Today, we’re doing something a little different. We’re going to focus on a true, unfiltered story about people in the tech industry, and more specifically, about one of the most powerful figures in the field – Bill Gates. Some might even say he’s one of the most powerful men in the world. This story had a profound impact on Rob, and we’re excited to share it with you.

On today’s episode, Charlie Ellis, former Program Manager at Microsoft and expert on the heart of excel, the calc engine, sits down for an amazing conversation. He brings with him stories of the evolution of Office that began with the retooling of Excel 2007. That reboot went on to become a veritable restart of the program that nearly wiped the slate clean by creating what would in essence become a new, more responsive product. 

Today, special guest, Brad Weed of Interplace waxes philosophical about his and Rob’s shared time at Microsoft and we discover where the seeds of ethical capitalism were planted. He is a former designer at Microsoft who worked on every release of Office from 1992-2007 and played a major role in defining and refining the company’s design and user research disciplines. He is an incredible entrepreneur with a passion for innovation who may forever be known as the perfector of the Microsoft Ruler.

On today’s episode, Chuck Vigeant, founder/CEO of Clearify, entrepreneur, speaker, leadership consultant, golf aficionado, and, the mastermind behind QQube, brings his most interesting stories of XML, ETL, and even some PGA. He discusses the frustration of accessing data in QuickBooks, sometimes a download can take 12+ hours. For many QuickBooks users, workarounds have become too complicated and time-consuming so they have resorted to deleting data yearly to save time. Can you imagine? Deleting data to access data? It’s madness!

In this episode, Brian Knight, founder of Pragmatic Works, describes his accidental entrance into the field of technology. From a chance job offer to being “that guy” who hit the server rebuild button, you won’t want to miss this data origin story.  Only someone like Brian could get such a great start by nuking a database and turning it into a DBA career where he would become both a prolific community member and content creator.

Today, we reunite two old friends with a penchant for writing books for people adjacent to tech as we welcome Miguel Escobar to the show. If you use Power Query or Power BI, you might have heard of Miguel. He is the co-author of several books on Power Query, Power BI, Power Pivot, and DAX. He is also part of the expert trifecta that created Skill Wave training and he is now an integral part of Microsoft working to make Power Query better for all users.

P3 Adaptive’s own Justin Mannhardt gives the inside scoop on delivering results and backing into data infrastructure, aka the origin story of P3 Adaptive’s Solutions Architect Team and the impact it can have on an analytics project. Justin explains the expanded focus to fulfill analytics needs through a more holistic approach to drive adoption and deliver results. With his own experience, he explains how results must sometimes come first as a proof of concept but once results are verified, more support is often needed to ensure a smooth functioning process. Rob often refers to this as the faucet first analogy, and it has the power to convince the exec team that analytics can be fruitful for businesses of all sizes.

Today’s guest, Gus Miranda, shares his story of how reducing friction and creating automation introduced even non-data people to the concept that data quality matters. Most importantly, though, today you will learn the underdog story of how Power Query saved Christmas during the Kronos Hack of 2021. Get the inside scoop from crisis meeting to crisis meeting until the moment when Gus stood up to save the day. While other multi-million-dollar companies were paralyzed, shocked, and attempting to ad-hoc calculate payroll and vacations, often incorrectly, Gus’s task force used Power Query to create an effective solution in time to prevent employees from missing Christmas with their families.

On today’s episode, we sit down with educator, researcher, and all-around information guru Simon Peyton Jones to learn all about programming languages and their impact on hardware, software, and research/development. Simon also brings some professional insight into Excel as a programing language

In today’s episode, we welcome Eric Vigesaa of Microsoft to the show. Rob describes Eric as one of the rare breeds that enjoy the excitement of building an emergency solution. Someone who prefers a shorter distance between the software and the problem. The closer he is to impact, the more satisfying the solution becomes to him. Sardonically, Eric is also like the groundhog of Microsoft, emerging from IT, looking around, seeing the shadow, and returning back to IT: empowered, passionate, and skilled. Eric describes his non-IT time as an evolutionary course that allowed him to explore and grow his aptitude.

In this episode, we focus not on people, but on the software itself. Today, we create the Software Hall of Fame, set the rules, and get down to building the inaugural class with special guest Coner Cunningham. Coner’s multi-decade software skill set combined with his fun personality makes him a perfect fit to be the final member of the initial tribunal of software critics. This tribunal will step up to fill a long-standing void in an episode that will run the gamut of emotions: Joy, anger, exasperation, and maybe even a little zen.