Power BI Accelerator Week #1 is Live!

All,

Okay, Enterprise DNA Power BI Accelerator Week #1 - here we go!

If you’re just starting out on your Power BI journey, or if you been at it a while but need some additional structured practice to help things “click”, or if you just want to accelerate your progress in general, we think this initiative is for you, and we are excited to get started.

Here’s the brief for this week’s problem:

Your boss comes into your office Monday morning looking stressed. She tells you that we have the opportunity to acquire one of our main competitors, and that the CEO wants a briefing by COB to answer the following questions about the acquisition target:

  1. What were their highest and lowest sales in a given year?
  2. In what states were their sales high? Low?
  3. How many sales did they make of their top 5 products each quarter?
  4. Who were their top 10 salespeople in a given year, and what was the $ value of their sales?

She then tells you that the CEO has provided a mockup of what he wants the report to look like, and asks “can you do it?”

Initially, it looks a bit involved, but then you realize the whole report is built off of two simple measures, and that you can leverage context in Power BI to do much of the heavy lifting. You look up from the data, and confidently tell her “sure, no problem”.

Now get to work…the company is counting on you.

A few notes:

  • Life is an open book test, and Power BI Accelerator is no different. Feel free to use any resources at your disposal (e.g., videos, blog entries, forum posts, etc.)
  • In Power BI there are frequently multiple ways to accomplish the same task, and that is true for this problem as well. For at least two of the visuals in the report, there are simple and complex ways to do them. Taking the simple route is fine (that’s what I did…), but if you have the knowledge, time and motivation to undertake the more complex approach, by all means feel free to do so.
  • If you run into difficulties that you simply can’t solve on your own, you can post to the forum, and I or one of the other Experts or Power Users will respond as quickly as possible.
  • Don’t feel like you have to tinker to get the look of the report perfect. The key is developing a better understanding of the general concepts involved.
  • If you want to post your solution in the forum thread for this week’s problem, that’s great but not at all required. There is no competitive aspect to this initiative, other than the competition with yourself to get better.

If you do post, please use the spoiler alert option in the forum to avoid folks still working on the problem from seeing information they would prefer not to.

image

Later this week, I will post information in this thread about the date, time and registration information for the live solution session next week.

Finally, I would very much like to thank the volunteer advisory team of Kim Cook, Guy Johnson and Eric Malloy, whose excellent feedback really improved this week’s problem, and also EDNA Power User Udit Chatterjee (forum regulars know him as @quantumudit), who is working with me on building out the long-term learning plan for this initiative.

Okay, enough chit chat – let’s dive in and start learning…

Thanks for participating!

• Brian

Power BI Accelerator -Week 1 Problem.pbix (8.6 MB)

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This is great. Well done Brian.

Look forward to seeing some variety in how this is solved!

Sam

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@BrianJ @quantumudit

Great to see the planning for curated learning with this initiative. And I am sure it will be a great success as others challenges we have in the forum.

Will try best to follow alone with each challenge.

Attached is my submission for this challenge.

Thanks
Mukesh

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@MK3010 ,

You have the honor of being the first completed entry in the first ever round of Power BI Accelerator. As I would’ve fully expected, it’s a flawless report.

Hopefully, it was a fun stroll down memory lane back to your beginner days. :smiley:

As always , thanks for participating!

– Brian

P.S. If you’re looking for one that’s more the speed of Problem of the Week, check out the DAX problem that @AntrikshSharma posted yesterday. Quite challenging, given the constraints he imposes.

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HI @BrianJ

Thank you for your prompt response as always, yes indeed it was fun and hopefully it will be for others too…

And about DAX problem for fun by @AntrikshSharma – Just after submitting I had a look at the challenge, will be starting on that may be later after finishing few office stuffs :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks
Mukesh

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My entry for the 1st Accelerator :slight_smile:

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@Adelin ,

Thanks! Unfortunately, your PBIX file seems to have hung up in the upload process.

image

I’ve literally made thousands of posts to this forum, and never seen that happen before. I would suggest going in and editing your post, deleting the upload link, and trying to re-upload just by dragging the file into the post while in edidt mode.

  • Brian
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Thanks Brian, I have re-loaded! If still an issue I will delete my post and re-post :slight_smile:

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@Adelin ,

That worked fine. Well done, and nice twist on the map visual.

Thanks for jumping right in and participating.

  • Brian
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Here is my submission, glad I’ve finally managed to get myself involved in one of the various challenges!

Power BI Accelerator -Week 1 Problem DJ.pbix (8.6 MB)

David

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@DavieJoe ,

I’m loving the level of engagement in this initiative already, and hoping this is just the tip of the iceberg. Also, really enjoying seeing people riff on the initial assignment, like you did with the coloring of the bars in the chart for min and max.

I would encourage everyone to just do what works best for them. Want to stick with the assignment verbatim – great. Want to build some more DAX on top of the assigned structure to get some additional practice – go for it. Want to explore a different map visual than the one I used - sure.

If this initiative helps folks build the structured practice routine that works well for them, I will consider it a huge success.

Keep up the great work, everybody!

  • Brian
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I tried to repost my solution with the min & max values as a line graph, initially forgot to change back from bar chart to line chart. Perhaps you opened it when I posted it initially as I edited my post and reloaded as a line chart.

Hi there,

Well i taken the plunge into this. Please find attached file for the Power BI Accelerator Week #1.

Please let me know your thoughts on this as i want to improve my skills set in Power BI.
[Power BI Accelerator -Week 1 Problem Keith Smith1.pbix|attachment]spoiler (8.7 MB)[/spoiler]

Thanks
Keith

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@Keith ,

Looks terrific – thrilled to see you jump in and engage on this.

– Brian

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Hi David, tidy model. How did you get the high low markers on the total sales by month and Year?

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Thanks @stevens

I created a measure which uses an IF statement Variables each for MAXX & MINX. Then used it as a conditional format by using the HEX code in the IF statement.

https://youtu.be/uial9zxDmfU

You need to add in month & year and the month year ordering column into the ALLSELECTED statement.

This video will explain it better than my close to midnight ramblings

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Thanks @BrianJ

I think it was something that was small and not really overwhelming like challenges are.

Plus stating within in the file the Key PBI skills helped me what skills that needed to concentrated on to help to create the report.

It made me review videos on date order, mapping, ranking, top N and just formatting of text, look a dax examples from sam’s videos.

I’m glad i taken a little plunge in the little pool :slight_smile:

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Hey @Keith I totally understand where you’re coming from. I’ve often wanted to complete one of the challenges but started too close to the end date and felt overwhelmed. I’m loving this Accelerator programme, it feels doable and you can be flexible on the brief or try stuff out.

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Power BI Accelerator -Week 1 Problem.pbix (8.5 MB)

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Awesome undertaking. Thanks everyone.

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Thanks David

1 Like