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4 Things a Power BI Developer Should NEVER Do (And What to Do Instead)
Power BI is an incredibly powerful tool for data visualization and business intelligence. But let’s face it — just because you can do something in Power BI doesn’t mean you should. Many developers, especially those new to Power BI, fall into common traps that can make their reports slow, confusing, or ineffective.
If you want to create dashboards that not only look great but also provide meaningful insights, here are four things you should absolutely avoid as a Power BI developer, and what to do instead.
1. Keeping All the Data in the Model “Just in Case”
One of the biggest mistakes a Power BI developer can make is hoarding data in the model “just in case it’s needed.” While it may seem harmless at first, bloated datasets can drastically affect report performance, leading to slow loading times, inefficient memory usage, and even crashes.
What to do instead:
- Understand the business questions first — Only bring in data that is required to answer specific business questions.
- Optimize data modeling — Use star schema designs instead of flat tables.
- Use aggregations and summaries — Pre-aggregate data before loading it into Power BI.
