A lot of churches seem to be excited about getting started with PowerBI. I've helped a number of churches get started and have created a bunch of dashboards, which has been really fun.
I'm an artist just as much as I am a data nerd, and it's really satisfying to create visualizations with data. PowerBI dashboards have a certain look and feel that is enjoyable to view, especially if you use a custom color theme. It's rewarding to hear the excitement from the staff members who love seeing data visualizations, as well as discussing the visualizations with them to glean insight into the data.
However, I'm curious how much longevity PowerBI dashboards have beyond their initial creation. My secret thought is that no one is really using them beyond the initial setup. If I'm wrong about this, I'd love to hear from you. Do the dashboards get long-term traction with your ministry staff?
I'm a big believer in the idea that nothing really goes to waste. Everything I've learned or experienced in life ultimately comes back around to benefit me in some way. So please, don't let me deter you.
One of the beautiful things about PowerBI dashboards is that you will oftentimes create a SQL view or data warehouse table to pull the relevant fields into one place, versus doing a bunch of joins within PowerBI. You can then create pages in the platform that correspond to those views and tables, and you can easily create advanced searches from there.
I love David McCandless, who calls himself a data journalist. He has a fascinating TED talk, and he has some beautiful visualizations at informationisbeautiful.net.
I took an interesting interactive course with David recently on creating visualizations. I digress, but he's well worth checking out.