22-25 April 2026

Power BI Features I Regret Using (So You Don’t Have To)

Proposed session for SQLBits 2026

TL; DR

We’ve all been there—excited to try a cool Power BI feature that ends up making things worse. In this fast-paced talk, I’ll share a few real-world lessons from features that caused more complexity, confusion, or chaos than they were worth. You’ll leave with a sharper eye for evaluating what features serve your users… and which ones might just be adding noise.

Session Details

We’ve all been there—excited to try a cool Power BI feature that ends up making things worse. In this fast-paced talk, I’ll share a few real-world lessons from features that caused more complexity, confusion, or chaos than they were worth. You’ll leave with a sharper eye for evaluating what features serve your users… and which ones might just be adding noise.

3 things you'll get out of this session

1. Recognize which Power BI features tend to create unnecessary complexity, confusion, or long-term maintenance pain. 2. Learn how to evaluate whether a feature truly adds value for users or just adds noise to your reports and models. 3. Understand practical alternatives and decision patterns to avoid technical debt and build cleaner, more sustainable solutions.