From Apps to AI: Future-Proofing Your Tech Skills

00:00:01 Mark Smith
Welcome to the Power Platform Show. Thanks for joining me today. I hope today's guest inspires and educates you on the possibilities of the Microsoft Power Platform. Now, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from Santa Cruz, Tenerife. in the Canary Islands, Spain, some would call Paradise. He's a data and AI manager. You can find links to his bio and socials in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, Eichel.

00:00:38 Eickhel Mendoza
Hey, Mark, how are you? I'm really glad to be here.

00:00:42 Mark Smith
So good to be here. And what a great topic to talk about. Last time you were on the show was episode 186. You're on the MVP show. And just to give you an idea, I'm currently publishing episode 600 and 80 odd. So that was a very long time ago when you're on.

00:00:58 Eickhel Mendoza
Yeah, actually it was, I don't know, maybe it was about two months since I was an MVP or something like that. So it was really early on.

00:01:08 Mark Smith
A long time ago. Like what year was that? What year did you get awarded?

00:01:13 Eickhel Mendoza
I think it was. 2001, because it was about to, it was going to be my first MVP summit. And then we got strike with COVID. And no, sorry, no, 2001, no, 2021, actually. Yeah, well, actually, I don't remember. Yeah.

00:01:32 Mark Smith
We're mid-COVID by then, right? We're kind of, COVID is well underway around the world. We're still on lockdown, still no events.

00:01:39 Eickhel Mendoza
Exactly, So that was going to be my first MVP summit. So it got cancelled. So we had to see it online and stuff like that. But yeah, that was a year. I'm about five years in the MVP summit. I got my first blue ring. So it's really nice to... So that's why we had this meeting that early on.

00:02:02 Mark Smith
Nice, What's your focus nowadays from a tech perspective? You know, what's top of mind for you? What are you working on? What's taking your attention in 2025?

00:02:13 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, actually, when I started this, I was really focused on building apps and stuff like that. You know, building Power Apps and Canvas apps at that moment, because there was no model-driven apps. I'm already talking like an old person. Back in my days, there were no components and stuff like that. So, but it was really nice at that point of time, but I've grown up to be, I don't know, more of an architect role, because I'm the manager of the Power Apps team or the Business Apps teams at Intellectia, the company I work for. I play more a role of architecture. Let's build this solution, so we're going to need this infrastructure, we're going to need these services, either is Power Platform or Azure or whatever data source or whatever that our customer is going to be using for us or in need for us. So that's the main goal right now. I'm actually working to forwards to AI, obviously, because everyone is working with that. So every customer is asking us to include AI in their processes and do more automations around AI. So I don't know, invoices, more intelligent process flows for these customers. So That's the idea that the solution that we are building now are on top of that because we have many customers with many solutions, but we are improving those solutions with the inflection of AI in their processes.

00:03:53 Mark Smith
Yeah, interesting, interesting. It's interesting how much AI is becoming a greater focal point now.

00:04:01 Eickhel Mendoza
Yeah, and actually what I'm seeing now is that even more than before, we are actually building solutions that are not completely sealed in Power Platform. that we are building interfaces, automations, and stuff like that, but we need more things from Azure or from a local API that the customer is using. They are really focused on having everything secure in their infrastructure. They don't want anything to be used to, I don't know, to train a model or stuff like that. All those characteristics that people are fearing of AI. So we are mixing everything into these solutions that we're building. So that's really nice from my point of perspective.

00:04:51 Mark Smith
You've written a book, which I find intriguing. writing books these days. Tell us about the book, tell us what it's called, and kind of, why did you write it?

00:05:04 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, actually, this was something that, I don't know, an opportunity that shows, I don't know, in your way, that it was at the beginning, They contacted me and told me, We want you to write a book of Power Platform in the 1st edition it was strictly about Power Apps, and they told me, No, we want to build a book about Power Apps, and I was saying the same thing that you were thinking. It's a book, it's something solid, it's something static. So it's not going to be really helpful in two or five months because everything is evolving, right? So, and the idea is that I didn't want to replicate Microsoft Learn because Microsoft Learn is really useful for you to have everything up to date and every review feature or every new feature that you will have in Power Platform, you're going to find it there. So I didn't want to do that. And they were, no, we want to do something different. We want to do something like a cookbook. And that's when I thought, oh, this is something different. It's like when you're building or you're posting a blog post, when you're building a blog post, do you think I want to share with people that you can do this in Power Apps, you can do this in Power BI, you can use this trick to solve something. So in that way, That's another story because you're not telling this is Power Apps, you can use this component of the Power Platform to build user interfaces. No, not like that. If you want to use Power Apps with Power Automate, you can do this, this, and this. If you want to use Power Automate, you can improve the use of Power Automate by using this example. This example is another example. And the book is filled with tips and tricks. You can do it this way. It's going to function correctly. correctly, but it's not going to be, I don't know, using best practices. It's not going to be a performance. You want to have, I don't know, a response right away, not waiting two minutes for something to complete. So that's the idea of the book. And you know that saying that tells that you need to have a child write a book and plant a tree? So check, check, check.I will have everything done.

00:07:30 Mark Smith
I love it. I've not heard that quote before. Is that a Spanish quote?

00:07:34 Eickhel Mendoza 
No, I think it's something Asian or something like that. I used to learn about my dad is also an author and he told me that when I was younger. So I don't know where he picked up that, but I don't know. I know that it's something Asian or something like that, but I don't know.It fits.

00:07:53 Mark Smith
I'm going to research it. So you've obviously had... with that heritage from your father, something kid in you that wanted to write an author a book at some point?

00:08:02 Eickhel Mendoza
Yeah, well, actually, when he was writing his book about his more of a comp person, a telecommunications degree, so he was writing a book of fiber optics. So I still remember. And I still remember he making the book at late night and I helped him by, I don't know, organizing chapters or something like that, or writing something in War Star. Oh my God, I'm too old. So, I was helping him building the book and I was, I thought it was really a nice experience because you're sharing your knowledge with the people. You don't want people that to struggle with the same things that you struggle by doing something. Okay, here's a solution for that. Don't, I don't know. I think at this point of time, My biggest blog post, my number of visits and stuff like that, is how to use custom fonts in Power Apps, for example. Wow, okay. So that's something that at some point in time, you will need to do that in Power Apps, and there's no actual way to do it. There was no actual way to do it at that point of time, but people, when they need to use custom fonts,They will see that blog post and they won't need to struggle, as I did, to do it. Yes. So that's the idea of this on the Power Apps cookbook because I wanted to provide solutions for people when they are in need to do something. I don't know, integrate Power Apps inside a Power BI report or something like that. Sometimes there are some things that you don't even think that would be possible to integrate a Canvas app inside a Power BI report. I didn't know that you could do that. So in the book, you will find an example on how to do it. So that's the idea of the book. Examples and examples and with everything. But the downside is that the Power Platform evolves too fast. At the beginning, on the 1st edition, yeah, I know it was, I don't know, there was some cadence that maybe on six months or something like that, you wouldn't see a new feature or something like that. But now it's too fast. AI here, Copilot there, virtual tables to integrate the fabric, some things that are moving too fast. And that's the idea of having many editions. The third edition is the one that I wrote in October. Actually, when I was finishing that edition, the UI for PowerApps Studio to build Canvas apps changed. And it was, stop the presses. I need to update the images.

00:10:46 Eickhel Mendoza
And it was one weekend updating everything because it was updated, I don't know, one or two weeks just before publishing the book. And I was, give me one weekend. I want to have it as update as I can. And I changed all the images and all the instructions because some things change the button from if it was on the right or now it's on the left or stuff like that. But I changed everything, all the images to have it as much as up to date as I could. So, well, what you can do?

00:11:21 Mark Smith
Yeah. So when you wrote version one, I had a guess, because I doubt you tracked it, how long did it take you to write it? As in from when you started it, like, I'm not looking for how many hours, I'm looking for, I started it in May and I finished it in December. Kind of like, what was that time frame for writing?

00:11:40 Eickhel Mendoza
I think it was about six months, because that was the first edition I had to gather many ideas that I have in mind, because On the first month, it was not writing at all, because I was, I don't know, on your quiet times, you start thinking, What can I do with Power Apps related to Power BI? What can I do with Power Apps related to, I don't know, at that point of time, the beginning of model-driven apps, and I was building and writing. the titles of each recipe. And I was, okay, I can do this. I can do this example with Maps. And then Google Maps started asking for money to use the API. So I need to find a cheaper version or a free version so people can use it on the book. So those kind of things are rolling in my mind. So even when I wanted to use the camera controls to detect something that is on the screen, But it's stuff like that. I don't know. You're trying to use real life examples. And I was like doing that on the first month to see what can I bring to the book. And then I think it was six or seven months. And then the updates may take, I don't know, every edition takes about four months because you are checking that everything checks out still. And you also add more recipes because we are now in the world of AI. We need to improve and need to do something like that. But also in Power Apps or in Power Platform, Copilot is still in the early years. It's not really helping you build apps, for example, in the case of Canvas apps, but now it's helping a lot in the plan designer. So those are things that are still moving. These pieces are still moving and I want this to settle down a little bit to focus on that for the, I don't know, maybe the 4th edition or something like that.

00:13:49 Mark Smith
Wow.

00:13:50 Mark Smith
Now, tell me, like, I've just bought it up on Amazon so I can see a bit more about it.
 When you say it's like a cookbook, is it like, you know, my mom's cookbook, which had, these are going to be cakes and these are the ingredients and This is what it's going to do, and this is the steps to do it. Like this is mix these ingredients and you're going to get this.

00:14:14 Eickhel Mendoza
Exactly. Actually, for this edition, I wanted to do something funny. The first chapter is like when you're, I don't know, whenever you're cooking, you need to have some basics. You need to make make some sauce, and you need to, I don't know, cut the onions and stuff like that. So the first chapter is telling you exactly that. For everything that we're going to do in the book, we are going to start using solutions. We are going to prepare environments. We are going to, I don't know, connect to SharePoint or something like that. So everything is going the first chapter. So you know what we are going to do with this, and these are going to be the examples. Remember that we created a solution. Refer to the first chapter that is going to tell you how to create a solution and then start from there. And let's start this component and this other component and stuff like that. So I thought it was really fun because it's like an actual recipe book.

00:15:16 Eickhel Mendoza
The first, how to make a sauce, how to make this. And then when you have the basics, you can start preparing your food.

00:15:24 Mark Smith
I love it. I love it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 392 recipes in the recent one.

00:15:31 Eickhel Mendoza
I haven't counted, but...

00:15:34 Mark Smith
That's what it's showing in the table of contents, 392 recipes. That's amazing. Like this is not a small undertaking.

00:15:43 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, actually, it's not, every page is not a recipe because the recipes are, some of them are really extensive, but I haven't counted them. But I don't know, maybe if 60 or more recipes in the book, because for example, if I wanted to tell you how to use data flows in your solutions to get information from an API, that's one of the examples that you will see there. And then how to prepare that data to insert that into Dataverse. I'm going to show you with some screenshots how to use data flows. what you're going to get when you connect to the API and stuff like that. So the recipes are not, each page is a recipe because they are really complex, but I haven't counted them, but maybe around 60 or something like that.

00:16:38 Mark Smith
Wow, it is amazing. Who is the technical reviewer?

00:16:42 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, the 1st and 2nd edition, it was Rebecca. You know Rebecca.

00:16:48 Mark Smith
From the Netherlands.

00:16:50 Eickhel Mendoza
Yeah,

00:16:52 Eickhel Mendoza
The third edition, it is Ives. I don't exactly remember his last name, but it changed over time because Rebecca had some personal stuff that she needed to complete, and the book took a little longer for her to review, so she couldn't make it at the third edition. Actually, that's one of my always, I always request her to do the every edition. If I'm going to do a second edition, okay, I can do it, I will do it. But if Rebecca is a technical reviewer, because she's awesome, well, she's really, she really knows how to review a book. She's not with, I don't know, you need to say this in another way. No, the technical part, maybe you need to improve this because it might get confusing for the reader or stuff like that. And she's really good. So I always say, if I'm doing the book, she needs to be the technical reviewer. But ICE is really good as well.

00:17:53 Mark Smith
So, you know, you were saying in your quiet time and stuff, and you start thinking of recipes and use cases and things like that. I want to kind of drill in a little bit to your process. Your, you know, do you start with like sticky notes? You know, and I'm really probably going back, chomp at it. How did you go, okay, there's going to be X number of recipes. It's going to be, and these are the things that I'm going to focus on. Like, how do you decide that? And what is your process? You know, do you use like some type of mind map software, or are you doing it all digitally, or are you doing it in the physical world? How does it work for you?

00:18:40 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, you're going to laugh because my quiet times and my best times or my best ideas comes from the shower.

00:18:50 Mark Smith
Yeah, I believe it.

00:18:52 Eickhel Mendoza
So every time I get to the shower, it's like, this, I don't know, there must be a way to solve this issue or bring this gap together or something like that. And I say, if I do this and this and this and this, and then I get out of the shower really quickly and start taking notes. whatever that I have on nearby, maybe the phone or whatever, I take notes as how to solve this and I build the title of how to solve the integration with API, the local APIs with, I don't know, with data drivers and stuff and something real easy that helps me remember that time when I got the idea. The other, the second quiet time is when I walk my dog. So when I'm working with my dog, I start thinking as well and stuff like that. Some people use their phones while working. I start making ideas or something like that. And then I start using, well, actually I was using really much OneNote and I start typing each page and then I get some links that support my idea. Okay, this is going to be useful. You're going to need a license for that. Maybe there's a workaround to solve the licensing issue and start adding links, links, links, and nodes. Be careful with this, taking this into account. This needs to be a different, but really messy actually. But then when I start doing the recipe, I start organizing everything. So this is going to be the first part. And then I create a new page and start. This is going to be the first part. I need to include some tips here, some tips there. I refer to another recipe or something like that. And that's actually the same thing that I do when I'm building a session for an event. It's the same. Actually, the last one was on a plane for the Global Azure that I'm going to be on this Saturday. How can Azure help me build better Power Platform solutions, but not in the actual way that everyone thinks? That is on the technical side, but in the functional side. And so that gave me an idea and I started writing on the phone, right on the plane. So I have the notes to build the actual draft of the session.

00:21:17 Mark Smith
I like it. I like it.

00:21:19 Eickhel Mendoza
It's really messy, but it works.

00:21:22 Mark Smith
Yeah. And so You obviously, as you complete each chapter, you submit it up to a SharePoint site with Packet. They then go through a triage process of assigning it to the tech reviewer of that chapter, and then they will go through their own editors, right, looking for grammar, formatting, all that type of stuff.

00:21:43 Eickhel Mendoza
Yeah, actually, it's a really tough process. because I get the book there. The first reviewers start, I don't know, even the quality of the images and stuff like that. I'm really thoughtful about the images that I put on the book because I don't know, I put the actual border. I focus on exactly what you need to see on the screen, not to get around on everything else. So we need to be really sure that the images are highest quality possible because in the printed book, you need to have higher quality images and stuff like that. But the grammar and stuff like that, actually, yeah, they check with me. Do you think that this might sound, I don't know, confusing? Can we do it like this? This is an actual process, a bidirectional process with them. And then the technical reviewer is the one that this checks out. Actually, what I remember from Rebecca is that she builds the actual, every actual recipe on her environment to see if it checks out. I got an issue with this. And that's when you're building the recipe, maybe, I don't know, I already had the connection to SharePoint, so it's not going to pop up to ask me for SharePoint. I forgot that. So I start from scratch and include the tips that she tells me, for example, and I did the same.

00:23:16 Mark Smith
So from the reviews are all finished to the book being published, what time frame between that?

00:23:25 Eickhel Mendoza
That's really fast. That's about, I think, a month, because they are not waiting for the whole chapters to be checked out. So I delivered the chapter one. I'm starting with the chapter two, just to give you an example. And in the middle of chapter two, they start telling me stuff about chapter one. So I'm in the middle of many chapters at the same time. And once I'm in, I don't know, chapter three or four, chapter one is already done. And that's how it works. Some chapters are more complex than others. I actually do remember all the time that chapter Power Apps Everywhere is one of the chapters that tries to include Power Apps, as the name implies, everywhere in Teams, in Power BI, inside a model-driven app, a canvas, for example, and stuff like that, trying to put Power Apps in every possible way, even in SharePoint. So That's the most extensive one. So that's the one that takes, I don't know, maybe that's the one that finished at the end. Because maybe I'm at the last chapter and chapter seven is still under review because there's so much text on it.

00:24:45 Mark Smith 
That's so, interesting. As we draw to a close, what's your advice to other aspiring tech authors?

00:24:54 Eickhel Mendoza
Well, actually, I think that having this possibility to build a book about something that is evolving, doing as a recipe book or another example that may be examples or, but I think it's the best solution so far because everyone will, I don't know, will see a video, will see Microsoft Learn or something like that on YouTube or whatever. But if you're trying to help people with something specific, it's best to use it by example, use case scenarios. I have a book about some other author about Power Platform architecture. That's another case because Power Platform architecture is a base for everything. It's not actually evolving. You need to focus on this and this and these concepts before building a solution or having something to bring to your customers. So That's one way to do a book, but if you want to do something else, use case scenarios, examples, best practices, and stuff like that, because that's what I think people need. Not only... Be even a YouTube video. Okay, this is I put a button here and it works. Okay, no, but you're doing everything in your solution correctly, not by using only that button, because the person that is going to put the video is going to actually solve that issue. He doesn't or he or she doesn't know all the things that you have on your solution. Maybe you're connecting to SharePoint and you're hidden delegation and stuff like that. They are not aware of that. So you need to have a good baseline to start working with Power Platform. So I think for technical writers, use case scenarios, best practice and stuff like that, because people really need that.

00:26:47 Mark Smith
Yeah, I like it. What feedback have you had about the book?

00:26:53 Eickhel Mendoza 
Well, actually, it's mixed, I don't know, feedback from the book.

00:26:59 Mark Smith
Yep.

00:27:00 Eickhel Mendoza
Many of them is really good. I haven't seen another bad review. Well, some comments on Amazon and stuff, Amazon and stuff like that. But there are so many, I don't know, funny stories around the book because there was a person on the Peace Summit event that we organized here in Spain on October. There was someone that met me and told me, Do you know that I bought a book many years ago that was really good about Power Apps? And once I was looking at the book, oh my God, this is psycho. I don't know, it's something like that. They don't think that you're going to be in that world. But I don't know, from people that tells me, they always tell me that some example on the book really helped them to build another solution. I wanted to do something and they saw a particular example that helped them solve an issue on a solution or something that they were building for customers. So that's the best takeaway that I can get from the book. If that helped you in any way, even a recipe alone, for me, it checks out.

00:28:21 Mark Smith
Nice, nice. Michael, thank you so much for being on the show and telling your story.

00:28:26 Eickhel Mendoza
Thank you, Mark.

00:28:28 Mark Smith
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Business Application MVP, Mark Smith, otherwise known as the nz365guy. If there's a guest you'd like to see on the show, please message me on LinkedIn. If you want to be a supporter of the show, please check out buymeacoffee.com forward slash nz365guy. Stay safe out there and shoot for the stars.