Why One Small Change Can Make Your Power BI model Feel Like Jenga!

Every Power BI developer knows the sinking feeling when a simple request breaks everything.

Author

Glenda Carnate
November 07, 2025

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Ever had the COO casually say, “Just add a region filter.” You nod, confident. Five minutes later... your DAX model is screaming, visuals are off, and relationships are tangled.

You’ve built a beautiful Power BI dashboard, and everything is flowing smoothly. Then the request drops: “Add a region filter”. Simple enough, right?

Except now your measures return wrong totals, relationships clash, and the model collapses like Jenga. You stare at the screen, coffee in hand, wondering if Excel would’ve been easier.

Turns out the sinking feeling isn’t just yours. According to Gartner, between 70% to 80% of business intelligence (BI) initiatives fail to deliver expected outcomes.

Even a small tweak, like “just add a filter,” can expose fragile foundations in your Power BI model, turning a masterpiece into a debugging nightmare.

How to Survive Power BI Jenga Moments:

  • Plan for scalability: Build your model with extra filters in mind; anticipate changes from day one.

  • Use disconnected tables for slicers when possible: That region filter? Let it slice independently of core logic so you don’t accidentally alter the measure context.

  • Test each measure after changes before presenting: A quick sanity check ensures totals still hold, relationships still make sense.

  • Document relationships and logic to avoid surprise collapses: Dashboards age. New users show up. Filters are added. Your future self will thank you.

  • Keep calm... every DAX disaster is a learning opportunity: When the model wobbles, it means you’re stretching it, not failing it.

💡Key Takeaway: 

In Power BI, one innocent filter request can reveal cracks in your model. The best dashboards are flexible, tested, and well-documented... not just visually impressive.

👉 LIKE if you’ve ever added a filter and instantly regretted it.

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