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What should you look for when hiring a Power BI consultant?
Ask four things before you sign: where the work will live, who owns the code, what you get if you stop, and where the definitions are recorded. Someone who cannot answer those clearly builds something that only works at their place. A certificate says they know the tool, not that they can hand it over.
The four questions
- Whose environment will this live in? If the answer is the supplier’s, you are empty-handed later.
- Who owns the code? Put it on paper, even when it seems obvious.
- What do I get if we stop? Ask for a concrete list, not reassurance.
- Where do the definitions live? Inside the report file is the wrong answer.
What a good answer sounds like
Everything sits in your Microsoft tenant and your GitHub. Every phase has its own fixed price and ends with a go or no-go. If it stops there, you keep what has been built and can continue with someone else. That is not generosity: it is what makes the relationship honest, because it has to be earned each phase.
What to ask in the interview
- Show me a data model you built, and explain one decision in it
- Where would you put the definition of margin, and why there
- What happens to this when you are gone for three months
- What would you refuse to build, and why
When he says he is going to do something, he proactively comes back to it himself and you can count on it being right the first time. He is a good bridge between different parties.
Half an hour is enough to know whether we fit
No slide deck and no quote at the end. We walk through your sources, your definitions and your biggest frustration.
Book half an hourFrequently asked questions
What should you look for when hiring a Power BI consultant?
Ask where the work will live, who owns the code, what you get if you stop, and where the definitions are recorded. Someone who cannot answer those clearly builds something that only works at their place. Get the answers on paper, not just in the conversation.
Is a certificate a good signal?
It says someone knows the tool, not that they can build something that survives a handover. Ask instead to see a data model they built and to explain a decision in it. Ten minutes of that tells you more than any badge.
Freelancer, agency or in-house?
It depends less on the form than on what happens after delivery. Whoever builds it should leave behind something a colleague of yours can maintain. If that is not part of the agreement, every form ends up in the same place: dependence.
What does a sensible engagement look like?
Short phases with their own fixed price, each ending in a go or no-go. That way you judge delivered work instead of a proposal, and you can stop without losing what has been built.
How much of our own time will it take?
A few half-days at the start for sources and definitions, then around 30 minutes per 2 weeks. If a consultant needs much more than that from you, they are outsourcing their own thinking.