Power BI Core Visuals teamwork

When Microsoft asked me to participate in shaping the future of data visualization within the Power BI Core visual team, I was speechless. I had only been experimenting with data visualization tools like Power BI, Qlik Sense, and Tableau for 4 years. Why this request, and what does it mean for me? What is expected of me?

Why me?

Well, I actually shouldn't be the one to answer that question. I've been active in the field of report experience and data visualization for 4 years now, and it's where I've found my passion. As a UX/UI data expert with over 30 years of experience, I'm passionate about products like Power BI and deeply value community engagement. I'm always eager to help the community with advice, tips, stage sessions, networking, and I believe in the power of collaboration.

Over the past few years, I've delved deeply into Power BI as a tool and honed my skills in data visualization. I've created numerous reports on hobbies and brands that I enjoy, and you can find this visual journey here. My creativity, knowledge, critical perspective, experiences, community-driven mindset, and perseverance might just be the ingredients needed to be a team member of a group of experts known as Microsoft Power BI Core Visuals.

What is a Community Representative?

A "community representative" is an individual designated and voluntarily acting as a representative of a specific community, group, organization, or interest group. The role of a community representative can vary depending on the context and purpose of the involved community. Generally, community representatives are tasked with communicating and advocating for the interests, viewpoints, and needs of the community they represent.

In my situation, I serve between the community and Microsoft's Power BI data visualization team. Therefore, I am an external professional with specific expertise that is valuable to the team. Within the team, there are around 20 external community representatives from around the world.

The PM of the data visualization team Miguel Myers appoints individuals and oversees the onboarding process as volunteers in this role. This involves signing a strict non-disclosure agreement and understanding the responsibilities associated with the role. The role is temporary and can be terminated by either party at any time. Sometimes, you may be involved in a significant feature development, while other times you gather ideas from the community and assess what report creators enjoy or need. Additionally, you collect reviews and comments on existing and new features to provide input to the team.

What is my role

As a community representative, my role involves identifying the pulse of the community and understanding the various issues and desires within it. Additionally, I strive to operate within my field as an inspirer, encouraging users to "push the limits" and explore the full potential of the tool, as this is how report creators can discover the functionalities they need.

I share my knowledge and passion with the community, ensuring frequent interactions with this group of individuals who are the ones using the tool and experiencing any pain points. Sometimes, I hear recurring minor issues and take it upon myself to address them. Problems act as stimuli, and open and honest communication is crucial. Therefore, I refrain from making promises that cannot be kept and only commit when feasible. I am mindful of my attitude, perception, and critical eye.

I aim to assist, motivate, and encourage the community to work on possibilities and solutions. Additionally, I demonstrate how new features can be utilized for various purposes.

Enthusiasm is a significant aspect of my role. When I am pleased with a feature or update, it tends to have a positive ripple effect on others. Each user experiences aspects that work well and those that are less favourable at their own level. I gather comments and reviews to bring back to our team for consideration, whether it's for resolving issues or building new features. Users contribute to the product's success, and when their experience improves, so does the product's adoption rate. My personal wishes are irrelevant; I am the voice of the large group of Power BI report creators toward Microsoft.

How does the team collaborate?

The Microsoft team responsible for data visualization consists of a Product Manager (PM Miguel Myers), developers, designers, testers, and community representatives. Multiple tools are utilized for collaboration because team members work remotely from various countries.

This facilitates effective communication in English among team members. Proficiency in the English language is not relevant and does not reflect one's intelligence or expertise.

Every month, the team convenes in an online meeting. This meeting includes the 12 community representatives along with the PM and developers. Occasionally, other specialists are called upon when discussing a particular area of expertise. Our meeting agenda typically involves discussing adjustments, ideas, bugs, and new visualizations in Power BI.

We also consider the available time of developers and designers for implementation. If 80% of their time is allocated to building a feature, then only 20% remains for other tasks. Therefore, prioritization is extremely important in this team. Resources are limited, and careful management is essential. Planning plays a crucial role as well. We determine how long a team of developers will work on a specific milestone within a focus group and assess the overall capacity of the team. A to-do list is compiled, and the 12 community representatives individually vote on which items they would like to see included in releases.

New Power BI Visualizations in Power BI for 2025

An exciting aspect for Microsoft and the Power BI team is envisioning the future of data visualization. This involves examining current visuals for areas of improvement and exploring new ones. Naturally, competitive tools are also assessed for usability, popularity, and functionality. Because Power BI encompasses more than just data visualization, with teams like DAX, Power Query, Canvas, Mobile, etc., there are many interrelated influences to consider.

Every change or request that is implemented immediately impacts multiple teams. A new visualization, for example, must function on desktop, mobile, as well as in Power Point and Outlook. Additionally, technical teams responsible for DAX, Power Query, or the Canvas also need to understand the implications of any decisions made.

Sometimes, something may not be developed simply because it's not feasible for another team.

As you can imagine, discussions, coordination, and collaboration are therefore crucial.

Roadmap and Voting Rounds

As discussed, the PM of data visualization defines 8 focus groups for which the community representatives can vote. A focus group could be "Matrix visual," "New Violin Plot," "Labels," or "Theming".

Each community representative is allowed to distribute 10 voting points among the features listed on the roadmap within the 8 focus groups. After tallying the votes, the PM consults with us to determine which 3 focus groups will be highlighted and worked on. The 12 community representatives then vote among themselves to decide which 3 groups ultimately make the cut. This could mean that a new visualization or major adjustment may not be included in any of the 3 focus groups and therefore will not be addressed in a release during the current year. Perhaps next year...

After defining the 3 focus groups, the 12 community representatives prioritize. This is crucial to determine which 5 milestones of a focus group will be built first. What order will we follow? Once again, coordination and discussion are essential. The 12 community representatives lead this prioritization process, and developers and designers can request deviations through the PM. Therefore, the voting round is crucial for all involved parties.

My challenges

As a community representative, you are part of a product team, which inherently limits your independence. If I express negativity about a feature on social media, it reflects back on the product team. While I'm not an employee, I still serve as a sort of spokesperson for Microsoft. I often struggle with this because I'm very critical about capabilities, bugs, planning, and efforts, and I can only share these concerns internally with the PMs of the product teams. This dual role sometimes leads to friction or debates.

Another challenge is influence. Because you're a community representative and therefore part of a product launch or new feature, you're also responsible for its success or failure in the eyes of the community.

I also face the most unpleasant criticisms when something doesn't meet someone's expectations. Even with a "Preview" feature, which may still have flaws, I receive dozens of DMs asking why something isn't working or is subpar.

You never get used to that, but it's crucial to handle such situations professionally. In their eyes, I'm part of this project, even though I'm not a Microsoft employee and am purely volunteering.

The greatest challenge is conflicting interests. Personal interest is not the priority; that's the motto of my involvement with this wonderful team and its exciting challenges. It means thinking and speaking from the perspective of the community. So, if 80% of the people want to see a financial table to create a good P&L, I'll work tirelessly to make it happen, even if I know certain circumstances make it difficult to realize, such as capacity constraints, political influences, or commercial interests! Community first is my motto.

Perhaps I personally want to see other components included in the core visuals, but the financial table will still be my focus during meetings. I'll also vote for the financial table in the roadmap.

Prioritization is key here. Unfortunately, I'm just one of the 12 community representatives, so if 9 others want to see a Violin Plot, my vote isn't strong enough.

Therefore, coordinating, discussing, persuading, and influencing are crucial for me to serve the overarching goal of community first! Of course, end-users, report creators, and the community are all stakeholder groups that must be closely monitored to ensure we're on the right track with the small piece of Power BI we're working on.

Testing prevents ruining!

As a community representative, you are closely involved from the Figma concept, mock-up, wire framing, prototyping to realization. However, there's an important aspect where you also need to participate as a community representative: testing a new feature based on certain criteria. Since you test with 12+ people, this process is highly structured, with time slots determined for each tester. During this testing phase, you have access to an external machine where you can safely log in.

After logging in, you have a Power BI desktop environment with the new features or additional functionalities built-in. This Preview version 0.1 is ready to be tested. I'm a big advocate of testing because it allows you to critically evaluate functionalities, user-friendliness, and usability from multiple perspectives.

So, testing prevents ruining, and of course, there are always situations that are not documented and occur in practice with report creators. The test results with issues are shared in our team environment, and these are addressed by the PM and the product team.

Integration among teams

When I started two years ago, many teams operated independently within their own domains. Some aspects were cross-team and necessitated clear collaboration with other teams. A feature often impacts multiple teams such as Data Visualization, Canvas, Power BI Mobile, Outlook, and PowerPoint, etc. Therefore, communication is crucial among all these teams.

An important step that has been taken recently is to appoint the PM of data visualization as the PM of the canvas team as well.

This means that any modification to a panel in Power BI Desktop, due to a visualization gaining a new function, needs to go through the canvas team. If they don't have the time or their prioritization differs, your feature might not make it into the release. This is challenging for both teams.

A major release of On-object interaction serves as a good example here. These configuration panels with options for adjustments were originally part of the canvas team. However, development didn't align perfectly with the features being created by the data visualization team, so they never fully collaborated.

Now that both teams share the same PM, we see that updates to On-object interaction are implemented simultaneously with adjustments to visualizations, leading to improved synergy.

However, why isn't it perfect yet? This is because there's still a need to refine the logic and user-friendliness of On-object interaction in conjunction with other panels. This is also on the agenda and will be addressed in 2025.

Every visualization has 100+ options.

A new report creator who starts tomorrow quickly encounters the problem of getting lost in the many options. Seeing all possible options at once on your screen can sometimes make people feel overwhelmed.

The barrier to entry for using Power BI is low, so the tool's user-friendliness needs to be improved. Therefore, beginners should have a simple environment where they see basic adjustments.

If they want to make more changes, a simple click is enough to reveal all options. This user experience approach is also seen in tools like Figma.

The possibilities you see are basic, and behind the button with three dots lies a world of freedom and all the options available. However, you only enter this world after taking action yourself. Sometimes, just one adjustment is enough, and you don't want to drown in a world full of panels, options, and extra features. Keep it simple!

This topic is also part of the canvas team and is high on the agenda. This process is not part of the normal roadmap and is being carried out in parallel.

The standard isn't good enough!

During my keynote session at the Power BI User Days 2024, I asked the attendees questions about Power BI. I also demonstrated how features and visualizations are showcased by report creators in the media. Everything was spot on, and the expectations were high.

The WOW factor during the launch is also what a basic report creator expects when using this visual or feature.

Unfortunately, the reality is different, and the audience in the room also indicated this.

I showcased examples of the new KPI visual or New Button Slicer, and everyone loved it. This example takes me 5 minutes to adjust, style, design, format, and set up. However, 95% of report creators are not creative, and this 5-minute effort leads to frustration and negative energy. Some continue for another 30 minutes only to eventually give up the struggle.

This means that the appearance of standard visuals MUST improve! Uniformity is crucial. Default styling templates will do the job!

Therefore, the title of Visual A should be the same as Visual B, etc. These basic elements are different and force report creators to correct instead of enhancing their design or adjustment. The result is that after 30 minutes, you abandon your work, and people overwhelmingly say, "Forget about the design".

How long does the report creator spend building the report so that the end user gains maximum insights and feels delighted? Can we make this journey for the creator easier and simpler? Sometimes, "less is more" is simply your guiding principle.

You can help our Power BI Core Visuals team? Power BI enthusiasts who use this hashtag #pbicorevisuals to share their insights, feedback, and creative visualizations, particularly focusing on the utility and aesthetics of visuals. This tag also highlights the community's efforts in pushing the boundaries of data visualization by using Power BI's capabilities to create visuals, which further enrich the platform's utility and customization options.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you. Your support, enthusiasm, and positive energy make our community a truly special place. Together, we've created a space where ideas flourish, friendships grow, and support abounds.Thank you for being the heart and soul of this ?wonderful community. Let's continue to thrive together, inspire one another, and make our community even more vibrant in the days to come.

With sincere thanks, Armand van Amersfoort