6 Essential Power BI Skills

Power BI is a business intelligence tool that allows you to pull insights from a range of data sources. The software supports connecting data from Excel spreadsheets, data warehouses, and cloud storage to turn it into visual, shareable, interactive insights. 

Business intelligence roles utilize Power BI to analyze numbers, report, monitor progress on key performance indicators (KPIs), and integrate them into applications. Whatever you use it for in your role, you’ll need to build the essential skills to use Power BI effectively as a business intelligence tool. Discover six Power BI skills, where to continue developing your business intelligence skills, and how to put your skills into practice. 

Essential Power BI skills

To work with Power BI, you need to develop a range of skills relating to data modeling, data visualization, reporting, and data analysis, as well as a series of technical skills and workplace skills necessary for collaborating in a team and presenting insights to decision-makers. Review six skills below to help you start your career using Power BI. 

1. Data modeling and transformation

An essential Power BI skill is data modeling and data transformation. Data modeling is the process of taking all the types of data you collect and analyzing it to create visual representations to aid in reporting and business decision-making. It refers to the diagrams, symbols, and text you use to create visualizations. You’ll also need to understand data transformation using Power BI, which is the process of converting data to something manageable to work with.

2. Creating visual reports and dashboards

Visualization is a crucial Power BI skill to master and an important function of Power BI software. You’ll need to be able to transform complex data into a range of visuals such as graphs, charts, and maps. Examples of data visualization types in Power BI include:

• Bar charts

• Doughnut charts

• Gauge charts

• Maps

• Pie charts

• Ribbon charts

• Scatter charts

• Tables

• Treemaps

• Waterfall charts

3. Understanding Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)

The formula DAX, or data analysis expressions, is a library of functions and operators standard in Power BI. You use it for building and performing complex calculations and data queries in tables, and creating calculated data columns. Using DAX in Power BI gives you the skills to calculate totals and percentages, create custom aggregations, and filter data based on specific criteria. 

4. Technical skills

Working with data and Power BI requires excellent technical ability. Firstly, you need proficiency in Power BI software, which includes a range of applications and software services. These include:

• Power BI Desktop

• Power BI Service

• Power BI Mobile

• Power BI Report Builder

• Power BI Report Server

• Power Query Editor

In addition to proficiency in these applications and Power BI software, you’ll also need some general technical skills to master the basics of data query, analysis, and visualization in Power BI:

• Excel

• SQL

• Programming languages such as Python and R

• ETL (Extract, transform, load)

• Data mining

• Data cleansing

• Data warehousing

• Algorithms 

5. Analytical skills

Since data analytics is an important function of Power BI, it is an essential Power BI skill to master. At the minimum level, you’ll need to build your skills in querying and using Power BI dashboards to track and monitor performance and KPIs. At a more advanced level, you’ll need to understand statistical analysis and data modeling to interpret data, create data visualizations, and use these to create reports to aid business decision-making. 

6. Communication skills

Along with technical skills, workplace skills such as communication are essential for most professionals who use Power BI. Power BI is an excellent tool for combining data and transforming it into actionable insights through visualizations and reporting. This generally requires strong communication skills, as you must be able to explain complex data and findings through visualizations to decision-makers and stakeholders. You’ll also need skills in storytelling to assist you in using data visualizations. This skill involves creating a narrative to explain data as well as resulting predictions and forecasts.

How to gain more Power BI skills

Power BI is a well-known business intelligence tool developed by Microsoft, so you’ll find a range of options when it comes to learning how to use it and for continuous learning to further develop your skills. You’ll need to do this, as technology is continually evolving. 

Consider a degree.

If you’re looking for a job in business intelligence, a degree is a great option to widen your skill set in Power BI and beyond. Roles such as BI analyst, BI developer, and BI engineer require at least a degree in business analytics, data science, statistics, or similar. 

Attend a workshop.

You’ll find various course providers that offer workshops on Power BI skills. Microsoft has its own training options including the Dashboard in a Day workshop for analysts looking to build their knowledge of Power BI dashboards and visualization tools.

Take an online course.

If you’d like to concentrate on a particular aspect of Power BI to build on your skills, you might benefit from an online course. Take a look at these examples listed on Coursera:

• Data Analysis and Visualization with Power BI by Microsoft

• Creative Designing in Power BI by Microsoft

• Insights of Power BI by Fractal 

• Data Storytelling with Power BI by Edureka

Gain a certification or Professional Certificate.

Certifications or certificates are great ways of leveling up your skills and focusing on a specific area that you want to expand on. If you’re looking to increase your Power BI skills, consider the following:

• Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate

• Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate

• Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate 

• IBM Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst Professional Certificate

Putting your Power BI skills into practice

An effective way to learn is to put your skills into practice and gain practical experience. To build your experience, consider taking an internship or working in an information technology (IT) or business role. You might also try working freelance or taking on personal projects by joining Power BI communities. Consider building a portfolio to document your experience, skills in reporting and visualization, and personal projects.

Build your Power BI skills with Coursera

Microsoft Power BI is a popular business intelligence tool that many professionals use for data visualization, organization, and sharing. If you’re looking to develop your skills in Power BI, consider earning a Professional Certificate, such as the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate, or a more general BI option, such as the Meta Data Analyst Professional Certificate, both available on Coursera.