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  • My Path to Product: PowerBI & Prism

    My Path to Product: PowerBI & Prism

    Yes, that is Sonic the Hedgehog (those who know me will know I’m a bit of a fan). But more than just nostalgia, this was one of the last 3D models I created—somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago—right before I met my now wife and started a family. Oddly enough, it’s also where the mindset that helped me build Prism really began. This is my path to product: PowerBI & Prism.

    The Start

    Back then, I used to spend hours tweaking and changing all the aspects big and small of the design, lighting, textures and just about everything involved in my 3D work (I actually did Games Development at University).

    I have always been into tech so had built myself a powerhouse of a PC to work on these things.

    As I moved into working for Trustmarque, whilst I was still very tech focused and now involved in the world of licensing, I still had that desire to create.

    I had worked with Microsoft products most of my life in some form or another and at this point understood pretty much all involved to a certain degree with IT infrastructure.

    Discovering PowerBI

    A few years in, I was introduced to Microsoft PowerBI, a product that I had never touched before but one that turned out to be exactly what I needed.

    I’ve been told several times I have a bit of a superpower: the ability to learn insanely fast, especially if I can then go build something with what I’ve learned

    I never took any formal training for PowerBI as I learnt best by doing. Some of the fantastic content creators out there, a lot of who I now engage with were the perfect resource to understand visuals, DAX, measures, everything. I went through tonnes of content and then applied what I already knew.

    PowerBI became that evolution of creating 3D renders of Sonic.

    Building Something

    I started collecting data, building dashboards, experimenting with design and UX, and exploring new ways to interact with data—many of which were still rare or new at the time.

    Eventually, it turned into a product. One I was passionate about, not because I was told to build it, but because I wanted to. (I even loaded up Photoshop and made the logo).

    A Product Built on PowerBI

    At this point I had no idea how successful Prism would become.

    There were other tools on the market—many built by much bigger dev teams using more conventional approaches. But Power BI gave me an edge: speed and adaptability.

    PowerBI contributed to Prism’s success massively

    Making a product using PowerBI as a base meant I could adapt to changes in the IT market (and there are a lot) very quickly.

    I could respond to customer feedback in near real-time. I could change visuals, metrics, or layouts in hours—not weeks.

    Prism

    Now, I’m a Lead Product Manager at Trustmarque, Prism is used by customers around the world, Trustmarque has built services around Prism to great success and the product receives nothing but praise.

    It’s not one I ever expected, but product management with Power BI turned out to be my ideal job.

    Sure, it has its stresses. But every day, I get to build, come up with new ideas, meet new exciting people, and help others see more clearly—through data.

    Lessons Learnt

    So, the original thought for this blog post. what would I say to someone just starting out?

    • Find data that means something to you. Maybe you’ve worked with it before, or maybe it’s just something that grabs your attention.
    • Just build. It won’t be perfect. It shouldn’t be. But each dashboard you tweak, each visual you redesign, will teach you something new.
    • Design matters. A great UI can make your dashboard. Play with colour palettes—Coolors is a great resource for that.
    • Think scale early. Whether it’s your data source, Power BI capacity, or your deployment strategy—plan ahead.
    • Consider Power BI Embedded if you’re heading into product. It opens up possibilities beyond licensing and lets you create apps around your reports.
    • Adapt fast. This is Power BI’s secret weapon in product. Use it.
    • Document it. I’m now using my Aether platform and blog posts to share lessons I’ve learned along the way. You should too!

    If you’re interested in scaling, automation, and pushing updates across environments, I’ve written a few PowerShell posts that might help too.

    Thanks for reading—and if you’re just starting out, enjoy it. I started with Sonic. You can start wherever you like.

    Bonus!

    And just in case you were interested here were a couple of others out of what seems loads! Seems a long time ago now!

  • Prism Week – Day 1

    Prism Week – Day 1

    This week we are celebrating 5 years of Prism, I know right!

    5 Years of Prism



    When I first joined Trustmarque, I was that anomaly that was working on Microsoft licensing, but was super techy after my time in the NHS and my excel skills were never going to match (unofficial excel world champion) Chris Phillips back when he was still at Trustmarque.

    But I loved building and creating. Prism started out as with many things I was building out at that time, a PowerShell script except this one automated bringing data together. That was until I was introduced to PowerBI.

    Working alongside some fantastic colleagues old and new (Steven Davison, Sean Hannah), amazing customers such as Jonathan West at DHCW, Prism evolved into something similar to the platform we know today

    Fast Forward!


    Fast forward five years, and Prism has grown into a full-fledged product. I’m really grateful to Trustmarque (notably Charlotte Henigan, Wesley Worland, Simon Williams and Simon Leuty) for encouraging innovation and turning what started as a side project on the odd train ride here and there into an industry-leading solution, gaining recognition through awards and customers alike.


    As part of this week Damien Masterson (who became just as passionate about Prism as I am) and I will be sharing some of the findings and statistics from when we first deploy Prism into customers and of course how Prism can help with optimisation all the way through to innovation.

    Inactive Users



    So, lets start with this first one, an absolutely huge 89% of customers had over >500 inactive users but the thing is they didn’t realise either. That’s optimisation that could quickly translate to >£100,000 that could be turned into innovation, that could fund kickstarting the new Microsoft Copilot project or those security improvements you know need doing. Prism finds this information and finds it fast in a way that’s accessible, readable, then with the support of our teams at Trustmarque and Livingstone ensures that you realise that optimisation and turns it into value.