Fabric Insider Series | Episode 2 | Interview with Zoe Douglas, Feature PM at Microsoft
If you have been following Power BI for a while, you know that visualization has always been the area most visible to end-users — yet it has also been the area where some long-standing pain points have lived the longest. In this second episode of Fabric Insider, I sat down again with Zoe Douglas, Feature Product Manager at Microsoft, who has recently shifted her focus from the semantic modeling side of Power BI to core visuals and the reporting experience. And she comes with a very long list of things she wants to fix.
🎥 Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDEYc37VbE4
About this series: Fabric Insider is a series of interviews with members of the Microsoft product team. In Episode 1, we covered the broader Fabric platform updates. In this episode, we go deep on the visualization and reporting layer of Power BI.
Meet Zoe Douglas — The PM Behind Your Favorite (and Soon-to-Be-Favorite) Visuals
Zoe is a Feature PM for Power BI, focused specifically on core visuals and the reporting experience. What makes her perspective unique is that she spent years as a Power BI consultant before joining the product team — which means she is not just building features based on feedback; she lived those pain points herself.
As she put it in the interview: “Taking all that feedback and actually turning it into actual features in the product — that’s what I’ve been focusing on.”
Her mission is clear: make things as useful as possible, help users get their job done faster, and make sure the workflows in Power BI just work — both for co-pilot interactions and for people doing the good old clicks.
What Has Already Shipped: February Through April Releases
1. Input Slicer — Now Generally Available (Previously “Text Slicer”)
The slicer formerly known as the Text Slicer has been renamed to Input Slicer — and this is not just a cosmetic change. Zoe’s intention behind the rename was strategic: the word input opens the door to expand it beyond text filtering into numeric filtering as well (more on that in the roadmap section below).
One of the most requested improvements to this slicer was filter flexibility. Previously, you were always stuck with “contains any” — which, frankly, was limiting. Now the Input Slicer supports:
- Contains any
- Starts with any
- Does not start with any
- All — and more
If you have ever built a report where your users needed to filter by product codes that end with a specific suffix, you know exactly why this matters.
Another great addition: paste selections into any slicer. You can now copy a list of values — from Excel, Outlook, a Word document, anywhere — and paste them directly into the standard slicer using Ctrl+V. The only formatting requirement is that each value sits on a new line. No commas, no semicolons — just a line break separates them.
Related reading: If you are interested in understanding how slicers work within the broader context of filtering in Power BI, check out this article on RADACAD: radacad.com
2. Card Visual Enhancements — Dimming, Edit Interactions, Fixed Size
The new Card Visual has received several meaningful improvements:
Dimming on selection: When you click on a card in a multi-card layout, the other cards now dim to give you clear visual feedback about which one is selected. You can also hold Ctrl to select multiple. Simple? Yes. But as Zoe pointed out — this existed but was not obvious before. Now it is.
Edit interactions now works properly: You can now properly configure which card visuals filter which other visuals using the Edit Interactions panel. The team is also looking at adding an option to disable cross-filtering entirely on a card visual for those who prefer that behavior.
Fixed size for card layout: Previously, the layout behavior was called “Auto Grid” — now renamed more accurately to “Fit to Space.” But more importantly, you can now also specify a Fixed Size for cards. This is particularly useful when working with the list slicer — so that as items expand and collapse, nothing gets squished or resized unexpectedly.
3. Preview Feature Visibility Improvement
A small but genuinely useful improvement: preview visuals now appear below the divider line in the visual picker, making it immediately clear which visuals are in preview and which are generally available. This was a regression that existed in Desktop but not in the web — now it is fixed and consistent.
4. Translitical Task Flows — Now GA
Transactional/analytical (translitical) task flows are now Generally Available. This is a significant milestone — it means the feature is stable enough for production use.
An important clarification Zoe made: this is not a repackaging of Power Apps or Power Automate circle-back patterns. It is a different approach entirely, built to leverage Fabric User Data Functions (which can be written in Python). If you have access to Fabric, you can build end-to-end task flows natively — without needing a Power Apps or Power Automate license.
Zoe demonstrated this flow at FabCon in Atlanta and has published a full write-up with Python code, step-by-step walkthrough, and table structure — so you can build it from scratch yourself. This shows how the button slicer and input slicer are meant to work together in a transactional scenario.
5. Modern Visual Defaults and Custom Theme Improvements
This is one of the bigger updates in the reporting area — and one Zoe is particularly excited about.
The default look of Power BI is getting a refresh. This includes:
- Updated canvas sizing defaults — and a fix to a long-standing bug where you could not specify page size in a custom theme JSON. You can now define the default page size in your theme file, and all new pages will respect that size when you apply the theme.
- Improved theme selection UI — the theme picker has been redesigned. The “Default” button (which was confusingly named) has been replaced with “Reset” — and now it is clear what it does: it removes the custom theme, but leaves all manual formatting in the Format Pane untouched.
- Color palette concept — instead of themes being monolithic, a lighter concept of color palettes is being introduced so you can swap out colors without affecting other customizations in your theme.
- Style presets — you can already define style presets in custom theme JSON today, but the roadmap (more on this below) includes a UI way to add them directly from any formatted visual.
- Smooth vs straight lines — research showed users have strong preferences here. Presets for smooth and straight line styles are now available, letting you quickly switch between them.
Related reading: Working with themes and conditional formatting in Power BI is a broad topic. See these resources on RADACAD: radacad.com
6. Custom Totals for Tables and Matrices
This is a long-awaited feature: the ability to customize the total row calculation in a table or matrix — without going into the data model.
Instead of always showing a sum in the total row, you can now choose a different aggregation — for example, show the average instead of the sum. Behind the scenes, this is powered by Visual Calculations, and the implementation is elegant. A hidden visual calc is created, and if you want to remove the customization, you simply right-click → “Customize the total calculation” → “Reset to default.”
This is especially valuable in situations where:
- You do not have access to the data model (report-layer-only access)
- You need a quick total that does not make semantic sense as a sum (like averaging a rate or percentage)
- You want to avoid cluttering the model with single-purpose measures
Speaking of Visual Calculations — this is actually a great example of the broader value they bring. As I have written before on RADACAD, Visual Calculations allow you to create calculations scoped to a specific visual without polluting the data model with measures that are only relevant in one context. The custom totals feature is a real-world proof of that capability.
Related reading: Visual Calculations in Power BI — RADACAD
7. Series Label Leader Lines for Line Charts
A deceptively powerful improvement. Series labels on line charts now support leader lines — lines that connect a label to its corresponding data point when the label is placed away from the series. This unlocks:
- Better label placement for dense, overlapping lines
- Match series colors toggle — labels automatically take on the color of their line, with optional matching backgrounds
- Cleaner, more publication-ready chart outputs without manual configuration
8. Page Size Dropdown and Updated Canvas Sizing
A quality-of-life win that many report authors will appreciate immediately: the page size setting now includes a dropdown with named presets (like 4K, letter, etc.) instead of requiring you to remember exact pixel dimensions. Tooltip sizes have also been expanded with larger options available.
9. Azure Maps Updates
Azure Maps is getting ongoing attention across multiple releases. A notable fix: when you change the map style (e.g., switching to hybrid view) while in editing mode, the setting is now correctly saved to the formatting pane. Previously, this change was transient — you would publish the report, and the style would silently revert to whatever was in the formatting pane. Now, editing and the formatting pane stay in sync.
What Is Coming: The Power BI Roadmap
You can always check the official roadmap at: aka.ms/pbiroadmap
Here is a breakdown of what is coming, organized by timeframe:
Q2 2025 (April–June) — In Progress
Fixed Width for Table and Matrix Columns (▶ Watch from 30:04)
This is finally coming to the format pane. You will be able to type in exact column widths instead of dragging. More importantly, this integrates properly with mobile layout — because anything set in the format pane can be customized differently for the mobile view versus desktop view. The autosize toggle is also being moved to a more prominent position at the top of the layout section so you can actually find it.
Set as Landing Page (▶ Watch from 33:33)
How many times have you published a report and immediately realized you were on the wrong page? This feature is coming. Right-click on any page tab → “Set as Landing Page.” Done. The report will open on that page every time — even if you saved it from a different page.
Tooltip Options — More Control Without a Report Page (▶ Watch from 34:56)
Currently your options for tooltip customization are: accept the default fields, or build an entire report page as a tooltip. There is nothing in between. This is changing. Two new modes are coming:
- Tooltip fields only mode — show only what you explicitly add to the tooltip field well, ignoring all other visual fields
- Sentence mode — write a free-text sentence with inline references to fields, so your tooltip reads like “Product X generated $Y in sales” without needing to create a custom label measure
This is one of those features where many of us have been building report pages or writing label measures just to get a readable tooltip. It is a real time-saver.
Auto-Fit Markers for Scatter Plots (▶ Watch from 37:35)
If you have ever had bubble chart markers cut off at the edges of the visual — where you only see half a bubble — this toggle fixes that. Markers will auto-fit inside the chart boundaries. Simple to use: one toggle.
Numeric Support for the Input Slicer (▶ Watch from 39:45)
As mentioned, the Input Slicer is expanding beyond text. The numeric mode works like printer page selection — you can type a range (e.g., 1-5), specific values, or conditions like >50. Very flexible without the complexity of a range slider.
Visual Calculations — GA
Visual Calcs are graduating from preview — and this also means Custom Totals (which depend on visual calcs) will GA at the same time. If you have been hesitant to use visual calcs in production because of the preview tag, this is your green light.
Shape Map — Finally GA After 10 Years in Preview (▶ Watch from 38:49)
Shape Map has been in preview since June 2016. Nine years. It is finally graduating to General Availability — with added support for GeoJSON files and URL-based shape references. If you have published blog posts over the years saying “Shape Map is coming soon to GA” — well, soon is now.
Q3 2025 (July–September) — Coming Up
Modern Visual Defaults — GA
The updated default visual look (introduced in preview) will be made the new standard, with the custom theme UI improvements (moving to the format pane) and color palette support completing the work.
Conditional Formatting for Lines, Series, and Legends (▶ Watch from 43:13)
This one is huge. If you have ever defined a data color in your data model and then added a legend to a line chart — and everything broke — you know exactly why this matters. Conditional formatting is coming to:
- Legend colors — so your color rules from the model actually apply
- Line colors — direct conditional formatting on the line itself
- Marker colors — with an FX button directly on the marker color property
Related reading: I have written about workarounds for this scenario on RADACAD — but workarounds will soon no longer be necessary.
New Date Picker and Date Slicer Revamp (▶ Watch from 44:22)
This is a big one. A completely new date slicer is in development that brings together capabilities currently scattered across different slicers:
- Single date selection — click a date once to pick just that day
- Range selection — drag or click two dates to define a range
- Relative date — define a rolling window (e.g., last 5 days from the last date in the column — not just from today)
- All of the above in a single slicer, with consumers able to switch between modes
The relative date anchoring is particularly interesting. Today’s relative date slicer always anchors to today, which locks consumers into a specific experience. The new version allows anchoring to the last date with actual data — useful for operational reports where you want to default to the last available data, while still letting users pick custom ranges.
Many organizations are using custom visuals just for date picking. This native revamp should remove that dependency for most cases.
List Slicer — Drop Down Mode and GA
The list slicer is getting a dropdown mode added, and then it will be graduating to GA to join the button slicer and input slicer in the generally available family.
Further Ahead — Future Thinking
Gantt Chart — Native Visual (Preview) (▶ Watch from 46:47)
One of the most requested native visuals is finally in active development. Zoe has been experimenting with a custom visual prototype to gather feedback and is now starting to build a native Gantt chart for Power BI. Expected as a preview later this year.
Add to Style Preset from the UI (▶ Watch from 47:31)
Today, creating style presets requires you to write them manually in a custom theme JSON file. The upcoming Add to Preset feature will make this a one-click operation: format a visual the way you want it, click “Add to Style Preset,” and Power BI will extract all the property values and store them in your theme automatically.
Smarter Reset to Default (▶ Watch from 49:27)
Currently, resetting a visual to default clears everything — including conditional formatting, actions, and reference labels. The plan is to make this softer: reset formatting styles only, while leaving all data-bound configurations (conditional formatting, actions) intact.
Organizational Themes — GA
Once the custom theme UI work is complete, organizational themes (which allow you to share and enforce a theme across your entire tenant) will also graduate to GA.
Freeze Columns and Headers in Tables and Matrices (▶ Watch from 52:35)
Freeze options for totals and column headers are in the works — important especially for mobile layout where matrix scrolling is tricky.
Multi-Column Sorting — Making It Discoverable
You can already sort a table by multiple columns today by holding Shift while clicking column headers. Most users do not know this. The team is working on making it more visible and intuitive.
Color Tools and Accessibility Checker (▶ Watch from 41:24)
On the radar for future exploration: color tools built into the product — such as color pickers that extract palettes from images, and an accessibility checker that simulates color blindness views without requiring screenshots and external tools. Several custom visuals have offered this, but having it natively would be a significant step forward.
Summary — What Does This All Mean?
Looking at everything Zoe covered, a few themes emerge clearly:
1. The format pane is becoming the single source of truth. More and more settings — including column widths, theme customization, and custom totals — are being pulled into the format pane. This is the right direction. It means mobile layouts, conditional logic via FX, and embedded scenarios all work consistently.
2. Long-standing gaps are finally closing. Shape Map GA, set as landing page, conditional formatting on legends and lines — these are features Power BI users have been asking for for years. Some for nearly a decade. They are coming.
3. Visual Calculations are proving their value. The custom totals feature is a great example of visual calcs enabling something that previously required model access. Expect more features in this direction.
4. The slicer story is becoming cohesive. Input slicer, button slicer, list slicer, and the new date picker are all converging into a consistent, flexible, and GA set of slicers with complementary capabilities.
If you have been telling your report users “Power BI can’t do that” — it might be worth revisiting that list in 2025.
Resources and Links
- 🎥 Full interview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDEYc37VbE4
- 📊 Power BI Roadmap: aka.ms/pbiroadmap
- 💡 Power BI Ideas (vote and suggest): ideas.fabric.microsoft.com
- 🔗 Zoe Douglas on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zoe-douglas
- 📰 Power BI Monthly Blog Updates: community.fabric.microsoft.com
- 📚 Related RADACAD articles:
Other Episodes in the Fabric Insider Series
- 🎙️ Episode 1: Fabric Insider — Microsoft Fabric Platform Updates (link coming soon)
- 🎙️ Episode 2: The Updates and Future of Visualization in Power BI — Zoe Douglas (You are here)
Written by Reza Rad | RADACAD | radacad.com
Tags: Power BI, Data Visualization, Power BI Visuals, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI Updates, Fabric Insider, Visual Calculations, Power BI Roadmap, Slicers, Card Visual, Custom Themes, Power BI Desktop
Reza is author of more than 14 books on Microsoft Business Intelligence, most of these books are published under Power BI category. Among these are books such as Power BI DAX Simplified, Pro Power BI Architecture, Power BI from Rookie to Rock Star, Power Query books series, Row-Level Security in Power BI and etc.
He is an International Speaker in Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Business Applications Summit, Data Insight Summit, PASS Summit, SQL Saturday and SQL user groups. And He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
Reza’s passion is to help you find the best data solution, he is Data enthusiast.
His articles on different aspects of technologies, especially on MS BI, can be found on his blog: https://radacad.com/blog.