
Raw Data By P3 Adaptive
Put Some Adventure On Your Taco, w/ Dan Battagin
Listen Now:Today’s guest is Dan Battagin, a former program manager for Microsoft and the genius behind Adventure Taco! We’re excited to have him on the show, especially since he only agreed to appear in order to learn about Rob’s video background. But once the conversation gets going, you will realize that Dan has a wealth of inspirational stories to share.
As the conversation progresses, we also get a glimpse into Microsoft’s hiring practices of the past. Remember those brain teasers and psychological questions that used to be all the rage? We discuss how these inane questions often resulted in great candidates being passed up, simply because they didn’t fit into the expected answer patterns. Fortunately, times have changed and we get to hear the story of how Rob helped keep Dan on at Microsoft after his initial internship.
In addition, Dan brings with him stories of his internship at Microsoft and the stories of programs ending before their time. And, as frequently happens, the conversation takes a turn to DAX and unsurprisingly, Dan is another former Microsoft manager who is not a well-versed DAX user. As Rob points out, DAX is the most accessible language to come out of Microsoft which leads us to question why so few former employees embrace the magic.
All this and a few Lego and Age of Empire references you won’t want to miss. And don’t forget, if you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Also on this episode:
Other Episodes

Stay Away from Guadalcanal, w/ Olivier Travers
MS Data Platform International Man Of Mystery
01.04.22
99% is the New Zero, w/ Microsoft Director Shelly Avery
Director-US Healthcare Specialist, Microsoft
09.14.21
For Those About to DAX, w/ Microsoft’s Greg Beaumont
Senior Business Intelligence Specialist, Microsoft
08.17.21
Spreadsheet Celebrities & Power BI Playdates, w/ Chandoo
Hear from the Mozart of Excel Dashboards: Chandoo
08.10.21
The Data Lakehouse: Brick by Brick, w/ Databricks’ Denny Lee
Sr. Staff Developer Advocate, Databricks
08.03.21
Excel Past/Present/Future, w/ Excel Head of Product Brian Jones
Head of Product, Excel-Microsoft
07.27.21
Robotic Process Automation for All, w/ Microsoft’s Ashvini Sharma
Group Program Manager-Power Automate RPA, Microsoft
07.20.21
COVID Basement Racquetball, w/ Microsoft’s Vishal Lodha
Strategic Account Director, Microsoft
06.03.21
Surfing the Changing Seas of Data, w/ Microsoft’s Chris Webb
Principal Program Manager-Power BI Customer Advisory Team, Microsoft
06.01.21
A Different Kind of Data Emergency, w/ Derek Rickard
Chief Data Officer, Emergency Reporting
05.04.21
Earth’s Only Hope vs. Alien Excel Invaders, w/ Ken Puls
President and Chief Training Officer, Excelguru Consulting Inc.
04.27.21
Intelligence Platform is a Cool Name, w/ Microsoft CVP Arun Ulag
Corporate Vice President of the Business Intelligence Platform at Microsoft
04.01.21
The Dutchman of Data Dunked on Me, w/ Kasper de Jonge
Analytics Advisor and Principal Program Manager-Power BI, Microsoft
03.23.21
Everyone’s in the Middle, w/ Former NFL QB Hugh Millen
Former NFL Quarterback and Data Nerd
03.09.21
Marine Biology Leads to Power Platforming, w/ Chuck Sterling
Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
02.23.21
Data Chefs Can Come From Anywhere, w/ Gartner’s Lori Rodriguez
Vice President Executive Programs at Gartner
01.26.21
Scrubbing Data & Beating COVID, w/ Matt Selig of Bar Keepers Friend
Exec. Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Human Resources Officer at SerVaas Labs
01.05.21
The Data Witches, w/ Shannon Lindsay & Stephanie Bruno
Shannon Lindsay-Microsoft Certified Data and Analytics Professional &
Stephanie Bruno-Associate Director of Informatics at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)
12.22.20

The Query Store’s Open for Biz, w/ Microsoft’s Conor Cunningham
Partner Software Architect, SQL Server Engine-Microsoft
12.15.20One of the World’s Most Amazing Humans, w/ Matt Allington
Power BI Consultant, Trainer, & Microsoft MVP
12.01.20