Here’s @alexbadiu entry for Power BI Challenge 4. @alexbadiu, would you like to share how you built this dashboard and what your inspiration is in building it?
To learn about the real-life scenario presented for the challenge, be sure to click on the image below.
Hello All,
The story of building this report is the following:
I started by reading carefully the request of this challenge. I wanted to make sure I understand the objective of the exercise. I then paused and thought of similar topics I might have seen, read in the past.
I downloaded the excel file and started looking at the data. The data was not crystal clear for me, so I asked for more detailed information.
I started with the DataModel, followed all the best practices I learned from Entreprise DNA courses. I imported a DateTable, renamed my tables, columns, and grouped the tables into groups.
I created relationships and arranged the tables so that the flow of the relationship is clear (from top to bottom).
I started creating basic DAX fomulas, and created my Key Measure’s Table. I then started to build visualisations into simple tables, to see the data, see the trends, explore and write down comments.
Once I understood well the data and had all my findings ready, I started to think about how to present it.
I wanted to make a memorable experience for the user.
I wanted to add an unexpected little treat that will get attendees in the right mood. It had to be a report that will be clear enough and easy to understand. In order to do that I created a report that introduces the subject in an organized manner. I thought about 3 main axes in the presentation: Understand, Explore and Take Action.
Understand
This is the part where I introduce the subject, where are located the warehouses, where are the stores. I added information regarding the distance between each warehouse and store. I wanted to show the first finding: the warehouses deliver each store, and the stores can be situated far away from the warehouses. I grouped the distances in bins and created a column chart to see how many invoices are being delivered by distance. The finding was that after 1000 miles, we have lesser invoices, but still, there is room for optimization.
Explore
I wanted to create a fun and interactive section. A place where the user can slice and dice, explore, create their own visualizations, create their own simulations. I wanted to provide here the information asked in the challenge regarding the performance of scanned/manual by warehouse and store.
I tried to put myself inside the management shoes and ask the question they would ask. Does scanning invoices help reducing delivery time?
In order to build the EXPLORE section I had to try new techniques I never tried before with supporting tables. I advanced by try and error. Many of the ideas I had didn’t work, even though I searched for hours for a solution. I suppose it is part of the learning journey. In any case, I didn t want to create a report as I normally would. I took more risks, I pushed my limits so that I can learn and progress.
Take Action
The take action part is the section where I propose actions and consolidate all the findings presented in the report. It is the last section that would be consulted by the management, the one where you need to summarize your findings and aliment the discussion for the next steps of the project.
There you go… this was my experience and the steps I took to create this report.
Best regards,
Alex
P.S My report is attached below
Challenge 4 Alex Badiu.pbix (2.3 MB)
Wow wow wow is all I can say for this one.
The navigation and look and feel of this report is just superb.
I would have never thought to have gone this outside the box around a visualization inside a Power BI report. But I think it is awesome and just shows the flexibility and creativity that you can embed into the report canvas.
It actually kind of looks like a website design. Embedding something like this into a website would be all time.
I also really like how you haven’t made things too complex or tried to fit a lot of visualizations all into a few pages. You’ve really just extracted the main insights and then used a couple of visualizations but also text to really build out on the key takeaways and main points for stakeholders to learn from and understand.
Also the unique tooltips that you have embedded are amazing as well. To me it looks like you’ve really pushed what Power BI can do to the limit, which is super to see for these challenges and has really got my creative juices flowing as well.
I also really love this last summary page where you have highlighted the main works ons for the app. This is actually specifically answering the brief when I really think about it. You’re not leaving anything up to some ambiguous evaluation of the information, you’re actually spelling it out for the consumer which is a real positive.
Super work on this and a well deserved win for the challenge.
I’m hoping some of my future reports can live up to the standard!
Sam
This a a great framework for working in Power BI also
