How I Fell in Love with Power Platform

January 28, 2024

One year ago, I started a new job at Seattle Convention Center as an On-Call Admission Attendant. Today, I’m #OpenToWork as an Application Developer and Consultant.

I started working at Seattle Convention Center on Valentine’s Day 2023.

I had attended the Open House two weeks earlier for the exciting new Summit building and applied for a job straightaway. I was motivated not just by the stunning architecture of the Summit, but also by the idea of gaining experience in a front-of-house, in-person, customer-facing role. I had been fully remote since 2007. I needed to get out more.

Instead of only seeing my biggest client at the annual conference, in the new job I would greet all manner of guests at a panoply of events, shows, meetings, conferences, summits, luncheons, banquets, costume parties, and celebrations.

After six months greeting guests as an On-Call Admission Attendant, I was promoted to full-time Guest Services Lead and issued a smartphone and an email address. In addition, our four-person team of Leads had exclusive access to a single PC. This workstation was principally used by our most senior lead, who created work schedules and assigned posts. It’s a complex task to figure out the right person for each post in a way that maintains coverage of all entrances, exits, escalators, elevators, and restricted areas across two facilities. The schedules also had to account for union rules regarding mandatory breaks, maintaining flexibility even when people were absent or late.

As a junior lead, I was on the 6:00 am to 2:30 pm shift, Wednesdays through Sundays. (Never missed a shift, never late.) As we were obliged to be on the floor rather than in the office, I only managed to get on the shared computer a few times per week in the early mornings for about 15 to 30 minutes per session.

My first mini-project The daily Admission Attendant schedules, printed and hand-posted in each building, showed columns for name, post, start time, and end time. The problem was that in this columnar format, you couldn’t easily see who was supposed to be on duty at any given time. Every day, I’d see people writing out, by hand, the schedules for who was at each post, circling the potential problem spots.

I thought I knew enough about Excel to make a difference. My solution generated color-coded bars in 15-minute increments for each attendant, showing exactly who was on duty, along with when and where. Every week, I’d wait for my supervisor to send the weekly schedule and then I’d copy-and-paste it into my template. An agglomeration of nested conditional statements would do the rest. It was okay, at least for me, but it needed work before I could roll it out.

In August, at the 365 EduCon / PWR EduCon conference, I chatted with a friendly fellow who knew Excel. I described what I had built and the paginated reports I wanted to create. He pointed me to the scripting tools. I checked it out, but the Excel scripting language and interface seemed so early-2000s. There had to be a better way.

Then, in November right before Microsoft Ignite, I found out about Power Query. It was a revelation. Here was exactly what I had been searching for, a modern approach to Extract-Transform-Load (ETL). Instead of manually cutting-and-pasting data and then coming up with formulas stacked on formulas to move data around, Power Query provides quick, easy, replicable, and self-documenting steps for managing complex data transformations.

And from Power Query, I quickly learned about Power BI. You can start with raw data in Excel tables; transform those tables using calculations, pivots, and transpositions using Power Query; and handle exploratory data analysis with drill-down charts and interactive graphs in Power BI.

Suddenly, the entire concept of Excel itself, with its unstructured mash-up of data, logic, and presentation layers, seemed so early-2000s.

Excel still makes for an excellent numeric scratchpad, but when it comes to systems of record for guest services, operations, accounting, finance, or any other critical function, go with Power Platform, or the system which shares the same underlying architecture, Dynamics 365.

Here’s what an organization can do with Power Platform Capture data directly from users with a custom-designed app adaptable to PC, mobile, or tablet, starting from a blank canvas in Power Apps. Automatically turn a data model into a powerful, full-featured, Power Apps model-driven app that combines integrated business processes with data integrity and row-level security. Send notifications and approval requests as part of workflows using Power Automate that connect business processes directly to Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, or to any other cloud-based or on-premise enterprise solution. Use the flexible user interface of Power BI for real-time exploration of data using powerful reports and dashboards that can be annotated and shared. Connect your customers to your business data with a customized AI bot using Microsoft Copilot Studio. Make all these capabilities available to authenticated users or the broader public through Power Pages.

If only I had found you earlier, Power Platform, we may have done so much during my brief tenure with Seattle Convention Center.

Goal: Solution Architect Expert I resolved to learn these new low-code tools. It wasn’t something I could learn effectively in 15 minutes per day, or after work or on weekends. It would have to be a top priority rather than a side project. I gave notice at the beginning of December.

In mid-December, I passed the certification exam for Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900).

In January 2024, I entered the Microsoft Power Up program for career switchers, and I’m more than halfway through. By the end of March, I’ll be ready to sit for the Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate (PL-200) exam.

My goal is to become a certified Power Platform Solution Architect Expert (PL-600), which will require hands-on experience building high-impact, low-code solutions as part of a collaborative team.

With gleaming certifications on the wall and the help of the talented people I meet along the way, I’ll be ready to architect solutions for the organizations that need it most, whether that’s Seattle Convention Center, the City of Seattle, or even that beautiful beacon of liberty, the United States of America. #RecodingAmerica

About me I studied Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon and worked as a database developer at my first job.

I went to Vanderbilt for an MBA and earned dual concentrations in Finance and Accounting, and then became an editor with Bank Systems & Technology, a trade publication in banking and financial services. (And in my spare time, I started studying for a Master’s in Liberal Arts from Harvard Extension School.)

I launched my own business as a writer and custom publisher, building up an impressive client roster of top-tier consultancies, technology firms, and innovative startups. I’ve written about trends in banking, insurance, and capital markets from business, technology, and regulatory perspectives, conducting interviews for hundreds of global customer case studies. On behalf of clients in consulting and startups, I supported the launch of businesses in Fintech, AI Ops, Blockchain, Threat Intelligence, and Nanomaterials with custom content, publications, and multimedia.

Now, after decades observing the technology world from a high-level vantage point, I’m actively applying myself to reactivating my skills as a hands-on IT practitioner. Given the availability of powerful AI tools and low-code frameworks, I believe it’s the perfect time to make this transition. With my unique background, I have the perspective to uncover business requirements, the communications skills to align stakeholders, and the requisite front-of-house experience to build rapport with colleagues and customers along the way.

Are you hiring Functional Consultants for your Power Platform team? Let’s talk!

Plus, I’d be happy for any advice or encouragement from new connections and old.