The Part of Data Modelling Everyone Skips (That Breaks Everything Later)
Your measure is right, your data reconciles, and your year-to-date is still wrong - because the model never had a real date table, only a date column pretending to be one.
DAX
// 14 postsPosts about DAX.
DAX posts
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Star Schema Done Right, Part 2: Dimension Tables and Why Cardinality Matters
A dimension table isn't just a lookup. Why fact-to-dimension relationships have to be many-to-one, why bidirectional filtering always causes problems, and how to build dimensions your DAX can trust.
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What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Working With Data in a Small Team
In a small team, you're the analyst, the engineer, the dashboard designer, and the person who explains what a p-value is at the all-hands.
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The Skill Nobody Told You Was Half the Job: Asking Good Questions
The analysts who get traction aren't the fastest at pulling data, they're the best at unpacking what was actually being asked. The skill is asking good questions, and nobody trains for it.
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Your Power BI Report's Performance Problem Is Probably Your Data Model, Not Your DAX
Slow reports get blamed on complex measures. Complex measures get rewritten. And the report is still slow — because the actual problem is a flat table with 47 columns, many-to-many relationships, a…
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The Difference Between a Dashboard and a Decision Tool (And Why It Matters)
Most dashboards answer the question 'what happened?' Very few answer 'what should we do?' The gap isn't data — it's intent. A dashboard built for the former often actively gets in the way of the la…
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DAX Context Demystified, Part 4: Iterator Functions and When Row Context Returns
SUMX, AVERAGEX, MAXX — these functions bring row context back into a measure, which sounds helpful until they don't behave the way you expect inside a CALCULATE. Part 4 closes the series with the p…
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When Your Manager Doesn't Understand What You Built
You delivered a clean model, a solid dashboard, a real solution — and got a blank look in the room. The work was right. But explaining technical work to someone who doesn't share your frame of refe…
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DAX Context Demystified, Part 3: Time Intelligence and Why Your YTD Is Probably Wrong
Time intelligence functions look simple - TOTALYTD, SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR — until they aren't. The reason they break isn't the function. It's that context transition interacts with your date table…
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Power Query Is Not the Right Tool for Every Data Problem
Power Query is a brilliant transformation tool. Most of the M code in production is doing things that belong in DAX, SQL, or Python - and the models are slow and the code is unmaintainable.
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DAX Context Demystified, Part 2: CALCULATE and Context Transition
CALCULATE is the most powerful function in DAX - and the most misunderstood. Once you see how it deliberately replaces the filter context rather than adding to it, every confusing measure result …
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Your Power BI Report Has Too Many Visuals and Not Enough Story
More charts don't mean more insight. Every visual you add is a question your stakeholder has to answer before they understand the point - and most reports ask them to answer fifteen questions bef…
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Build a One-Page Executive Dashboard in Power BI That Stakeholders Actually Open
You'll build a clean single-page report: KPI cards, a trend line, and one slicer. The kind that gets opened voluntarily, not just emailed as a screenshot. Starting from a blank canvas, ending with …
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DAX Context Demystified, Part 1: Row Context vs Filter Context
DAX's context confusion cost me hours. Turns out, it's just two simple ideas.