Welcome to the world of Power BI! If you're new to Power BI, you've probably heard about its powerful data visualization and analysis capabilities. Power BI Q&A, a natural language query tool that enables users to interact with their data using ordinary language, is a notable feature. In this beginner’s guide, we will walk you through the basics of Power BI Q&A and show you how to get started. 

What is Power BI Q&A? 

With Power BI Q&A, an easy-to-use feature, customers can ask straightforward questions in simple English regarding their data. Instead of manually creating complex queries or navigating through multiple dashboards, you can simply type or speak your questions and Power BI will generate visualizations based on your query. It's a significant change for users who want quick insights without requiring advanced technical skills. 

Getting started with Power BI Q&A:

1. Setting up your data:  

Before you can use Power BI Q&A, you need to have data in Power BI. Here's an overview of how to proceed:   

• Import your data: Load your data into Power BI from various sources such as Excel, SQL Server or online services. 

• Create dataset: Organize your data into datasets and and build data data models using appropriate relationships.

• Create a report: Create a basic report with some visualizations to make sure your data is structured and ready for Q&A.  

2. Enabling Q&A in your report: 

Once you've set up your report, follow these steps to enable it:  

Open Power BI Desktop: Once your basic report is created, in Power BI Desktop, navigate to your Visualizations pane and search for the icon that looks like a speech bubble.  

 

• After adding this visual to your report, it will review your data and suggest some questions for you. 
• There are multiple ways to enable Q&A feature:
  • From the Visualizations pane. (as shown above) 
  • You can double click on the blank space of your Power BI page where you have added some visuals. 
  • In the Insert tab, you have an option called “Buttons”, click the down arrow below that and you will be able to see the Q&A button, that will activate the same.

• Add a question and answer scene:
  Once you have Q&A visual on your screen, you can either create your own question by typing in the “Ask a question about your data” box or clicking on the pre-made questions below. The Q&A visual can also present more question options by selecting “Show all suggestions” at the bottom. 

• Configure Q&A:
  Click on the Q&A setting button for setup and training it to get best out of it. You may also need to provide some configuration to help Power BI better understand your data.

  

3. How to ask questions:

Once Q&A is enabled you can start asking questions about your data. See how here: 
 

• View Results:
  Power BI will process your query and display the results in a separate visualization. If your question is clear, the system will generate specific and relevant charts or tables.

  

4. Improve your Q&A experience: 

To get the most out of Power BI Q&A, consider these tips: 

• Use natural language:
  Power BI Q&A is designed to understand natural language, so ask your questions conversationally. You don’t have to be a technical person to ask questions, you can use very simple language that comes to your mind, and it will give you the desired output.

  
   

• In the above example, you can clearly see that I have simply asked it a question in a very normal language and, asked it the visual in which I wanted the data to be represented, and Q&A immediately understood my question and gave the output accordingly. 
  Refine your query: If the initial results aren't what you expected, try rewriting your query or adding more contextual information. You can try with some different meaningful words so that it can have a better understanding of your question. 

• Train Q&A:
  You can train Q&A by providing questions and answers that you suggest, improving the system's understanding of your data. You can select the configuration (setting) button, and you will get a new window with multiple options.
   

  
  
  In the above image you can see, you have a Teach Q&A option, in that you can train the Q&A by giving the input of any specific word to give it an understanding that the word refers to the specific column or any conditions, and once you select the desired column, you will be able see the output on the right side ”preview your result”, and if the output is correct you can save it. After saving it will always use the select column when you enter that word. 

 

5. Customize Q&A for better results: 

For more advanced users, Power BI allows customization to enhance Q&A functionality by: 

• Create Synonyms:
  Add synonyms used in your data to make the Q&A feature more flexible. To add synonymous, again go to the “Q&A setup” window, and you’ll find an option named synonymous.
   

• In the listed dataset you can drop down the dataset you want to work with and give other meaningful names to the fields in that dataset.  

• Here you already have suggestions for each field present in the data set, you can directly select meaningful names from the suggestions, or you can enter other synonyms manually and you can use those names in the questions and the Q&A will refer to that same field. For example: Here in the above image, I have selected ”TotalAmt” column and given multiple names to it, and in the question if I say” sales” it will show me the values from ”TotalAmt” column. You can also turn off the extra fields that will not be in use. 

• Set Spelling Phonetically:
  This helps and provides correct details if your data contains names or words that users may misspell.  

• Review and refine:
  Continuously review how Q&A interprets the questions and refine the dataset or visualization to ensure accurate responses. After publishing the report to Power BI workspace, you can keep a track of the questions asked in the report by the end users and you can fix them if some user has asked or any fix is needed to the question, and you can also keep a track of questions frequently asked. 
  

• Suggest Questions:
  This helps to add a list of questions that are frequently asked by end users, that will be prompted when you open the Q&A. 
  

• Common Questions and Answers 

  Here are a few frequent questions you might ask using Power BI Q&A, along with the type of visualizations you might see: 

1. Question: “What were the total sales last year?”

   • Answer: Visualization: A bar chart or line graph showing sales trends over the year. 

2. Question: “Which products had the highest revenue?” 

   • Answer: Visualization: A pie chart or column chart displaying revenue distribution by product. 

3. Question: “How many new customers were added this quarter?” 

   • Answer: Visualization: A KPI card or a simple count displayed on a table. 

4. Question: “Top 10 discounts given by order id” 

   • Answer: Visualization: A matrix will be displayed with a list of discount column sorted in descending with order id. 

5. Question: “Count of orders by year” 

   •  Answer: Visualization: A bar chart will be displayed with Years in Y-axis and count of order in X-axis. 

• Troubleshooting Tips 

  • If Power BI Q&A isn't working as expected, consider these troubleshooting steps: 

  • Check data quality: Make sure your data is clean and well-structured. 

  • Update data model: Make sure your data model is up-to-date and properly configured. 

  • Synonyms: Use the Synonyms feature to train your Q&A, give the fields multiple meaningful names that a normal user can use, and it will give you the accurate output. 

  • Consult the documentation: Refer to Power BI's official documentation for detailed troubleshooting and guidance. 
     

• Conclusion 

  Power BI Q&A is a powerful tool that simplifies data analysis by allowing you to interact with your data using natural language. By following this beginner's guide, you should now have a basic understanding of how to set up and use Q&A in Power BI, the information we just discussed. As you gain more experience, you can explore advanced features and customization options to further enhance your data exploration capabilities. 

  Feel free to experiment with different queries and visualizations, and don't hesitate to seek additional resources or community support as you continue your journey with Power BI. If you need further training or specialized assistance with Power BI Q&A, contact us for professional support and services. Happy querying!