Havens Consulting
Video by: Reid Havens
Here's something that trips up a lot of Power BI developers: not everything belongs in your core semantic model. Some objects are meant to live in a departmental layer. Some belong in a single report, knowing the difference changes how you build, and how well your architecture holds up over time.
In this video I walk through Power BI's extensibility layer objects: what they are, where each one belongs in your architecture, and when to actually use them.
Video by: Reid Havens
In this video I walk through the Field Parameters vs Calculation Groups Guide from Analytic Endeavors and explain what these two powerful Power BI features actually do, how they differ, and when to use each one in your reports.
You’ll learn:
What Field Parameters are and how they let your users choose what to show in visuals
What Calculation Groups are and how they let you change how measures calculate dynamically
The key decision points between using FP and CG
How each feature affects report design, maintenance, and flexibility
This is a conceptual walkthrough, not a step-by-step build. The goal is to help you understand the behaviors and tradeoffs so you can pick the right tool for the problem you’re solving.
Video by: Reid Havens
Ever wish your Power BI matrix could respond intelligently to what’s visible in the row hierarchy? In this video, I’ll show you how to create a dynamic matrix where column values, like department, title, or other employee attributes appear or disappear based on what’s selected in your row-level hierarchy.
We’ll combine a few clever modeling tricks to keep your matrix clean, relevant, and user-driven. Tune in to learn more!
Video by: Reid Havens
Field parameters in Power BI offer powerful flexibility when using them for custom visual hierarchies. However, certain columns shouldn’t be used alone, especially when they’re part of a hierarchy or grouped relationship. In this video, I demonstrate how to create a field parameter setup that ensures key columns are always selected together. This approach avoids misleading rollups and duplicated values in matrix visuals, keeping your reports accurate and intuitive.
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Reid Havens’ early love affair with analytics has, over the past decade, turned into an evolution into data visualization and report design in Power BI.
Since then Reid has been writing articles and creating YouTube videos to share the word of BI, helping to inspire the next generation of Business Intelligence enthusiasts.
