← Back to Paths
[PLACEHOLDER hero banner]
Tableau & Power BI for Analysts
Build dashboards that executives actually use — in Tableau and Power BI from scratch.
CREATED BY
A
Asha M. [PLACEHOLDER] ★ 5.0
Tools & Automation Engineer at BigFruit Inc. | 9+ years of experience
About this Path
For data analysts, business analysts, and ops professionals who need to create production-grade dashboards in Tableau and Power BI without a data engineering background. The roadmap covers both tools in parallel so you can pick the right one for each environment, and culminates in two portfolio dashboards you can show in interviews. No SQL deep-dive required — basic SELECT knowledge is enough to start.
Path Overview
Beginner LevelCertificate of CompletionAbout 36 hours to completeEnglish language14+ curated videosLearn online at your own pace5 modules with resourcesGamified & interactive
Path Curriculum
Tableau Desktop vs. Power BI Desktop: Environment Setup
Install both tools, connect to sample datasets, and understand the workspace layouts.
Connecting to CSV, Excel, and SQL Databases
Live vs. extract connections in Tableau; Import vs. DirectQuery in Power BI.
Data Prep Without Coding: Tableau Prep vs. Power Query
Rename columns, fix data types, pivot/unpivot, and merge tables in each tool's GUI.
When to Use Which Chart: Bar, Line, Scatter, Map, Heatmap
Decision framework for matching question type to chart type; when pie charts are acceptable.
Color, Size, and Label Encoding
Pre-attentive attributes; sequential vs. diverging palettes; accessibility for colorblind users.
Avoiding Common Dashboard Mistakes
Dual axes abuse, truncated Y-axes, chart junk, and over-filtering that breaks the story.
Building Your First Bar and Line Chart in Both Tools
Side-by-side Tableau vs. Power BI walkthrough on the same dataset for direct comparison.
Tableau Calculated Fields: LOD Expressions Explained Simply
FIXED, INCLUDE, EXCLUDE LODs with sales and cohort examples you can reuse immediately.
Power BI DAX: Measures vs. Calculated Columns
Difference between row context and filter context; when each one is the right choice.
Building Common KPIs: MoM Growth, Running Totals, Rank
Formulas for the five KPIs that appear in almost every business dashboard.
Time Intelligence in DAX: DATEADD, SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR
Year-over-year and month-to-date comparisons without a separate date dimension hack.
Filters, Slicers, and Parameters
Context filters vs. data-source filters in Tableau; slicer sync in Power BI for multi-page reports.
Drill-Down and Drill-Through Interactions
Hierarchies in Tableau; cross-report drill-through pages in Power BI for executive summaries.
Dashboard Layout: Fixed vs. Automatic Sizing
Designing for desktop, browser, and embedded views without breaking on different screen sizes.
Tableau Public and Tableau Server Publishing
Embed dashboards in a portfolio site; schedule extract refreshes via Tableau Cloud.
Power BI Service: Workspaces, Apps, and Row-Level Security
Publish to Power BI Service, set up RLS roles, and share an app to non-Pro users.
Building Your Two Portfolio Dashboards
Sales performance dashboard (Tableau) and HR attrition dashboard (Power BI) from provided datasets.
Presenting Your Dashboard in an Interview
How to walk through a viz, explain design choices, and handle 'why not a different chart?' questions.
What you'll learn
- ✓Connect Tableau and Power BI to relational databases, Excel files, and Google Sheets and clean data inside each tool without writing SQL.
- ✓Build calculated fields, measures, and DAX formulas to derive KPIs that your raw data does not contain.
- ✓Design interactive dashboards with filters, drill-downs, and parameters that let stakeholders answer their own follow-up questions.
- ✓Apply data visualization best practices — chart type selection, color encoding, and cognitive load reduction — to make insights obvious.
- ✓Publish and share dashboards via Tableau Public/Server and Power BI Service with row-level security and scheduled refresh.
- ✓Explain your dashboard design decisions and data model choices in a portfolio presentation to a hiring panel.