November 14, 2019

Community – another reason why Power BI is awesome!

If you are new to Power BI, then you may not yet have come across Power BI community support.The great thing about Microsoft of yesterday, today and tomorrow is the great developer community that has always existed. If you had a problem, it was always easy to search the internet for a solution… and from a technical perspective, that has always been fantastic.The better thing about Microsoft of today and tomorrow is the great new focus on the business or end-user. This is evident in how Microsoft has clear support or focus for those users. When you start using Power BI, you will eventually come across the end-user community, and this is also Microsoft’s way of getting direct feedback from end-users.The community I am speaking of can be found by way of:

Power BI Community site; and
Power BI User Group

Power BI Community – sheer awesomeness!

So you’ll find the official Power BI Community site at the URL https://community.powerbi.com/Here you will find a few beneficial things:Firstly, you should take note of the page menu that highlights the content on the site – Forums, Ideas, Events, User Groups and Community Blog.

Secondly, you should take note of the very humble welcoming paragraph, which conveniently has a search field 🙂

It is here that you will be initially directed to:

Community Knowledge Base
An IDEAS forum
An ISSUES forum

Also on the landing page are:

Forums on various topics
A variety of showcase galleries
etc

This page is jam-packed with Power goodies. Let’s spin through each of the critical elements – Community Knowledge Base, IDEAS forum and ISSUES forum.

Community Knowledge Base

Clearly, this is the core searchable support on how-to, resolving problems, etc. Basically, it is to tap into the knowledge of those who have been before you.

url:  https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/CommunityKnowledgeBase

IDEAS forum

This is simply a fantastic way to have a direct relationship with Microsoft. It gives you the ability to raise a new idea and vote on existing ideas, as well as see which ideas are progressing. Below is a screenshot of what to expect …

url:  https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi?WT.mc_id=Community

ISSUES Forum

Of course, here is where we can log issues experienced in Power BI and not only can you log new matters, but you can give Kudos to those issues raised by others (basically a form of voting). Here, you will find moderators from Microsoft who will respond to these issues raised.

url: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues

… and don’t forget to check out the showcase galleries for some ideas, e.g. Data Stories Gallery

Power BI User Group

This is a different site from the official Power BI Community; however, you will find a link to it from the PBI Community site using the menu item “User Groups.”The good news is that membership is free!Why join… well I think their website highlights this…

So start getting more value from Power BI and engage with the community!