkedIn
  2. Marco Russo - Italia | Profilo professionale | LinkedIn
  3. Mitchell Pearson - Training Content Manager - Pragmatic Works | LinkedIn
  4. Ryan Wade - Greater Indianapolis | Professional Profile | LinkedIn 
  5. Leon Gordon, Microsoft MVP - Director Of Analytics - Onyx Data | LinkedIn
  6. Ahmed Oyelowo (MVP, MCT, AFM) - Managing Partner - Foresight BI & Analytics | LinkedIn
  7. David Abu - Global Cloud Advocate Power BI - Microsoft | LinkedIn

Some Power BI communities and blogs that I gain a lot from are listed below.

The list is endless. You can get more resources online as you learn. I hope this helps as I look forward to sharing more tips, tricks, and resources via this newsletter. Thank you.

Wishing you a rewarding journey to proficiency

Marvellous Olatunji

Research Associate/Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at Nigeria Governors' Forum Secretariat

3y

👏👏👏

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