For years I blogged a lot.  It’s how many of you got to know me.  Then it became a chore and I let it slide lower and lower on my priority list until it no longer had a place on my to-do.  My last post was nearly 4 years ago, my last tech post, even longer.

I tried to revive my writing at the beginning of the pandemic, but my heart just wasn’t in it.  So, I decided to give myself a break and not feel like I had to exceed at everything all of the time.

With the pandemic I went from travelling more than 100,000 miles per year to nearly no miles per year.  We would go months without putting gas in the car.  Photography has always been a hobby, but without new adventures that slowed down so much that I wasn’t even keeping the batteries charged for my camera.  We couldn’t see our kids.  We couldn’t see our parents. I was in quite a funk like most all of us. 

I love to eat, so I’ve always loved to cook.  But now we were cooking all of our meals. I started documenting more of what we made.  I learned how to make my own wine, I named it Tipsy Traveler.

My random pandemic accomplishment was design school.  I attended, and graduated from, a self-paced online interior design program.  I’ve been putting that to use in designing our new house.

So, here I am trying this writing thing again. 

I split my blog, one for tech, one for the other stuff.

From a tech perspective my role has evolved to more training and curriculum and less hands on keys making things for clients.  I joined the board of directors for a non-profit that helps excite high schoolers in technology. I still share my voice to decision-makers in DC trying to help small tech and app makers.

For the other stuff, I started to document and share some of my cooking and design work.  And it makes me happy to relive the stories behind the photos, so I’ll be including that here.  And who knows, maybe there will be some new travels and new photos, too.

The techy stuff will be here, the non-techy stuff here.  And there will certainly be crossover between the two because that is who I am.

Oh, and I got a puppy.  His name is Lio. 

Когорта навчання "Професіонал з біснес-додатків". Версія для українців.

Після вдалого старту нашого пілотного проекту, ми із задоволенням розширюємо реєстрацію. Якщо ви чи хтось з вашого оточення шукає підтримку при зміні професії, приєднуйтеся. Наші фахівці працюють з передовими технологіями та знанням мов, щоб ваше навчання було максимально комфортним. Цей курс є адаптованим варіантом англомовних груп і містить матеріали на двох мовах: англійській та українській. Навчання самостійне з контрольними етапами. І, до речі, це абсолютно безкоштовно. Якщо ви бажаєте вчитися, але не готові зобов'язатися на 6 тижнів відразу, немає проблем. Матеріали основані на ресурсах Microsoft Learn, https://aka.ms/BAPskilling. Можете розпочати з цього сайту, а потім приєднатися до нас. 

Щоб дізнатися більше про курс, перейдіть за цим посиланням.

Для реєстрації в групі, клікніть сюди.

Biz App professional skilling cohorts-Ukrainian edition

After our successful pilot we are happy to open registration more broadly.  If you or someone you know is looking for help transitioning to a new career, join us.  Our team of professionals includes native speakers and some good technology to make this experience as smooth as possible.

This cohort is a modified version of the English-language cohorts.  Content is presented in both English and Ukrainian.  Learning is self-directed with checkpoints.  It is free.

If you’d like to learn but can’t commit to a 6-week cohort at this time, not to worry.  The program is based on the official collection from Microsoft Learn, https://aka.ms/BAPskilling . You can start there, and join a cohort later.

For more information about the training, visit here

To apply for a cohort, visit here 

You’re trained.

You’re eager to work.

You’re not getting hired because you have zero experience.

We’ve heard this story over and over again.  And it’s tough.  It’s hard to go through all the training, get excited about new tech and new beginnings.  And not be able to get the job because you lack “real-world” experience.

We’ve launched a new initiative at The Pivot Program to help address this.

Our volunteers will be accepting applications for new candidates to be project resources, specifically targeting people new to Power Platform and Dynamics 365. 

We know that everyone deserves to be paid for their work, and we will continue to seek paid apprenticeships for those new to the industry.  But we are hopeful this program can help you keep that forward momentum you’ve gotten from your training. 

You’re excited and ready to work, let’s keep you moving forward.

To learn more about our efforts, visit our Projects page. 

If you want to support us with paid opportunities, reach out to me directly and let's make it happen.

In the beginning of my MVP tenure, there were not very many of us in my chosen area of expertise.  We all knew one another, all knew spouses of one another (well, let’s be honest, there were two women, we all knew the wives of the others), knew about the kids.  We became a family with not only a common love of technology, but for each other.  We jokingly call the guest room at our house the MVP suite because so many have come to stay while in Colorado, even more came for a homemade dinner.  I have enjoyed visiting countless MVPs on my world travels.  Made so many memories together.

It was this feeling of family, of unwavering support for each other, that made me determined to stay part of this group.  Even in the years where it was tough. And I will be honest that some years are easier than others.  I always love the community work, I always hate the tracking of it.  Sometimes it’s tough to see where you can make a difference.  There was certainly a year or two that I was going through the motions because it’s what I knew, but was unsure of my motivation. This past year some paid projects reignited my passion for this community. 

There were two times we all auto-renewed for various reasons (program realignment and COVID).  One of those years I was actually really struggling with my health and had thought for sure I would lose this family because I just couldn’t keep up.

Over the years the family has grown, and so has the technology.  I hear from so many old-timers that we just can’t keep up with all the new growth of our beloved CRM and Power Platform.  My immediate thought is, same here.  I cannot keep up with the tech, or these new MVPs.  Then I realize I don’t have to be an expert on everything.  I can still make an impact on the community.  I compare myself to prior versions of me, not to someone else.  While it might not be daily growth, or daily learning, am I better today than before?  Do I know more today than before?  As long as that answer continues to be yes, then I am good with myself and feel that I still belong in this MVP family. There’s room for all of us to succeed.

I see friends deciding to step back from being an MVP after they lose their passion, redefine their own priorities. I am so happy for them that they followed their hearts.  I’m not there yet.  When I think it’s time, I’ll follow my heart too.  I don’t see that happening soon, but we’ll see.

There are now hundreds of MVPs in my chosen specialty.  I do not know all of them.  I try to know as many as I can.  And while I professionally respect your technology expertise and your community commitment, I’m more likely to ask about your family or your dog than I am to chat about your most recent blog post.

I grew up in a big family, with not a lot of money or opportunity.  I can’t remember being told I could do bigger or better things.  The people around me didn’t have that vision.  I will forever be grateful for marrying into a family who had that vision, who gave that support.  And then the continued support from this MVP family.

Do the things. 

Do all of the things.

Then find new things to do.

Love,

CRM MVP #23

My friend Joel wrote this up and offered to have me (or anyone, he wasn't picky) publish it.  He didn't think it fit his own blog.  But we couldn't keep this from the world.  

Power Apps, part of Microsoft’s Power Platform, is a suite of applications, services, and connectors that provide a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for business needs.

Використання перекладача браузера для матеріалів Microsoft Learn

I will show the steps in Edge browser, but Chrome has a nearly identical way to do this also.
Я покажу кроки в браузері Edge, але у Chrome є практично ідентичний спосіб це зробити також.

Navigate to the settings area of Edge browser.
Перейдіть до області налаштувань браузера Edge.

Add your preferred language.
Додайте бажану мову.

Prioritize your preferred language.
Встановіть пріоритет вашої бажаної мови.

When on the page that needs to be translated, right click and select translate.
Коли ви перебуваєте на сторінці, яку потрібно перекласти, натисніть правою кнопкою миші і виберіть опцію "Перекласти".

Your page will now be in the translated language.
Тепер ваша сторінка буде у перекладеній мові.

If you use the lesson’s navigation to page to the next page the translation continues.
Якщо ви використовуєте навігацію уроку для переходу на наступну сторінку, переклад продовжується.

If you navigate separately, you can simply right-click and translate again.
Якщо ви навігуєтесь окремо, ви можете просто клацнути правою кнопкою миші і знову перекласти.

Now your page is displayed in the translated language again.
Тепер ваша сторінка знову відображається у перекладеній мові.

Sure, I’ve been around this industry forever, but I hardly ever have a chance to make personal productivity apps for me.  I’m also spending loads of time training and have less and less time for building stuff.  I’ve never been into coding, not even copy/paste of someone’s script on a CRM form.

And as much as it pains me to say it, I made a Power App with an Excel data source.  But that’s what the situation called for, and that’s what Power Platform enabled me to do.

Please note that I am aware that there are a million ways to accomplish what I did, this is the way that I chose to make it with my time and available resources.

Power Apps come in all shapes and sizes to solve business problems of all kinds.  They don't have to be fancy, they have a job to do.  As long as they do the job, that's often just what you need.

This is the story of making a gradebook app.

Some of the details:

• Four users of the app, we are all licensed users on the same tenant
• We are supporting cohorts of students and their weekly assignments
• Each cohort has about 100 members
• Cohorts last six weeks
• Most of the time we have two active cohorts because their weeks overlap, so that’s around 200 active students at a time

Also of note:

• I am not an admin of the tenant
• I have a good Enterprise Office/Microsoft 365 license, but no Power Platform add-ons

The general flow of things is that each week students have short writing assignments.   Trainers need to review the assignments and provide feedback to students in a timely manner. There are a few other things we track, but the heavy lifting is the writing assignments and feedback cycle.

The writing assignments

Each cohort has 6 forms, one for each week. We open up each week using native functionality to start the new week’s form on a certain date. 

Data

Let’s start with the backend, the data.

There is a connector that allows me to capture Forms responses.

There is a connector that allows me to populate an Excel row in a table.

Our unique identifier in this case is the student email address.  This comes with good and bad.  Good, it’s easy for me on the build side.  Bad, so many ways for this to not make the match we hope for, and it causes the cloud flow to fail.  For now, we review failures and manually correct our gradebook as needed.  Better error handling/avoidance is on the near-term backlog.  ***edited to add*** I added some error handling this weekend and woohoo, it was so easy!

Each week has a form.  Each form has a flow.  And because of data retention policies each cohort has its own series of forms.  So, March cohort has 6 forms and 6 flows; April cohort has 6 forms and 6 flows, and so on.  For me, for now, this is ok.  We have a master set of each and making the forms and flows for a new cohort takes fewer than ten minutes total.

The flow is very simple.  Very. 

The trigger is this named form is submitted.

Now take the info from the form.

Match to this row of this table of this file in this location.

Add these things to the row.

The Power App

For the app itself, it is built in the Teams channel we use to manage the cohorts.

It has 8 screens.

Main screen- This is where we pick the student we need to view.  This is a read-only screen. 

Student detail screen- We see the student info to include identifying info and assignments in summary form. This is a read-only screen.

Weekly screens- there are six of these pages, one for each week.  They are effectively the same except each week shows that week’s questions and answers.  From here we can track some of their non-writing activities and we can offer them feedback on the writing assignments. 

Let’s look more at the functionality of each screen.

Main screen

This is a simple page to select the student.  For now, the students are listed by their username they have on the cohort Team. That might change to their email in the future, we’ll see how it goes in practical day-to-day use.  Sometimes we need to see a student for weekly feedback.  Sometimes it’s to update their participation in other activities. 

When a trainer is going to spend some time offering feedback, it’s easier if we know who is waiting for the feedback.  So, the checkbox will only show us students who have submitted assignments and have not yet received feedback for that assignment.  This query was the most cumbersome because we have to perform the same check for each of the six weeks in this one query.  It was a bunch of if this and this or this and this, and so on.  Once the first weekly logic was set, adding the other weeks was very simple.

I had noticed that sometimes the selected student wasn’t clearing as expected.  It was sticky.  I would look at Student A, go back home.  Select Student B, and on view would see Student A instead.  So I added a clear button for when that happens.  It was so inconsistent that this was the fastest way to solve the problem instead of troubleshooting the why, we just solved it with a button.

Student detail screen

The available actions on this page are to go home (click that shiny cohort badge/logo takes you home), or drill into a week.  Looking at this example you can quickly see that the first two weeks have the writing completed by the student, and feedback provided.  But the third week has the student input, but no feedback yet.  So, the trainer clicks the button for the week from the center of the page.  If you were here to track other activities, you would still drill into the week to track that.

Weekly feedback screens

This is where the action happens.  Before we got here, everything was read-only and directional. First, we have the non-action, action items.  You can go home from here by selecting the icon.  You can go back to the student summary screen with the back button. 

Most of the fields on this page are read-only.

If you are here to track the non-writing activities, you can add your responses to those fields (there are two) and select the save icon.  This sends the updates back to the Excel table. (Yup, we’re still on Excel here, did you forget?)

If you are here to provide feedback to the writing assignment, you enter your text in the review box, and select the Send Feedback button.  This will send the save back to the table for any of the three fields you could have edited.  But it also uses the Office connector and sends feedback in an email to the student.  The email comes from the current user of the app.  This is NOT a flow, it’s via a formula here in the app.

If you need to view other weekly activities for this student while you are here, you can navigate to any of the weeks directly from this page using the buttons on the top.

Random findings

• Still not a huge fan of Excel as a data source, but it’s what we have available here so it’s what we use. It is stored in a location far away from our other daily files, so chances of it accidentally being updated are less than if it were in a common location.
• Even experienced people have to search for formula help, and they make things via trial and error. I’m surrounded by super smart people and asked for help when I needed it.  They still had to go look things up.  And often things didn’t work on the first try.
• There is usually more than one way to do the same thing. For example, sending the feedback to the student each week could have been a cloud flow.  The send feedback button was originally intended to trigger a flow to grab info from the table, then compose and send the email.  But, it turned out for our purposes, using native functionality we could compose it all inline in the app itself and make it a more direct path to send, and it was easier to make it come from the current user with the in app email send.
• I could probably make a single flow for each cohort combining the six weeks into one cloud flow. For me that adds a layer of complexity that is just not needed here.  It would make troubleshooting problems more difficult.
• Flow error messages can give enough detailed information to be able to manually complete the task, if the task is small.
• Things were easier for me because I am pretty good at quickly recognizing patterns and using them as needed with minor modifications.
• Things were more difficult for me because I am a three-dimensional thinker and Excel is not a relational database, it’s pretty darn flat.
• It’s ok to ask for help.

All in all, I spent about 20 hours on this so far.  That includes everything from the structure of the table that powers the backend to the apps and automation.  I also needed help a couple of times that added up to another couple of hours from my friends.  This app will save our team several times that amount in a single cohort and we start new cohorts each month.  It was definitely worth making this app.  Even with Excel.

Full disclosure, you should be doing these things daily.  But if it took a special named day to get your attention, and now that I have your attention, I’m going to tell you how you can support women in your personal and professional orbit. 

1. Support our choices with our bodies. That includes keeping your unwanted hands and opinions to yourself.
2. Pay women what they are worth. 
3. Stop charging more for women’s products.
4. Celebrate the successes of women.
5. Listen to us. We have great ideas.
6. Stop talking over us. Finishing my sentence isn’t even cute if we’re married.
7. Don’t take credit for our ideas and our work.
8. See to it that others see your example, and feel free to tell them to do better when needed.
9. It doesn’t matter if we are feminine, masculine, or somewhere in between, we belong at the table, on the stage, anywhere we want to be.

And if you just can’t do the things above, get out of the way.  You don’t have to help, just stop making it harder.

Recently we’ve had the option to incrementally update some of our certifications.  A certification has a shelf-life.  And it should.  The product, the training content, the exam questions, are all updated quite often.  However, the incremental differences are not worthy of a full re-do of a certification every year.  We now have the chance to take an assessment of the net new and extend a certification.

With the renewals, you have a few chances to pass.  My strategy, take the assessment to see what gaps I may have to fill to be more current.  Just like with the exams themselves, there is no better study guide than the test itself.  If I started the assessment and knew right away it was not going to end in my favor, then I slow down and re-read every question, every one of the answer options.  Make sure I know what is expected of me for the next time.  The renewals are free, and you get more than one chance to pass.

A million years ago, I did a blog post about my failing a certification exam.  You can find my post from 2011 here.  So much of it is still relevant today.  It even looks like Microsoft may have taken some of my advice and split the old-school applications exam into separate ones based on products/modules.

You should set realistic expectations of yourself.  No one has to know your score, unless you tell them.  Certifications are binary; you are certified, or you are not certified.

When you pass the exam by one question, you get the same certification as the person with a perfect score, no gold stars for anyone- Julie Yack, 2011

 

I did my renewal yesterday and am just as certified as anyone else. 

The Microsoft Learn platform hosts Collections.  These collections are several learning assets in a container.  There are official collections like the Biz Apps Skilling collection (https://aka.ms/BAPSkilling).

You can also make (and share) your own collections.  You may have just completed a training such as one of the Business Applications Skilling cohort experiences and want to build your “what’s next” collection.  Here’s how. 

Login to Learn and click on your profile in the top right.  This will load a page like this one.  Select Collections from the options.  Click +New collection.

Name and save your collection.

You can fill your collection starting from the collection.  Add items to the collection.

Or from viewing a lesson in Learn, when you click the +Save option.

And choosing the collection.

Collections can be just for you, or you might want to share one.  This is also where you can edit some of the details about your collection.



See it in action as I build and organize a collection.

Wow, it's been a hot minute since we've all met in person, no?

I am immunocompromised and as vaccinated as vaccinated can be.  My doctor and I decided I can travel again, even speak at events.  So, come October, I'll be out there with you all.

I had written a post about being prepared for an event (CRMUG Summit 2016 to be precise).  And it is all still good advice.  But now we have to add a a few more items to the list.

• We all missed in-person events, but many of us are still terrified of germs and have spent the last few years avoiding them.  Please don't be the person that gets me (or other vulnerable people) sick.  If you suspect you have an active contagious anything, stay home this round.
  
  
• Don't be offended when someone like me is wearing a mask, or asks your vaccination status before giving that hug (can we establish a V hand signal, like V for victory and V for vaccinated??).  There are still people dying from COVID and flu.  I'd rather not be one of them.
  
  
• Remember what we all loved about being in person.  Talking about the cool things we've been doing.  Sharing our stories from the field. Learning from each other.
  
  
• Be forgiving.  We've all had an isolating couple of years.  We may have lost some of our social skills, we may have gained a few pounds, many have lost loved ones.
  
  
• Be smart. Wash your hands often.  See a sanitizer station- use it.  Don't sneeze or cough toward others.
  
  I'm really getting excited about seeing my community again.  I really did miss you all.
  
  
  
  Original list:
• Minimize distractions back at the office. Work extra hard now to avoid the trap of trying to work AND attend the conference. If you find yourself replying to emails three times in every session you attend, you aren’t really going to get much out of the session. If you have to keep up with the folks back at work, set aside time and plan for a session to spend working in a quiet corner instead of being partially engaged in several sessions.
• To ease the stress of leaving behind people at the office that would rather be at the conference with you, get their questions to take with you. What are their burning questions or concerns? Make sure you find the answers and resources to take back with you. Share the schedule with them in advance and then set up a lunch-and-learn the week you return and share your new knowledge and skills.
• Dress for comfort. Now, I will say no jammies for sure. But also, not a suit. Good shoes are the best thing you can bring. Promise.
• Stash some good snacks in your bag. You may find yourself in a great discussion and miss a conference meal or break. So grab some granola bars, some durable candy, whatever helps you make it to the meal later on. And drink water. You will be walking more than you plan, avoid dehydration.
• Every speaker, planner, expert is approachable, so approach them. Raise your hand in the session. Wait after the talk to ask your question. Find them at lunch and sit at the same table. Go to the medics’ station. They are there to share their knowledge. So let them.
• Plan your sessions in advance, mostly. Be open to last minute choices.
• Get yourself a fresh CRM trial before you go so you can immediately try that new cool thing you learned. Ok, get at least THREE new free trials. I suggest one that is bare, one that specializes (like sales or service) and one with a solution like Field Service or Project Service in it. Different things work different ways with added customizations or data.
• Take notes. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pen and paper person (me too!), if you like to scribble on your tablet or if you type it all organized. Take notes. I promise you won’t remember it all the next day.
• There will be booze. Don’t be THAT person that acts a fool and gets everyone to pull out their cameras and you find yourself rather embarrassed.
• Make friends, make memories.