Don’t ‘Stay In Your Lane’

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend the User Group Summit event in Amsterdam. Not only that, I had a session that I presented all about Power BI (you can see it here in video format if interested in that kind of thing!).

So, what do I know?

Primarily, I am a CRM girl. It’s where I started on this journey, it’s where my heart is – Sales, Customer Service, all that jazz. Having said that, I am also extremely passionate about portals and have web and SEO experience. I love anything to do with social media and true digital marketing. I love data and figured out how to do a data migration out of necessity using Kingswaysoft. With a desire to learn how to write reports, I booked myself on to an SSRS course so I could increase my knowledge in that area.

While some might read the paragraph above and see it as boasting, please don’t confuse it. I list those out to show that there is so much out there we can learn, don’t put yourself in one category of knowledge. If you are interested in other things and have the desire to learn, go for it! Also, don’t compare yourself to others you see in a specific area. PowerApps is something I love geeking out about, and ‘playing’ around making apps, and I could create a decent one if a project needed it, but I’m so far behind many others in the community, it’s pointless doing any kind of comparison with anyone. We all have our own paths to take.

Jump right in!

For Summit, I was on the planning committee, reviewing the submissions for presentations. My own original submission was rejected for various reasons, but I was still asked to speak. So, I questioned which track still needed a few more sessions and the answer was ‘BI and Reporting’. I didn’t really know much about Power BI, but had wanted to for a while. So I took the plunge, potentially dug myself in to a deep hole, but came up with an idea which was approved. Then came the work, I had to actually learn it before I could even think about putting together my session.

Granted, it’s not necessarily a smart approach, but it works for me. Set a goal, with a deadline, and then stick to it. Not going to lie, I had a few stressful weekends when I couldn’t figure out how to do things and had to do a lot of research, but overall I was happy with the end result.

Don’t limit yourself

So, focus just on one area of the PowerPlatform if that works for you, or learn as much as you possibly can about each area you have an interest in. Don’t think you can’t be a Power BI person AND a Sales guru. You can be an expert in SSRS AND know your stuff about Marketing at the same time. It’s only you that can peg yourself in to a hole.