Serious Insights for Admins

Episode Description

When we think of field service work, we usually think of the cable guy or someone coming to turn on the power at our home. That’s the most obvious use case for Salesforce Field Service, an extension for Service Cloud.

But Field Service does so much more. Its easy optimization allows easy connectivity to other programs like Sales Cloud, so your technicians can upsell customers on the job.

And purchasable consoles for positions like contractors and dispatchers are fully loaded with tools to make your team’s life easier and your customers happier.

On this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, talks all things Field Service with Martin Humpolec, Senior Salesforce Consultant at PwC Czech Republic.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How Field Service optimizes scheduling
How to use Field Service to work with contractors
Why industry experience will help you learn Field Service

Episode Summary

But Field Service does so much more. Let’s say you’re getting new blinds installed for your windows. Field Service can dispatch a service worker to come to your home to measure your windows — and upsell the customer on a set of blinds while there. That sale will be sent back to Sales Cloud, and a salesperson will be scheduled to come out for the install.

From sales to scheduling technicians and even hiring contractors — it’s all done easily within Field Service.

It’s also easy to implement and use, especially for admins already experienced in the industry. For those without experience, they can try the Field Service game available through Trailhead, or hire someone like Martin Humpolec, a Salesforce consultant at PwC Czech Republic.

“If you do have experience in this area, there's definitely a benefit, because you can really consult with the customer and advise them,” Martin says. “The technical implementation is potentially easy, but the business knowledge behind [it] might be tricky.”

Martin joined Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, on this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins to talk about the ins and outs of Field Service.

Key Takeaways

Field Service accounts for — and optimizes — everything.

Salesforce’s Field Service extension for Service Cloud does more than just help your company dispatch service workers. It allows you to create a smoother and more pleasant experience for both the customer and your team.

That’s because Field Service accounts for everything — the time it takes for a technician to travel to the destination, conduct the job and take care of the paperwork after the job is done. Purchasable consoles for specific roles like dispatchers and technicians make it easy to optimize schedules and solve unexpected problems.

Field Service is for more than just dispatching technicians.

Field Service simplifies your life. When you purchase the extension, it includes all other clouds and options you might need, and easily optimizes with other clouds you might already own.

This allows your company to do so much more than just provide service. For example, if a technician is dispatched to measure a customer’s windows for blinds, they could also upsell the customer on the spot through Sales Cloud.

For aspiring Field Service admins, industry experience helps.

Field Service isn’t a program that general Salesforce admins would necessarily learn as an add-on to their Salesforce proficiency. It’s niche — and not as many companies buy it.

That’s why it makes sense for those who already have industry experience to become a Field Service admin. It also helps to have a background in how the industry works, since you will be dealing with things like scheduling and dispatching technicians and, at times, working directly with customers.

Featured Guest: Martin Humpolec of PwC Czech Republic

💥 What he does: Salesforce Senior Consultant at PwC Czech Republic, a professional services firm that offers consulting, strategy management and more.

💻 PwC Czech Republic on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Martin on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Martin’s big idea: “If you do have experience in this area, there's definitely a benefit, because you can really consult with the customer and advise them. And it's not just the technical implementation, because I would say the technical implementation is potentially easy, but the business knowledge behind [it] might be tricky.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 What’s the difference between Field Service and Service Cloud?

[09:38] “Field Service focus[es] on the field, people in a field [who] need to travel to the job. That's something you will not get with the Service Cloud. The case is just, okay, you have some SLA (service-level agreement), some milestones, but we don’t really account for the time it will take you to get to the customer. And that's the moment where the field service kicks in, because it can account for the time you will spend on the road. And it can also account for the time you need for the legal breaks between the jobs. And it can account for the time you need for the paperwork, after you finish the job, and all these scheduling things.”

💡 Field Service streamlines and optimizes scheduling.

[13:10] “[The customer] can schedule their own time. I would say the typical scenario — maybe also because of the existing workforce, and based on the licensing questions — is that you do have some agent who will speak to the customer, and they will schedule the job […] But then there is the optimization, which is usually announced before the day, which looks at the whole schedule and says, oh, but those two are neighbors. So if the technician is there, it makes sense if they can join, because it will be cheaper for everyone and better. And then during the day, the technician is quicker or slower, you need to either optimize or postpone the meetings they have in the afternoon. Or maybe they will have time for one extra.”

💡 Field Service isn’t just for technicians.

[26:25] “It's not just about the technicians. Even Field Service has an extension that the technician can do some upsell, which goes back to Sales Cloud. So from this perspective, you can give it to the salespeople as well. And if you have all those salespeople who are driving across perhaps to get the orders, or you have the salespeople who measure the window and the door, or pools and these kinds of things, they can use it as well, because it will really schedule the appointments in the most optimal way […] Technician[s], they do have the regular check-ins of lifts, for example. So that's something which you can, again, automate with the Field Service, because you just say what's the maintenance period, and it will automatically schedule the service appointments so you don't need to think about it.”

💡 Contractors can still be used in Field Service.

[32:10] “What we usually see is that when you have an internal person, you really schedule the job per hour. You know where they will be at 10 and at 11, at 12. When you speak about the contractors, you can set up the system in a way that you don't really care — the contractor will just give you 40 hours a week of their capacity, and you will schedule 40 hours a week of work […] And also, you can even extend the dispatcher to the external people. So your internal dispatchers don't really care about who will do it from the contractor side, they just know that it has been given to the contractor.”

💡 For aspiring Field Service admins, experience in the field may help.

[38:40] “Potentially, there is big knowledge in the territory planning and in the scheduling policy, what might be more important, and how to balance it, and how to specify the work types and how precise to be with the scales and all these kinds of things. So potentially, if you do have the experience in this area, there's definitely a benefit, because you can really consult with the customer and advise them. And it's not just the technical implementation. Because I would say the technical implementation is potentially easy, but the business knowledge behind [it] might be tricky.”

Top Quotes:

[9:37] Martin: “Field Service focus[es] on the field, people in a field [who] need to travel to the job. That's something you will not get with the Service Cloud.”

[13:55] Martin: “Whenever the technician has a problem, they will contact the dispatcher to solve it […] They can do the optimization upfront. So the scheduling is a big part of Field Service. And I would say it's one of the main added values of the product.”

[35:14] Martin: “I would say that the Field Service really simplifies your life because the license you paid for the field service includes all the other clouds you might potentially need.”

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Episode Description

On today’s episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, we’re talking about a tool so universal that we believe all intentional admins should learn how to use it: Experience Cloud.

“Experience Cloud is something that any admin should frankly learn. A great way to do it is [to] build your own site and share what you're doing,” says Jarrod Kingston, Solution Engineering Leader at IBM and a master at using Experience Cloud to its full potential.

Experience Cloud does a lot more than cultivate relationships and improve experiences for your customers — it’s a platform that can foster community.

Jarrod joins Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, on this episode of Serious Insights to talk about how Experience Cloud can help companies grow, and what to expect in the future as Salesforce continues to add features.

Listen to this episode to learn:

The many use cases of Experience Cloud
How Experience Cloud makes licensing simple
Why all admins should know how to use Experience Cloud

Episode Summary

It’s no secret that Salesforce has developed a lot over the years. There are now specialized products or platforms for just about any sector that may find it useful, from automotive to finance.

But on today’s episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, we’re talking about a tool so adaptable and universal that we believe all intentional admins should learn how to use it: Experience Cloud.

Experience Cloud does a lot more than cultivate relationships and improve experiences for your customers. With available features like help centers, account and partner portals, and flexibility for creating your own personalized features or layering other products, it’s a platform that can foster community among your team as well as your customers.

Key Takeaways

Experience Cloud can meet your needs.

One of the best things about Experience Cloud is its flexibility. There are plenty of options for both a web developer who wants to add custom features on the backend and an admin in control of the design. It features tons of ready-made templates and layout options to correspond with your company’s needs and branding.

Experience Cloud also easily integrates with other programs your company may be using, like Lightning Experience and Lightning Web Runtime (LWR).

Experience Cloud goes beyond experiences — it helps create community.

When we think about “community” in the Salesforce space, the first thing that comes to mind is something like Trailblazer. But what if we could share that community experience with our customers?

That’s exactly what Experience Cloud does. It’s a platform that’s easy for both admins and customers to use, allowing your organization to grow into it over time. With everything from account portals to help centers that will enable your team to smoothly communicate with customers, it’s made for building community.

Learning Experience Cloud is the perfect starting point for intentional admins.

Experience Cloud is flexible and has a wide range of use cases, which is why it’s such a useful tool for intentional admins to learn. Mastering a universal tool Experience Cloud will make you a standout candidate for just about any company that uses Salesforce.

Jarrod recommends a number of helpful resources for mastery, including Phil Weinmeister’s guide to Experience Cloud and courses available on Pluralsight.

Featured Guest: Jarrod Kingston of IBM

💥 What he does: Solution Engineering Leader at IBM.

💻 IBM on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Jarrod on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Jarrod’s big idea: “I think Experience cloud is something that any admin should frankly learn. And yeah, a great way to do it is [to] build your own site and share what you're doing.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 What is experience cloud?

[04:11] “When it originally came around, Salesforce saw the need for this portal-type environment, where a customer could log in and interact with their data, in essence, but within this Salesforce framework [...] It was this very basic portal experience, old Salesforce tabs, kind of the old Aloha environment look and feel. And then it really took off with the introduction of Community Cloud, which really blew things out of the water as far as what it used to be. And of course, just like Salesforce likes to do, they renamed it Experience Cloud, which makes sense, because as you interact with the product, it is an experience, right? It's more than just community.”

💡 Lightning Web Runtime (LWR) is a great new tool — but with limits.

[13:56] “The trade-off right now — and Salesforce knows this — is that there aren't as many out-of-the-box components with LWR sites. And so the trade-off is if you use Aura, you get more out-of-the-box components. If you use LWR, you get less. There are still some there, things like flow. Flow can be used within LWR. Most like all of our accelerator components, any [Lightning Web Component] can be used within LWR. So that's the trade-off is, you may have a standard thing that's not there, you may have to recreate, if you need it in LWR […] But I would certainly recommend [to] anybody, LWR should be something they seriously try to use, if at all possible, because it is the path forward.”

💡 Licenses made easy.

[18:01] “A lot of times [when] people hear a portal environment, they immediately think authentication, right? I have to be authenticated, I have to have a user license. The cool thing about Experience Cloud is that that's not always the case, right? You can have an Experience Cloud site that has portions of it from both a page and data perspective available to any public person or what we call a guest user. And then you can have the authenticated side to that.”

💡 Experience Cloud can help you create a community.

[23:09] “I think it's a really interesting product to grow into. Because starting a community — and you mentioned Experience is not just community — but that idea of community, and what we think about what the Trailblazer community, where you've got groups, you've got people that have profiles that are talking to each other — that's a large investment, and it's a lot to moderate and monitor. [...] I think it's interesting to consider trying something on an Experience Cloud site to get familiar.”

💡 Experience Cloud is a great platform for everyone to learn.

[28:48] “I think specifically Experience Cloud is really cool for intentional admins. If people are just deciding to start becoming an admin and getting involved in the Salesforce industry — various use cases and types of companies will use Experience Cloud. And you can build out whatever ideas you have in a dev.org, and share those as a living resume through Experience Cloud. So things that you have built you can make available to people.”

Top Quotes:

[08:06] Jarrod: “You can make it look really nice, honestly, without doing any customization, just through point and click. And then there are a whole host of different sites out there that people probably access today that they don't even know it's an Experience Cloud site, because you can take it that far where you don't even know that it's Salesforce behind the scenes.”

[15:28] Jarrod: “Salesforce is putting the investment in [Lightning Web Runtime]. They're not investing in Aura, per se. But part of that investment is deployability. How do I deploy changes between things? There are still some gotchas and things like that around deploying Experience Cloud sites. […] But Salesforce knows that and they're working on it, which I think is the cool thing. They're not just ignoring that, they're working towards better solutions there to improve those steps.”

[29:33] Jarrod: ““I think Experience cloud is something that any admin should frankly learn. And yeah, a great way to do it is [to] build your own site and share what you're doing.”

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Episode Description

Remember the days when you bought software on a CD, put it into your computer, and that was it? The application was there, no bits and bobs, plain and simple.

Some programs are still like that — but not Salesforce. But that’s what gives it a competitive edge, and it’s why consultant Danielle Laffey recommends Financial Services Cloud to her clients.

“They have all that structure put in place. And then, for you to be able to configure [and] customize on top of that, as opposed to writing code, has been fantastic,” Danielle says.

In this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, we’re talking with Danielle about all things Financial Services Cloud.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How Financial Cloud aggregates data
Why Salesforce’s flexibility matters for financial clients
Why you shouldn’t be a ‘Salesforce generalist’

Episode Summary

Remember the days when you bought software on a CD, put it into your computer, and that was it? The application was there, no bits and bobs, plain and simple.

It’s easy to get nostalgic for the past, especially when looking at the Salesforce ecosystem today, which has been so heavily built out — but that’s also what makes it so attractive. Its customizable and configurable nature is what makes Salesforce different, and it’s the reason advisor Danielle Laffey recommends it to her clients.

“They have all that structure put in place. And then, for you to be able to configure [and] customize on top of that, as opposed to writing code, has been fantastic,” Danielle says.

As a consultant at Silverline, Danielle deals with large financial institutions that are thinking about making the jump to Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC). FSC simplifies and speeds up processes like applying for loans or making big financial decisions because it pairs easily with other systems to create huge sets of data.

On this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, goes deep on FSC with Danielle. They also discuss the state of the Salesforce ecosystem and how admin career paths are changing. Don’t forget to check out Silverline’s blog, which covers everything from the Trailblazer community to understanding different fields.

Key Takeaways

Financial Services Cloud aggregates all the information you need.

Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud (FSC) is designed to pull data from systems that can be manually linked or pulled from public data sources, simplifying lead-gathering work for services like applying for a loan.

It can also be layered with Salesforce Industries Cloud, which pulls information from different systems to create one big data model complete with Flows, to be used by anyone from a customer service rep to a bank account holder.

Milestones make financial planning easier — and help foster relationships.

The financial world is all about relationships. FSC helps cultivate those relationships with the life events and business milestones feature, which allows you to input important financial events like having a baby or buying a house.

That way, your agent can see when your child is turning 16 and can help you plan well in advance for necessities like car insurance or college loans. It can also be paired with the Einstein functionality, which offers insights and product recommendations to customers.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to be a Salesforce generalist.

A decade ago, it made a lot more sense to be a Salesforce generalist and dip your toes into every new feature that was released. These days, the Salesforce ecosystem is growing beyond that possibility.

The best way to further your career is to focus on one area of Salesforce, like business or finance, and become an expert. Industry specialists turned admins are becoming more common.

Featured Guest: Danielle Laffey of Silverline

💥 What she does: Senior Salesforce solutions architect at Silverline, a Salesforce consulting company.

💻 Silverline on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Danielle on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Danielle’s big idea: “You have nuances in your career and your skill set that no one else has. And so making sure that you're taking that information, and being able to apply it to whatever your new job is, is fantastic.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 The move to Salesforce is a big jump for large institutions.

[06:11] “These types of transformations, typically, they are larger institutions most of the time. And so the change management portion and being able to flip everything over takes a lot longer, they're very expensive. They've already pulled in all this time and energy into some of their processes from before so they're a little nervous [...] so I think bringing that baby boomer generation up to speed with some of it has also been a little bit of a challenge.”

💡 Financial Services Cloud aggregates tons of data.

[12:28] “if you apply for credit that is publicly known, right? So you could go find that information, institutions get that information, and then they put it into the CRM […] It makes it super quick and easy for somebody to be able to go through a call list in a couple of hours, where before they would have had to take a long period of time in order to gather all that information.”

💡 Life milestones help build financial relationships.

[18:07] “One of the big things in the financial world is [it’s] all about relationships […] Let's say I had a baby in 2000, they would have been able to put that life information in there. And then they can actually go back and realize, hey, this person is turning 16 soon, maybe we should talk about car insurance […] The life events really show what products you might be interested in at that time. And it's a really wonderful way for marketing teams to get insights and be able to put relevant content and products in front of their advisors to say, hey, we've segmented these people out, here's information that they might be interested in. And even cooler, here's some models of other people who look like that.”

💡 Salesforce’s competitive edge is flexibility.

[22:02] “Remember the days when you got a CD and you stuck it in your computer, and then all of a sudden, it was just there? Whatever application it is that you purchased was there. Salesforce is not that, which is fantastic. There's a lot of configuration that once you look at your actual business processes, you can configure it a certain way. Because while a lot of banks and insurance and advisors, for the most part, work the same, they all have little nuances. And so in order to keep that competitive edge, they need to have similar business processes, just because of the nature of their businesses, but also being able to tailor that exactly to what they want it to be.”

💡 Don’t be a Salesforce generalist.

[25:06] “Whether it's Financial Services Cloud or any other cloud, the Salesforce ecosystem has just grown so much since I started when it was Sales Cloud […] I would say, to almost anyone, it's really hard to be a generalist at this point and feel like you're going to further your career and become like this really amazing admin, if you will. You really need to be able to focus on a specific business or industry or something. That's just my opinion. But it gets to a point where you can't know everything about everything.”

Top Quotes:

[19:43] Danielle: “The life events really show what products that you might be interested in at that time. And it's a really wonderful way for marketing teams to get insights and be able to put relevant content and products in front of their advisors to say, hey, we've segmented these people out, here's information that they might be interested in. And even cooler, here's some models of other people who look like that. And this is part of the Einstein functionality.”

[25:24] Danielle: “It's really hard to be a generalist at this point and feel like you're going to further your career and become like this really amazing admin, if you will. You really need to be able to focus on a specific business or industry or something.”

[26:38] Danielle: “Up until this point in your career, you have nuances in your career and your skill set that no one else has. And so making sure that you're taking that information, and being able to apply it to whatever your new job is, is fantastic.”

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Episode Description

If you’re an aspiring Salesforce admin, you may have heard that nonprofits are a great place to kickstart an admin career.

But the truth is, if you don’t know nonprofits, you can’t just build out their Salesforce platform from scratch. Salesforce provides plenty of great features specifically designed for nonprofits — like the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) — but admins need to know how to use those features in order to get the most out of them.

“Salesforce is free like a puppy, not free like a beer, for nonprofits,” says Michael Kolodner, an independent nonprofit Salesforce consultant. “You are going to have to put some resources into learning the system, customizing the system, possibly hiring a consultant like me, to help you implement and really get the most out of it.”

In this episode, Michael joins Salesforce MVP and Host Kristi Campbell to chat about all things Salesforce for nonprofit organizations.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How to get the most out of the NPSP
How Salesforce helps nonprofits manage programs
How you can get involved with nonprofit admin work — even with no experience

Episode Summary

If you’re a Salesforce admin, or someone who hopes to be an admin one day, you may have heard that volunteering at a nonprofit is a great way to start. But that is a sentiment that has bothered Salesforce users in the nonprofit sector for a long time, says Michael Kolodner, an independent nonprofit Salesforce consultant.

“Volunteers are wonderful and nonprofits thrive with volunteers, but you have to know what you're doing,” Michael says. “It's not like showing up to do a garden clean-up and knowing how to wield a shovel.”

The nonprofit world operates far differently from the for-profit world — so differently, in fact, that Salesforce has created a separate set of tools specifically catered toward nonprofit and non-governmental organizations: the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). The nonprofit cloud is decked out with features designed to track fundraising and influence, and help nonprofit leaders better manage their activities. And while the NPSP is a game-changer, there’s still a lot that admins need to know about how to use it.

Tune in to this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins as Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, sits down with Michael to chat about the NPSP’s best features, and the best ways to get involved in nonprofit work.

Key Takeaways

Nonprofit Salesforce management is not just a passion project.

There’s a popular idea within the Salesforce community that early-career prospective admins should volunteer with a local nonprofit to gain experience. But many in the nonprofit world “push back hard on that idea,” says Michael.

Being a Salesforce volunteer at a nonprofit is a bit like volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity build: if you don’t have the proper experience, you won’t be building the critical infrastructure. You may be able to help out with some smaller projects, but nonprofits should not be treated as a training ground.

Salesforce's Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) allows nonprofits to easily track their influence.

Through the NPSP, nonprofits can track their donors’ influence through the use of hard credits and soft credits. A hard credit is issued when a donation is made directly to the organization, while soft credits are given if a donor influences someone else to make a donation. For example, if an individual directly donates $50 and their donation is matched by a third-party organization, that additional $50 donation match is considered a soft credit.

Tracking this type of data is important for tax and accounting purposes, but also so organizations can identify who influences the biggest, or highest quantity, of donations. Check out Michael’s blog for more information on hard and soft credits in the NPSP.

Not everyone can be a nonprofit Salesforce admin — but anyone can join a sprint.

If you’re an aspiring Salesforce admin who wants to get into nonprofit work, Salesforce sprints may be a better place to start. Sprints are special events open to anyone — even those with no previous Salesforce experience, or companies considering Salesforce for the first time — where people come together to brainstorm and build ideas and solutions for Salesforce.

Sprints have led to real results, like the Summit Events App, which allows NGOs to plan and execute events smarter. Join the Nonprofit Hub group in Trailblazer to stay in the loop on upcoming sprints you can participate in.

Featured Guest: Michael Kolodner, independent nonprofit Salesforce cloud consultant

💥 What he does: Independent nonprofit Salesforce consultant, Kolodner.com LLC.

🔗 Michael on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer | Blog

🧠 Michael’s big idea: “Salesforce is free like a puppy, not free like a beer, for nonprofits. You are going to have to put some resources into learning the system, customizing the system, possibly hiring a consultant like me, to help you implement and really get the most out of it.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 The Salesforce platform is flexible to every nonprofit’s needs.

[04:42] “The common challenges across nonprofits are mostly focused on people. Nonprofits have stakeholders and donors and clients, but they don't necessarily have customers — although some, of course, have some products that they sell and get earned revenue. So what I find really interesting with Salesforce is taking this platform that's designed for business but designed to be so flexible, and customizing it to be uniquely suited for any nonprofit doing their work in the world.”

💡 ‘Free like a puppy, not free like a beer.’

[10:00] “Organizations get the 10 licenses, which is an amazing discount. They get future licenses at about 80% off — without having to negotiate any sort of a discount — which is huge. It means that nonprofits are getting the same technology that the largest companies in the world use, and they're getting it either for free or at extremely low cost. But I do have a blog about the fact that free isn't always free, right? Salesforce is free like a puppy, not free like a beer, for nonprofits. You are going to have to put some resources into learning the system, customizing the system, possibly hiring a consultant like me, to help you implement and really get the most out of it. But I think that it is a worthwhile endeavor because what you get is so valuable beyond what you're going to put in, in those resources.”

💡 Not everyone can become a Salesforce nonprofit admin.

[13:22] “There used to be a lot of talk about, oh, before you get your first Salesforce job, if you want to be able to demonstrate that you have Salesforce skills, volunteer for your local nonprofit and build them out Salesforce or work with their Salesforce. And many of us on the nonprofit side […] would push back hard on that idea. Like no, you can show up to Habitat for Humanity and you can probably swing a hammer. But you're probably not going to install the furnace or the garbage disposal unless you have some clue. Well, it's the same with Salesforce.”

💡 Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack allows nonprofits to better track their influence, not just donations.

[23:19] “One of the things fundraising organizations try to track is how much their donors have given. And we talk about the difference between hard credit, which is my money that I gave, and soft credit, which is someone else's money that I have influenced the giving of. So if I have solicited my friend to give $1,000 to the organization, that's not my money, I didn't give $1,000, but I have caused $1,000 to be donated, so I'm gonna get soft credit for that $1,000. And we need a way to track that. And the Nonprofit Success Pack does that using contact roles. And so we would give me a contact role on the opportunity from my friend who gave $1,000 as solicitor or influencer or whatever the role might be.”

💡 Anyone can join a Salesforce sprint.

[28:34] “Anyone can come to a sprint. So let me quickly explain what sprints are. The open source sprints are this very unique event where people come together [and] generate ideas for resources, product, apps, documentation, whatever would be useful to nonprofits to elevate their Salesforce success. And then we sit down and we try to build it. So there are sprint teams that have built actual apps. For example, the Summit Events App is an app that helps you manage events for your nonprofit on Salesforce. So registration and things like that. That's an app published through the App Store.”

Top Quotes:

[11:12] Kristi: “Buying Salesforce is like buying a Ferrari. You don't want to just drive it to the grocery store, right? You could get your free seats, and you could dump in messy data, just like you've had in your spreadsheets, and put them in Salesforce. And that's not really going to give you an advantage.”

[13:44] Michael: “Volunteers are wonderful and nonprofits thrive with volunteers, but you have to know what you're doing. It's not like showing up to do a garden clean-up and knowing how to wield a shovel. Most of us can figure that out. It's more like showing up to a Habitat for Humanity build and then trying to do plumbing.”

[31:27] Michael: “I think sprints are the opportunity where anyone can come and swing a hammer […] We really do need people at all levels. People who've barely touched Salesforce have come to sprints; we've had organizations send people to sprints who are considering adopting Salesforce. And they're able to contribute because they can say, well, this is what I'm hoping it will do for my organization. And we can say, we should probably build that.”

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What's Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins all about? Come listen to our delightful new trailer to find out!

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As an admin, you might be dreading the migration process to Flow.

You’re not only being pulled away from building new and shiny solutions for your users for what may seem like busy work. You’re also going to have to spend a lot of time retraining your brain from Process Builder to Flow so that the migration process goes smoothly, and so you can reach your full Flow potential.

Don’t stress too much: we’re back with part 2 of our series on the great Flow migration with Jack Lavous of Elements.cloud to dig deeper into how Jack was able to transition to Flow with ease.

In this episode, Kristi and Jack discuss the biggest mistakes made and lessons learned so that you’re as prepared as you can be to go with the Flow.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How to balance your Flow transition with other projects
How to mitigate risk from migration
The best resources for learning Flow

Episode Summary

Most admins are probably not too excited about the migration process to Flow.

As Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, puts it, “it's easy for people to internalize those things and learn them, which is the point. But then you lose the why.” As in, why are we moving over to Flow in the first place? Because ultimately, all that hard work is going to pay off and make all your automations a lot easier to deal with.

In part 2 of our series on Flow migration with Jack Lavous, Kristi and Jack dig deeper into how Jack’s company, Elements.cloud, made the migration process go a little bit more smoothly. Jack tells us more about automations he created and tricks he employed to minimize the risk that comes with migration and keep things more streamlined and organized.

They also discuss the biggest mistakes made and lessons learned, as well as their favorite online resources, so that you’re as prepared as you can be to go with the Flow.

Key Takeaways

Think beyond the norm.

With Process Builder, admins were getting comfortable with one process to rule them all. Flow is more versatile in that it lets you control the order of operations through sub-Flows, meaning there is more than just one flow per object.

It’s easy to get stuck in old habits, but that can also limit your thinking. Understanding how sub-Flows work is a crucial part of your Flow migration that could save your object from breaking.

Field naming conventions are more important than you think.

Naming your Flows may seem like a simple one-off task, especially when you’re beginning the migration process. But choosing a specific and accurate name is important for the future you who might be searching for a specific Flow in six months.

There’s no right way to name your Flows — just make sure to pick names or create an organized system that makes sense to you and your users. If you’re stuck, the Salesforce Discord Wiki has a detailed guide to field conventions.

There are plenty of resources available online that can make your Flow migration easier.

Not all of us may be as lucky as Jack — surrounded by experienced Salesforce professionals who can share their experience with Flows. But many of those experts are sharing their expertise online for admins who may need some help.

Jack recommends Trailhead, Jen Lee’s blog and the Ohana Slack group. Kristi’s favorites include the SalesforceBreak Slack and Flow Office hours, hosted every Friday by Terry Miller and Andy Engin Utkan. There are also expert-led paid courses available.

Featured Guest: Jack Lavous of Elements.cloud

💥 What he does: Business Excellence Manager and Salesforce Business Analyst at Elements.cloud, an integrated intelligence platform for Salesforce.

💻 Elements.cloud on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Jack on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Jack’s big idea: “[Migration is] not the cool stuff. You're not building anything new and shiny for your end-users. But it's also having the understanding of your stakeholders above you in terms of the hierarchy. It’s managing them — for them to understand how important it is that you actually do this migration and this cleanup. I think that's one of the biggest hurdles. If you've got them on side, then they will allow you to find that time to be able to do it.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡Your Flow migration doesn’t have to happen all at once.

[02:21] Jack: “I blocked myself out segments. So for example, I'm working on project A — I do that for two, three hours in a day. If I have a spare hour, for example, I jump back into this migration. [...] It's being really disciplined to do it, because it is really tough. Because the project’s sat there, and you're thinking, this is just clean up and migration and change set deployment. It's all the stuff the admin has to do, but it's not the cool stuff. You're not building anything new and shiny for your end-users. But it's also having the understanding of your stakeholders above you in terms of the hierarchy. It’s managing them — for them to understand how important it is that you actually do this migration and this cleanup.”

💡 Risk from big changes or migrations can be mitigated.

[07:32] Jack: “Anything that’s deemed low risk — be it a change to a page layout for a particular set of users, for example — I tend to do that in production. A lot of admins are told, do not make changes in production. But my feeling is if you do your dependency analysis upfront — now, again, I'm very lucky, I work for Elements, who build a product that allows you to measure impact to risk from metadata, so I'm in a fortunate position — if you do that dependency analysis out front first, you should have full confidence in the metadata dependency that the change you’re making, you're not going to break anything. So anything medium to high [risk] I'll do in the sandbox; anything I deem low after my dependency analysis, I tend to do straight into production.”

💡 Think beyond Process Builder.

[08:53] Kristi: “In the past, one process to rule them all, per object, became the sentence that we took away, right? And it's really interesting because I think it's easy for people to internalize those things and learn them, which is the point. But then you lose the why. And so what I've seen a lot of on these calls about migrating to Flow, and the future of Process Builder and Flow is, people are [asking], do I need one Flow per object? And to me, it's really limited thinking. It's not showing that again, why did we do that with Process Builder? Well, because we couldn't control the order of operations. There's various reasons why it made sense for Process Builder, which is probably why Process Builder didn't become the way. So with Flow, especially now that you can order your Flows with a number, controlling with sub-Flows, sub-Flows really become more of that reusability piece as opposed to an order of operations piece. […] And so it's more about understanding the dependencies of what needs to happen if you've got eight flows in that chain. And just really understanding, you don't want everything to update all the time.”

💡 How can you make sure your Flows are actually working?

[13:13] Jack: “We weren't sure when our Process Builders and Flows were actually running. And we wanted to manage it from an adoption point of view because we were putting a lot of time into building some fairly complex Flows around CPQ. Are they actually being used? We built two custom objects, and in every Flow or Process Builder where we wanted to track, we used a sub-Flow element to create a Process Builder log item. And then we could report on metrics on what's being used, what user’s using it, how often it's being used. So that’s on Automation Hour.”

💡 Naming your Flows will save you time and stress.

[15:43] Jack: “When we're building, we should have taken more care on what we were naming our Flows. Because […] in six months' time, you want to be able to access the Flow and know exactly what it does purely from the label. Because what we found is we spent a lot of time fishing around and going into Flows, oh, no, it's not that one we need, because our naming convention just wasn't good enough. So that would be my one recommendation when you're starting off is — think about naming conventions before you dive in.”

Top Quotes:

[07:43] Jack: “A lot of admins are told, do not make changes in production. But my feeling is if you do your dependency analysis upfront [...] you should have full confidence in the metadata dependency that the change you’re making, you're not going to break anything.”

[09:05] Kristi: “I think it's easy for people to internalize those things and learn them, which is the point. But then you lose the why. And so what I've seen a lot of on these calls about migrating to Flow, and the future of Process Builder and Flow is, people are [asking], do I need one Flow per object? And to me, it's really limited thinking. It's not showing that again, why did we do that with Process Builder? Well, because we couldn't control the order of operations. There's various reasons why it made sense for Process Builder, which is probably why Process Builder didn't become the way.”

[19:15] Kristi: “There's people out there that are interested [in helping] you […] but also, don't be afraid.”

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Just go with the flow. In a non-Salesforce context, hearing that phrase may make you want to put your feet up, chill out and see what happens.

But unfortunately for some Salesforce users, going with the Flow has been an anxiety-inducing phrase ever since Salesforce announced that it would be retiring its old workflows and process platforms in favor of Flows.

It’s a move that Salesforce hopes will make things a lot easier and more streamlined for users, but the transition may be challenging. That’s why we brought in Jack Lavous, Business Excellence Manager at Elements.cloud, for a special two-part series of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins about how you can make “going with the Flow” a little easier.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How an Elements.cloud program can help you transition to Flow
Why you should be planning your Flows
The opportunities presented by the Flow migration

Episode Summary

Just go with the flow. In a non-Salesforce context, hearing that phrase may make you want to put your feet up, chill out and see what happens.

But unfortunately for some Salesforce users, going with the Flow is causing a bit of anxiety. Last year, Salesforce announced that it would be retiring Workflow Rules and Process Builder and moving all automation over to Flow. And if you’re an admin who has gotten away with not knowing how to use Flows up until this point, you may be scrambling to figure out how to make such a big transition.

You’re not alone. Luckily, there are products out there designed to help make this transition easier, like Salesforce’s own migration tool and Elements.cloud’s Elements Catalyst tool.

“We saw it as an opportunity,” says Jack Lavous, Business Excellence Manager at Elements.cloud, of the emigration to Flows. “OK, it's a pain because you have to do the work. But it's an opportunistic pain, if you like. It's an opportunity for us to clean up tech debt.”

Don’t miss this part one of this special two-part series of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins as Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, sits down with Jack to talk all about going with the Flow — from how Elements.cloud products can help to techniques that will guarantee a successful and clean transition.

Key Takeaways

Elements.cloud’s Catalyst tool can help you put everything in one place.

This is not a paid ad, we promise — we just really love Elements.cloud’s Catalyst tool. Even Elements.cloud used it when they had to make their own transition to Flow.

Catalyst is great because it puts everything in one central place and allows you to analyze all your metadata and documentation first. “Then when you come to make that change, you know you're not going to break anything in your org,” Jack says. “Using Elements as part of this process builder-to-Flow migration has been pretty valuable,”

Look at the Flow emigration as an opportunity.

Moving to Flow is like an emigration because you’re leaving Workflow Rules and Process builder permanently.

So why not use this emigration as an opportunity to clean out your technical debt? It’s an easy thing to do, since you’re already doing the heavy lifting of transitioning to a different platform. Try to clean out the debt as you go, rather than leaving all the cleanup until the end.

Doing your homework will save you loads of time and frustration.

Planning and designing your Flows before even opening your canvas is a helpful way to learn about how Flow works and kickstart the transition process. That way, you’re not only practicing using the platform, but you’re also saving valuable time. Planning and designing your Flowfirst will ensure that your vision is actually going to work — and is not already duplicated elsewhere — before you waste time refactoring and retesting Flows.

Featured Guest: Jack Lavous of Elements.cloud

💥 What he does: Business Excellence Manager and Salesforce Business Analyst at Elements.cloud, an integrated intelligence platform for Salesforce.

💻 Elements.cloud on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Jack on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Jack’s big idea: “Don't be afraid of it — jump in, have a go. Do analysis up front first, I can't stress that enough. Do your design, and then suddenly it will just all come to you.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Elements Catalyst simplifies the migration process.

[04:50] Jack: “Elements puts everything into one place so it's easier, faster and your documentation is more valuable. It allows you to have a central place for creating requirements, creating user stories, documenting your metadata against those user stories. So daily, we run syncs of your Salesforce org, we get all the metadata out, and you can then document changes, adoption metrics, training against particular metadata, you can then show that inside your Salesforce org for your end-users. The really powerful thing that Elements does, and it ties back to my role as a BA, is the org metadata impacts analysis, and then that documentation. Prior to any change, you do your analysis first, you can do your impact analysis — i.e., where is this field being used? Is it being used in a Flow? Is it being used in record types? Is it being used in particular picklists? You do that analysis first. So then when you come to make that change, you know you're not going to break anything in your org. Using Elements as part of this process builder-to-Flow migration has been pretty valuable.”

💡 Look at the transition to Flows as an opportunity.

[08:28] Jack: “When you're stepping back [and] actually thinking about it, you're refactoring and you're moving to Flow. You're not just migrating. There's a bunch of work that falls under this umbrella of migration. We saw it as an opportunity. OK, it's a pain because you have to do the work. But it's an opportunistic pain, if you like. So it's an opportunity for us to clean up tech debt.”

💡 Planning your Flows is a great way to get used to the platform.

[10:37] Kristi: “I saw a really great video recently on Salesforce Flowsome about planning and designing your Flows, which I think is really helpful for people to start the transition to how Flow works. And honestly, again — not as an ad — but Elements can really be helpful, the process map piece can really be helpful from that perspective. Because it's a lot of if this, then that kind of logic. And so I think it's important to plan out what you want your Flow to do before you even open the Flow canvas.”

💡 Flow testing can begin during the planning process.

[18:41] “In terms of actually documenting testing, we do use data tables and Elements sometimes during the initial design. So when we're designing our Flow, we will come up with test cases. So we understand exactly what we're building and how we want our Flow to work. We'll start defining test cases at the design stage. So when we get to testing, if we've built the Flow correctly, and we followed our documentation, we should be able to test fairly easily. Obviously, things come up during testing, and you get bugs, etc. And then the whole process goes around the same circle.”

Top Quotes:

[08:38] Jack: “ We saw it as an opportunity. OK, it's a pain because you have to do the work. But it's an opportunistic pain, if you like. So it's an opportunity for us to clean up tech debt. That's one of the first things we thought about. It's an opportunity to simplify our current processes automations, to rethink them.”

[14:41] Jack: “If you jump in and build it, you're going to spend all this time — wasted time, if you like — effectively refactoring it, testing it. So do your analysis up front. Design the Flow how you want your Flow to be working […] But first things first is don't be afraid of it. It is programming, but it's really, really simple.”

[18:09] Kristi: “If your first Flow is not embarrassing in retrospect, you waited too long to hit the Flow canvas. And that's why we test.”

View Details

As someone who has been on both sides of the relationship, Aleksandra Milcic Radovanovic, a Salesforce MVP and product manager at Okta, may know it better than most: org admins and consultants need each other.

When they use their respective expertise to come up with the best solution for the company, it can be “a really powerful combination,” she says.

At the end of the day, org admins and consultants use similar sets of skills to find solutions. So what are the major differences between the two roles, and how can you know which one is best for you?

If you’ve ever considered transitioning to the world of consulting, you won’t want to miss this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, as Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, sits down with Aleksandra to talk all things org admin vs. consulting.

Listen to this episode to learn:

Why org admins and consultants need each other
The biggest differences between admin and consulting roles
How to transfer your skills between roles

Episode Summary

Admins and consultants draw their expertise from similar skills. But they have different priorities and levels of control, especially when it comes to project and timeline management.

That’s why it can be so difficult for some admins to make the shift into the consulting world, and vice versa. For Aleksandra Milcic Radovanovic, the differences were enough to push her from consulting back to the admin space. “I'm kind of a nurturer,” she says. “So I prefer investing into one org and having good growth and having some sort of control.”

But as someone who has been on both sides of the relationship, Aleksandra knows better than most that org admins and consultants need each other. And when they use their respective expertise to come up with the best solution for the company, it can be “a really powerful combination,” she says.

So how can org admins and consultants improve that relationship, and what’s it like to have worked on both sides? If you’ve ever considered transitioning to consulting, you won’t want to miss this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins. Tune in to hear Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, chat with Aleksandra as they discuss the differences — and the pros and cons — of org admin and consulting roles.

Key Takeaways

Org admins and consultants can be a powerful team when they work together.

Consultants are often brought in temporarily to create or build a solution for the company. They’re experts in what they do, but admins have the specific industry and company knowledge that should be viewed as a huge asset to the consultant.

As someone who has been on both sides of that relationship, Aleksandra understands how important that collaboration can be. “[It’s] a really powerful combination,” she says.

Consulting has its pros and cons.

As an org admin, your work and potential for expertise are often limited within your own industry and its needs. Consulting allows you to be more flexible with projects and explore different Salesforce features based on your interest and skills. Many consultants thrive on that freedom.

On the other hand, being a consultant removes your personal attachment to a project. “You build the ship, you send it, and then you don't know if it's stuck in some rocks or flowing perfectly,” Aleksandra says. The separation was enough to push her back to the admin world.

Diverse experiences are valuable for future roles.

You don’t need to limit yourselves to consulting jobs if you want to be a consultant, or to admin jobs if you just want to be an org admin. In fact, Aleksandra’s experiences as an admin prepared and informed her for future consulting work.

“I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't had a variety of different projects to work on and get my skills,” she says.

Featured Guest: Aleksandra Milcic Radovanovic of Okta

💥 What she does: Product Manager of Business Technology at Okta, an identity and access management company.

💻 Okta on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Aleksandra on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer | Medium

🧠 Aleksandra’s big idea: “I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't had a variety of different projects to work on and get my skills, and decide what I want to be and what's the best use of my experience and my knowledge, and where I want to grow when it comes to the knowledge and certification part.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Being an org admin in a small organization can be a bit like consulting.

[09:17] “[A small organization] is a very fast-moving environment. So sort of like a startup. There is no large organization and the decisions are [being made] much more frequently, and in a faster way. And priorities are changing much faster than in a large organization, which is kind of what you see in the consulting world, right? You have a budget, you have a project and then priorities can change depending on what's being delivered and how the constraints are happening. So it was a good prep for the consulting world.”

💡 Org admins working together with consultants can form ‘a really powerful combination.’

[11:23] “We just talked about admin versus consultant, but there is a really significant perspective that we should mention as well, and that's admins collaborating with consultants. Because I was, like you mentioned, I was on both sides. And it really means a lot when you come as an external consultant, coming to work on a project, if you have an admin to collaborate with — somebody who actually understands the business, the business requirements, the depth of the system, that you can collaborate your wide knowledge of the industry and different experiences — that's a really powerful combination.”

💡 Consulting allows for more subject and project flexibility.

[16:12] “You can't know everything. Salesforce is huge, and it keeps growing and adding clouds and new features. So being an expert in the platform is great. But then at the same time, at one level, you can't really just go with the technical knowledge, you have to bring some of the industry knowledge because you can’t really design a solution without actually knowing how the business works, business principles, or what are the KPIs for the specific industry. So I think consulting allows [for] that part of career growth. Because as an admin in one company, you just learn that part of how that company is doing within that industry. And if you move to a different company, as an admin, in a different industry, you might not have a lot of transferable knowledge […] So I think consulting is forcing us to do that, like jumping from project to project so we finally have to choose like, Okay, this is the part that I'm interested in. This is the part that I'm good at, I'm going to just specialize in this industry.”

💡 But consulting requires more distance from your projects.

[22:19] “In a smaller company, you get to do a lot. […] I had much more control over the projects. But at the same time, because we were this small company, we couldn't take a large project for a large company, because we just didn't have enough people or resources. And what really bugged me is, I would build the project, we build a solution, the project is delivered, we're done with the customer — we did something custom — and then six months later, there is a new out-of-the-box feature coming out of Salesforce, and I'm thinking oh, we should redo that. But we don't have the project, we're done with the client. And that was killing me. You build the ship, you send it, and then you don't know if it's stuck in some rocks or flowing perfectly. So that's why I decided to say goodbye to the consulting and go to internal work again.”

💡 Every role is a valuable learning experience.

[31:44] “I'm kind of a nurturer. So I prefer investing into one org and having good growth and having some sort of control — maybe I’m a control freak — how that thing is going to happen, and how it's going to grow, and constantly investing in the same thing. Although I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't had a variety of different projects to work on and get my skills, and decide what I want to be and what's the best use of my experience and my knowledge, and where I want to grow when it comes to the knowledge and certification part.”

Top Quotes:

[11:42] Aleksandra: “If you have an admin to collaborate with — Somebody who actually understands the business, the business requirements, the depth of the system, that you can collaborate your wide knowledge of the industry and different experiences — that's a really powerful combination.”

[23:09] Aleksandra: “You build the ship, you send it, and then you don't know if it's stuck in some rocks or flowing perfectly. So that's why I decided to say goodbye to the consulting and go to internal work again.”

[26:27] Kristi: “I think whatever you decide, getting a sense of the team that you're going to work on and understanding if you are the kind of person that wants to manage your own life — figure everything out yourself and wear all those different hats — or if you want to join a team.”

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Episode Description

It’s the beginning of summer, and you know what that means — it’s also Salesforce release season! Get ready to hunt your pre-release orgs for treasures and retire some old products for shiny, new features.

But for newer admins, the new release process can be overwhelming. Luckily, Salesforce’s release process has come a long way from the days of long downloadable PDFs! There is now a consistent and repeated procedure every release season, with plenty of resources from Salesforce and through the greater Salesforce community available to walk you through the process.

“The thing that I enjoy about the release the most is the collaboration with others in the community and the competitiveness of it. […] We're all kind of working towards the same common goal of understanding what's coming,” says Tom Bassett, a Salesforce Answer community contributor and SalesforceBen blogger.

Tom joins Salesforce MVP and host Kristi Campbell on today’s episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins to talk all things release readiness.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How to test new products before they’re released
How to make sure you’re ready for new releases
Community resources to support you through release season

Episode Summary

It’s the beginning of summer, and you know what that means — it’s also Salesforce release season! Get ready for products across your organization to get shiny new features and updates, and for others to retire in favor of new solutions.

This is an exciting time for Salesforce users: it means a healthy hunt within pre-release orgs for hidden “treasure” and earning new Trailblazer Badges along the way. And don’t forget to use the hashtag #Summer22Treasure!

For newer admins, though, getting used to the release process can be overwhelming. Luckily, Salesforce’s release process has come a long way from the days of long downloadable PDFs! It now uses a consistent and repeated procedure each release season. And beyond that, there are plenty of resources from Salesforce and through the greater Salesforce community available to walk you through the process.

In this episode on Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Tom joins Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, as they talk through everything you need to know about release readiness, from the basics of pre-release orgs to useful community tools and resources.

Key Takeaways

Take advantage of pre-release orgs.

Keeping up with Salesforce updates three times a year can be a big undertaking. But as an admin, it’s important to stay up to date on new releases that could impact your organization.

One of the best ways to do this is to sign up for pre-release orgs, which allow you to test new features in a sandbox, or testing environment, before their full release. Having that head start could be a huge time saver; just make sure to keep all your orgs active so that you can stay in the loop for future releases.

Get inspired by new releases with the Salesforce community.

One of the most exciting parts of new releases is the treasure hunt for new features and releases within your pre-release org alongside Salesforce users around the world. As you hunt for exciting new releases you, can even earn Trailhead badges by posting about the treasures you discover with the hashtag #Summer22Treasure.

There’s a competitiveness to the treasure hunt, but also a sense of collaboration within the Salesforce community. “We're all using the same system, so we're all kind of working towards the same common goal of understanding what's coming,” Tom says.

Leverage the resources you have to make sure you’re prepared.

Being ready for a feature update means preparing for the before, during and after: “It's really important that you keep the show on the road, and that post-release, it actually still works,” says Tom.

Luckily, there are tons of resources provided by the Salesforce user community and Salesforce itself. Try automation champion Rakesh Gupta’s blog, the SFXD Discord and the Release Readiness Trailblazers group. There’s even a Release Readiness Trailhead badge that will prepare you for every twist and turn during release season.

Featured Guest: Tom Bassett of Trigg Digital

💥 What he does: Solution Architect at Trigg Digital, a Salesforce platform providing sales, customer service, marketing and solutions to all your Salesforce needs.

💻 Trigg Digital on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Tom on the web: LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Tom’s big idea: “I think the really empowering thing about the community is that I can be sat here in the UK and help somebody on the other side of the sea in America, or wherever they are, and have a really influential impact and positive impact on their day by just making something easier for them to understand.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Know how Salesforce updates apply to your org.

[03:24] Tom: “And part of our journey was to also just make sure that there aren't any critical updates that are going to be enforced at the same time. For example, if Salesforce is changing the behavior of Email-to-Case or something like that, that would have affected us, or me as an admin, it's important to know what that is, where that's coming along. And also, maybe taking advantage of trying these things out in a sandbox. Because as you may know, Salesforce update the sandboxes first, and you can also get your hands on a pre-release org too and through that, again, you can get to grips with some of these new features, and maybe start thinking about how they could apply to you and how they could apply to your use cases.”

💡 Get inspired by release readiness sessions.

[08:57] Tom: “Towards the end of the release cycle, Salesforce go into overdrive, and they do these release readiness sessions on an almost daily basis. They do one per cloud. And I've also seen them, before, do a whole session on Flow, because as we know, Salesforce is going with the Flow. So it's certainly interesting to also get a glimpse of what your org will look like post-update, and maybe be inspired a little bit about how you can do things using the new features or maybe how you can make things simpler now that something else has come out. So that's, I guess, the thing that I enjoy about the release the most, is the collaboration with others in the community and the competitiveness of it.”

💡 Join the Release Readiness Trailblazers group.

[16:56] Kristi: “I do think it's a great point of reference to start from, especially because, as you mentioned, you've got people there posting their Easter eggs when pre-release orgs come out, you've got links in the group information about all the different guides and dates, and anything you might be getting via email as an admin, they're going to link to those posts as well. One thing that we talked about that I think some people don't know about is the Release Matrix […] It's an actual Excel document that allows you to filter for different clouds and features. So that’s just another way to kind of organize yourself. I've seen some people import it into an org to have objects and records to actually track the things about a release that they want to manage. And then of course, as you mentioned, there's a link to the Trailhead modules and the schedules of the official Salesforce things that they're doing. So you've kind of got a good balance of the members of the group posting things, and the actual information for the official Salesforce stuff.”

💡 Salesforce is listening to your ideas.

[19:30] Tom: “Historically, there was that frustration that there was a number of ideas that have been out there for a long while, and they haven't necessarily been addressed or maybe not even replied to in some cases, and Salesforce is trying to improve that and flip the problem on its head a little bit with the prioritization rounds that you get a couple of times a year as well now, where you get given some virtual coins — and trust Salesforce to make something like a game, they do it so well — you get your virtual coins and you spend them on the ideas that they've selected for the prioritization. So that's always good. And you can actively influence there in your own way, what is coming up next. So we’re actually starting to see some ideas that have come from a round of prioritization, have won that particular round, and you're actually now starting to see them through to completion.”

💡 Make sure your system is prepared post-release, too.

[30:56] Tom: “Usually, when you're an admin, you don't necessarily have users that are working 24/7, and Salesforce time the release on purpose so it happens in the small hours of the morning. But there are some use cases where you do actually need to think, I've got users that are going to be using a system at that point. [...] So I think that part of release planning is really important, too. And if it's just a templated email or something you send out and say, Hey, the release is coming. As a result, the system is going to be offline between this window. And if you notice anything weird post-release, then let us know, and we'll take a look at it for you. I think that just kind of reassures the users as well.”

Top Quotes:

[09:40] Tom: “The thing that I enjoy about the release the most is the collaboration with others in the community and the competitiveness of it. […] But ultimately, we're all in this together, whether or not we know each other is a different fact. We're all using the same system. So we're all kind of working towards the same common goal of understanding what's coming.”

[26:01] Tom: “The power of the community is, with a quick search, you can usually find somebody else that's had the same problem and get some kind of idea or inspiration on how to fix that if it's a particular module or project that you're working towards.”

[29:15] Tom: “You can tell sometimes when people are kind of a little bit overwhelmed. You can make that positive change, that difference to them. And I think that's ultimately what the community is about. Yes, it's gamified, yes, there is a leaderboard, but it's actually just about helping others and sharing and sometimes just weighing up different options.”

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Episode Description

If you’re comfortable in your current role, you might not be thinking much about your LinkedIn profile. Maybe your current position lacks details, or you haven’t added all those valuable new skills you’ve acquired recently.

But even if you’re not on the job market, keeping that profile up to date will serve you well in the future. Just take it from Chris Hopper, a CRM/Salesforce recruiter for Imperastaff who’s been in the business for over 20 years.

In this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Chris joins host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to talk all things LinkedIn.

Listen to this episode to learn:

Why you should always be in touch with recruiters
How to make your LinkedIn profile stand out
What recruiters look for in CRM/Salesforce candidates

Episode Summary

When you’re working a job that you like and plan to stay with for a while, you’re probably not thinking much about your LinkedIn profile. It’s easy to neglect it when you feel comfortable: maybe your “current position” entry lacks details, or your inbox is filled with messages from recruiters.

“There's an old saying that says, dig your well before you need it,” says Chris Hopper, a CRM recruiter who has been in the business for over 20 years. For modern workers, that means keeping that profile updated, and keeping in touch with recruiters, even if you’re not on the job market. You’ll thank yourself later.

“If you can have a handful of recruiters in your back pocket that you can rely on and build relationships with over the long run, I think you'll see that’s advantageous for you, long-term,” says Chris.

But building those relationships is only the first step. So what does an ideal candidate look like to a recruiter? What exactly are they looking for, and how can you differentiate your profile from all the others to make it stand out? How often should you be in touch with a recruiter?

Tune in to this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins as Chris, a Salesforce/CRM recruiter for Imperastaff, joins Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP. for answers to all these questions and more.

Key Takeaways

Build relationships with recruiters, even if you’re not on the market.

When you’re working in a position that you enjoy or feel comfortable in, searching for jobs or connecting with recruiters may not be at the top of your mind. But according to Chris, it should be, because keeping in touch with recruiters will benefit you in the long run. That could be as simple as interacting with their posts on LinkedIn or sending a message every once in a while.

“You never know, they could have an opportunity that's sitting on their desk, waiting to be filled. And it's all about timing — being in the right place at the right time,” he says.

Showcase your work — and make sure it stands out.

It’s easy for anyone to list what badges, certifications, or Trailblazer ranks they have, especially since you can add your badges to LinkedIn directly from Trailhead. But that also means the bar to differentiate your own profile is even higher.

Chris says when he was a recruiter, candidates that used creative platforms or methods to show off their work or tell a story about their personal life — like blog posts, YouTube videos, or an app — stood out the most.

Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date.

You never know when a recruiter with your dream job might stumble across your profile. But lots of people forget to keep their LinkedIn profile up to date, especially when it comes to the role they’re currently working in. For recruiters, that could be a big missing piece of your story.

When Chris is searching LinkedIn for candidates, he focuses on keyword searches so that he can find someone with a skill set that best matches the company’s needs. So constantly updating your profile, especially as you acquire more skills, will help recruiters find you faster.

Featured Guest: Chris Hopper of Imperastaff

💥 What he does: CRM/Salesforce Recruiter at Imperastaff.

💻 Imperastaff on the web: LinkedIn | Website

🔗 Chris on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website

🧠 Chris’ big idea: “There's an old saying that says, dig your well before you need it […] You never know, they could have an opportunity that's sitting on their desk waiting to be filled. And it's all about timing, being in the right place at the right time.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Build recruiter relationships early.

[03:57] “A lot of people, if they have a position and they're happy, they probably feel like there's no sense of really building relationships with recruiters because there's no need to do that at that time. But there's an old saying that says, dig your well before you need it when it comes to building relationships and having relationships with recruiters or hiring managers or those in the ecosystem. So it's always good to say, Hey, Chris, I'm not looking right now. But here's where I'm currently at. Six months or 12 months down the road, let's have a conversation because I think I'm going to be looking for something different. I don't really see my career going in the right direction, long-term, here. And having those checkpoints with recruiters because you never know, they could have an opportunity that's sitting on their desk waiting to be filled.”

💡 Recruiters can help companies find candidates with more specific skill sets.

[08:20] “If I have a conversation with the hiring manager or talent acquisition or HR, and they give me the scenarios about what they're looking for, I know enough about the technology to be able to go into that extra degree of specification and technical Q&A with the candidate to make sure they have the skill set that the client is looking for, versus just having keyword searches. A lot of times, that's all that matters when it comes to sourcing resumes. But when you're using an external recruiter, there should be another level of value-added service that comes with that. And usually I provide a brief summary about why I think this candidate is a particular fit based on this logical conversation I had about their experience and about the Apex triggers that they built, or the Flows that they built, or whatever the case may be, to help show exactly why this person is qualified.”

💡 Showcase your work.

[10:45] “Certifications and badges can only get you so far. And so when everyone else has the Admin cert, or the Platform App Builder cert, and are Trailhead Rangers, then the bar is set at the same level for everybody. Where you differentiate yourself is being able to build custom apps on the dev platform and be able to showcase that. Whether that's writing an article about it, doing some YouTube videos, things to be creative, because those are things that are very unique to your analytical and creativity skills. They're going to differentiate you versus a standard certification, or badges — things that everybody has access to [that don’t] show any kind of differentiation.”

💡 Debrief yourself on the projects you’ve worked on.

[16:36] “If you're working on a pro bono project, or doing some volunteer work, at the end of the week, debrief with yourself about the things that you worked on. Because you need to be able to take those things and be able to add it to your resume, add it to your LinkedIn profile. I think so much of the time, we're so busy doing that we don't have we don't spend enough time reflecting. And to be able to reflect on those things — because those are the things that you've done well, and you've shown value, why not be able to take that stuff that you've done and be able to transplant it on paper or your LinkedIn profile?”

💡 Keep your profile up to date.

[18:46] “Let's say you've been somewhere for six, 12, 18 months, and that's just blank — you just have the position listed and not any of the responsibilities that you're doing. Now, if you're going into the job market soon, you might want to go ahead and start updating that part of the job responsibility that you currently have. Sometimes we just forget about it because we're currently in a position and we just haven’t updated our profile since the last time we landed a new role. But something to think about is also keeping it up to date.”

Top Quotes:

[13:37] “When I was a hiring manager, those that brought something other than their pretty face and a resume usually got to the top of the pecking order when it came to making a decision, because they had either written documentation they brought with them, or they had something electronically to show us.”

[16:33] “So much of the time, we're so busy doing that we don't have we don't spend time reflecting. To be able to reflect on those things, because those are the things that you've done well, and you've shown value, why not be able to take that stuff that you've done and be able to transplant it on paper on your LinkedIn profile, [or] maybe post about it, to be able to show others your capabilities?”

[25:09] “Every once in a while, a few times a month maybe, just get out there and like some people's posts, or post something yourself, just to stay active, instead of just waiting until two, three years go by and saying, Hey, everybody, I'm looking for a new position, can you help me? [...] You kind of have to give a little bit to get a little.”

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According to Trailblazer’s 2021 diversity report, only five percent of Trailblazers identify as Black. And when you’re part of the five percent, you might not want to fork over the money for a plane ticket to go to a conference or Salesforce event where so few people look like you.

That’s why Tiffany Spencer, fellow Salesforce MVP and Director of Salesforce Partnerships at Bitwise Industries, started Dreamin’ In Color, a conference geared toward current or aspiring Black Salesforce professionals.

“Dreamin’ In Color is [about] community coming together to help solve each other's problems and to be able to move forward together,” Tiffany says.

Don’t miss this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, as Tiffany joins podcast host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to chat about the Dreamin’ In Color conference, the diversity challenges in the Salesforce space and what everyone can do to be an ally.

Listen to this episode to learn:

How to diversify — and keep your employees
How to be a better ally
What to expect from Dreamin’ In Color 2022

Episode Summary

What began as an effort to introduce students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities has grown into a three-day conference with more than 60 sessions starting on June 29th in Raleigh, North Carolina. She first decided to host the conference after a visit to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of the 1921 Race Massacre that destroyed a flourishing Black city.

“Black Americans were […] building their own communities and their own towns and creating wealth, and those towns were burned down,” she says. “And I think about that in my career, how many times in my career my confidence was burned down, and then having to rebuild that. And so Dreamin’ In Color is [about] community coming together to help solve each other's problems and to be able to move forward together.”

At Dreamin’ In Color, participants will be able to network with other current and aspiring Salesforce professionals and get the support they need to advance in their careers. Tiffany encourages allies to participate, too — either by attending or sponsoring a ticket.

Don’t miss this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins as Tiffany joins podcast host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to chat about the diversity challenges in the Salesforce space and what everyone can do to be an ally.

Key Takeaways

Recruiting and retention are the most important parts of diversification.

It’s no surprise that Salesforce users of color may be tired of being a small minority at work and conferences. So how can companies add more diversity to their talent pool?

Tiffany says it’s all about using informed recruitment and retention strategies. Make sure you’re posting inclusive job listings on boards that attract diverse talent and don’t forget to support your employees once you’ve hired them. “People are not wanting to be at a company that doesn't support them, doesn't see them and doesn't want to put forth the effort to diversify,” she says.

Dreamin’ In Color is for the 5% — and their allies.

According to the Trailblazer 2021 diversity report, only 5 percent of Trailblazers identify as Black. That’s why Tiffany created the Dreamin’ In Color conference — so that Black Salesforce users and aspiring professionals can network and get the support they need to advance in their careers.

Tiffany also encourages allies to take a more active role by participating in the conference and listening to their Black colleagues’ experiences — or by sponsoring a ticket.

Listen to your peers and be an active voice.

It’s one thing to add diversity to your organization. It’s another to create a healthy and supportive environment for your entire team.

One of the best things allies can do to help make their communities and organization more inclusive is to listen to their peers’ experiences. But it’s also about making an active effort to speak up when necessary and advocate for them. “We don't want it to always be left to those that are more marginalized to always have to speak up. It needs to be more unified, it needs to come from the other side,” Tiffany says.

Featured Guest: Tiffany Spencer of Dreamin’ In Color, Bitwise and Tech Forward

💥 What she does: Founder of Dreamin’ In Color, VP of Salesforce Partnerships at Bitwise Industries and Founder of Tech Forward, a nonprofit aimed at exposing marginalized communities to cloud- and SAAS-based technologies and career paths.

💻 Dreamin’ In Color on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

💻 Tech Forward on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Tiffany on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Tiffany’s big idea: “This whole idea about being woke is really just an awakening. It's opening your eyes to things that were already happening around you that maybe you didn't see because it didn't affect you.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 To diversify, focus on recruitment and retention.

[05:15] “When you look at the overall talent pipeline, there’s lots of different areas that we can focus on. One of the areas is around hiring and making sure our job descriptions are more inclusive, making sure that we're posting in places where we can attract more diverse talent. And so that is some of the reason why companies are not seeing more diverse candidates show up in their talent pipelines. […] On the one side is recruiting; the other side is retention, right. And so what you were talking about, is where companies in the ecosystem have to put more thought and effort into retaining their employees. I remember going into consulting and not having a lot of support. I had some really great managers later in my career, but in the beginning and middle, I didn't feel very supported, I didn’t feel very seen. And what you see now happening, I think, is a lot of people not wanting to deal with that. People are not wanting to be at a company that doesn't support them, doesn't see them and doesn't want to put forth the effort to diversify.

💡 Allies need to take an active role in diversity and inclusion.

[08:23] “We want to create a community, and we want people to network so that we can come together and move forward. And I'm really excited about being an example for others that maybe haven't seen a Black-owned Salesforce partner in the ecosystem, or people that haven't seen Black technical architects or Black developers. And so being able to see that and get tips and come together as a community, and then like you said, bringing other allies in that say, Oh, my gosh, I'm really learning a lot. How can I support you? [...] I think allies really need to take more of an active role in being a voice for others in the room, of advocating for people in a room.”

💡 Dreamin’ In Color is about helping uplift other people of color.

[14:20] “Last year, I was in Tulsa for Juneteenth. That is where I decided that I was really inspired to move forward with planning this conference. Being in the community of Tulsa and understanding what that community went through. It's this idea of, People should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and if you work hard, then you'll make it in America. This whole American dream. And one of the things that I like to remind people is that, Black Americans were doing that. They were building their own communities and their own towns and creating wealth, and those towns were burned down. Tulsa was burned to the ground, there's very little Tulsa left. And so that traumatizes people, this having to rebuild things over and over. And I think about that in my career, how many times in my career, my confidence was burned down, and then having to rebuild that. And so Dreamin’ In Color is a [about] community coming together to help solve each other's problems, and to be able to move forward together. And that is really what I'm excited about.”

💡 Dreamin’ In Color has something for everyone.

[17:12] “So we actually have four session tracks; we'll have over 60 sessions. So there's a career and well-being track, where we'll have sessions around how to create a career path for yourself. [...] Then we'll have a best-practices track. So that's everything from admin best practices, marketing best practices, design best practices, BA best practices. So there's all kinds of sessions in that track. Then we have a leadership and entrepreneurship track. And so a lot of that is going to be around people that want to be or already are independent freelance consultants, or want to start an actual, really full consulting company with other consultants. [...] And then our last track is our product and technical demos. So we're going to have a hands-on Tableau session, we're going to have some marketing cloud or engagement Pardot sessions. And then our amazing sponsors are going to have sessions that are going to be going over use cases with their products.”

💡 The best thing allies can do is listen.

[22:02] “For Dreamin’ In Color, there is a sponsor-a-ticket option. And so allies can go and sponsor a ticket for other people to attend if you can't, or don't want, to attend in person. And then in general, I think it's really important to listen to your co-workers, understand how you can support them, advocate for them, be a sponsor for them, and really speak up because we don't want it to always be left to those that are more marginalized to always have to speak up. It needs to be more unified, it needs to come from the other side. And being able to see people, understand people and speak up for people is always, always helpful.”

Top Quotes:

[03:28] “The Trailblazer diversity report says 5% of Trailblazers identify as Black or African American. But when you're 5% at work, sometimes you don't want to pay money and fly to go be 5% at an event. And I think that's kind of how I felt in the beginning. And so that's really why I'm really excited about Dreamin’ In Color and creating a space for Black people to really see themselves in the Salesforce ecosystem, and to allow allies and other people to come and celebrate the diversity of this ecosystem.”

[09:06] “I think allies really need to take more of an active role in being a voice for others in the room, of advocating for people in a room. Taking your peers to the side to say, Hey listen, we need to be more inclusive. What you said can be taken wrong. And so it's going to take all of us working together.”

[22:13] “I think it's really important to listen to your co-workers, understand how you can support them, advocate for them, be a sponsor for them and really speak up because we don't want it to always be left to those that are more marginalized to always have to speak up. It needs to be more unified, it needs to come from the other side. And being able to see people, understand people and speak up for people is always, always helpful.”

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Episode Description

Being a solo admin can be challenging and even lonely. While blogs may help, nothing can replace one-on-one conversations with other admins. Even if you don’t have one at your office or within your company, there are communities of fellow admins who can offer support.

Just ask Alexandra Klinger of Cloud for Good, who has been a solo admin for over seven years.

Joining Salesforce communities “has given me my social life, which is great, and good friends, but also keeps me going from a work perspective and from a growing and learning perspective,” she says.

In this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Alexandra joins host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to discuss her Salesforce journey and how these communities have helped her thrive.

Listen to this episode to learn:

The benefits of joining Salesforce communities
How solo admins can expand their network
Where to find the best online communities and resources

Episode Summary

If you’re the only admin at your company or an admin who works from home — or even both — you’re probably familiar with the feeling of scrolling through Salesforce blogs for resources, tips and inspiration.

With no one to learn from or discuss ideas with, being a solo admin can be challenging. Just ask Alexandra Klinger of Cloud for Good. She’s spent over seven years as the lone admin at her company. But by making time to join local in-person and online Salesforce communities, she’s become better at her job and developed a lively social life, too.

In fact, Alexandra and Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, first met at a Salesforce Saturday event in Los Angeles.

“It has given me my social life, which is great, and good friends, but also keeps me going from a work perspective and from a growing and learning perspective,” she says.

In this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, Alexandra joins Kristi to discuss her Salesforce journey and how becoming part of numerous communities has helped her grow and thrive. Getting involved doesn’t always have to mean traveling far, but you do have to be proactive about building your tribe, Alexandra says.

“There's a level of intentionality that you have to have. You just have to want it and do it. I don't know that it necessarily even takes that much effort [...] to start meeting people and creating your own little community.”

Tune in to this episode of Serious Insights to learn more about how you can benefit from Salesforce communities, and some personal recommendations of the best groups and resources from Alexandra and Kristi.

Key Takeaways

Salesforce communities are an asset to solo admins.

Being the only admin at your company can be lonely, especially in the work-from-home era. Without colleagues to discuss questions or ideas with, scrolling through blogs in search of solutions or trying to figure things out on your own can sometimes feel like grasping in the dark.

That’s why when Alexandra started her new role as the lone admin at her company, she started seeking out community wherever she could find it. Joining local Salesforce communities where she found support and like-minded colleagues is “well worth the time,” she says. “I always came out with something new that I could apply to the organization that I was working at and make it better.”

Seek out conversations with other admins.

One of the best parts of events like Salesforce Saturday or other user meetups is having the opportunity to connect with other admins. Take advantage of this time to ask questions and network, especially with admins who have more experience than you.

And don’t forget to pay the favor forward by sharing your own experience with others. We are all on continuous journeys of learning, says Alexandra, especially as Salesforce continues to grow and change. Getting together with other admins just makes it less overwhelming, and a little more fun.

Be intentional about expanding your network.

Growing your Salesforce network, especially if you’re a solo admin or if you work from home, is an intentional effort. “You just have to want it and do it,” Alexandra says. It sometimes requires getting out of your chair and driving to an in-person meetup on a Saturday.

But there are also plenty of online community groups connecting users across the world and providing invaluable resources and advice at your fingertips. Try Slack channels, Discord servers, and even the #AskForce hashtag on Twitter. The Salesforce Success Community on Trailhead comes personally recommended by Alexandra.

Featured Guest: Alexandra Klinger of Cloud for Good

💥 What she does: Principal Consultant at Cloud for Good, a premium Salesforce implementation partner.

💻 Cloud for Good on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

🔗 Alexandra on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🧠 Alexandra’s big idea: “There's a level of intentionality that you have to have. You just have to want it and do it. I don't know that it necessarily even takes that much effort, but if you start in the community, I think that's a really good place to start — to start meeting people and creating your own little community, and I highly recommend it.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Salesforce communities are an asset to solo admins.

[02:21] Alexandra: “I was like, I need help, I need support, because I was on my own at my organization. And so that was sort of my start into the Salesforce community. And I really just joined all of the groups I could join, so the nonprofit user group, the admin user group and went to all of the things. And that was just my way to sort of figure things out and meet as many people as possible so I could learn and participate.”

💡 Salesforce Saturday can be a great opportunity to network.

[06:46] Kristi: “Salesforce Saturday is an interesting one, too, as an idea if people are looking to get more involved, or maybe they can't get out during the work day. And I think there's an interesting element to Salesforce Saturday as well in terms of self-improvement. Not that we don’t talk about work stuff — ours specifically here in Charlotte is at a coffee shop, with your laptop kind of conversation. We don't really do presentations and topics; some groups do. But I think it's also about the investment in your own learning and your own advancement. And I'm talking about certifications. We set a goal together to go get certified — that final push of, just schedule it and go do it. That was really helpful.”

💡 Seek out one-on-one time with other admins.

[08:34] Alexandra: “I think [Salesforce Saturday] is a really good way to just get in. You can really ask people questions and have really good one-on-one time. I think that's the benefit of Salesforce Saturday, is you get one-on-one time with people, ask questions, learn things, talk about literally whatever. Talk about getting certified or talk about a problem you're having at work that, maybe someone who's there has a little more experience in, that can literally look at what you're doing and try and help you. So I think that's a huge benefit of Salesforce Saturday.”

💡 Always keep learning and sharing your knowledge with other admins.

[10:00] Alexandra: “When I first started my journey — I'm still on a learning journey, but I was on a much more rigorous learning journey. And so I'm on the other side now, whereas I feel like I can give back, which is really exciting for me. And so it's a really good way to make sure that I'm still learning. I have things to teach people and so I try to volunteer as much as possible to present so I make sure that I'm continuing to learn and I'm up on everything that is going on.”

💡 Be intentional about expanding your network — online or IRL.

[13:27] Kristi: “I think the key is really being intentional about trying to grow your network. It's a unique industry in that you can just stay home, or stay in your silo and learn things, and work, and that's fine. But I think just putting yourself out there — for me — has given so many opportunities of meeting people in other countries, especially now with a lot of online user group meetings, meeting people in other areas, getting more active on Twitter and following the people who write the blogs. Just [using] #AskForce, seeing the questions that people are asking, and being helpful to people and learning the resources that you have.”

Top Quotes:

[12:54] Alexandra: “[Joining a Salesforce community] has given me my social life, which is great, and good friends, but also keeps me going from a work perspective and from a growing and learning perspective.”

[13:37] Kristi: “It's a unique industry in that you can just stay home, or stay in your silo and learn things, and work, and that's fine. But I think just putting yourself out there — for me — has given so many opportunities of meeting people in other countries, especially now with a lot of online user group meetings.”

[20:11] Alexandra: “Being a part of the community has made me ultimately overall a better Salesforce admin and a better consultant. And that's ultimately what I'm trying to be in my life and career. And so doing all of that is, I think, so important.”

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Episode Description

As developers and admins, we often just need a quick and easy solution to a problem. But technical debt can accumulate quickly when those temporary fixes become outdated or redundant.

Too much accumulation can slow down or even crash your system. So what’s the best way to keep up your technical debt and maintain a clean slate?

We bring in Angela Mahoney, Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, to share her biggest tips. One of the most important things, she says, is to keep track of your debt and stay ahead of it.

That way, “when the new thing rolls out, we're already ready for it. We won't be scrambling at the last minute,” she says.

Listen to this episode to learn:

What technical debt is
How to track technical debt
How to make time for debt cleanup

Episode Summary

Have you ever put a dirty coffee mug in a sink full of dishes? When you add another dish to the pile, the idea of cleaning just becomes more and more intimidating. Research has found that you’re much more likely to clean that mug immediately if the sink is already empty.

It’s the same with technical debt. As developers and admins, it’s almost impossible to predict the future. Often we just need a quick and easy solution to a problem. But technical debt accumulates when those quick, temporary fixes become outdated or redundant.

Too much accumulation can slow down or even crash your system. So what’s the best way to keep up your technical debt and maintain a clean sink?

Angela Mahoney, Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, joins Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to share some of her biggest tips. Angela has presented on technical debt in 2017 for London’s Calling, Europe’s largest community-led event for Salesforce professionals.

One of the most important things to remember when dealing with technical debt, Angela says, is to maintain good communication across your team.

“We're all in the same metadata,” she says. “We're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”

Listen to this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins to hear more from Kristi and Angela about what technical debt is, the best ways to track it and how you can make time for debt cleanup.

Key Takeaways

Don’t let your technical debt pile up.

Technical debt builds when you choose a short-term, easy solution over a longer-term quality product. It’s okay to have a little technical debt, but it can slow down your system if you let it accumulate.

Your goal does not have to be eliminating technical debt. But to make sure it stays at a manageable level, make addressing it part of your routine. “It’s like dust in a corner,” Angela says. “If you don't handle it every now and then it just keeps collecting there. So periodically, you need to go vacuum it out.”

Take notes when you notice technical debt.

One way to make sure you’re keeping track of how much technical debt you’re accumulating is to make a note every time you notice it. This can be in whatever system or format you’re most comfortable with, like Jira or Excel.

Keeping track of that accumulation will help you in the long run. “People like numbers. It helps them make decisions,” Angela says. “It's good to have those numbers there when you're making those arguments to get time dedicated to dealing with technical debt.”

Make sure admins are communicating clearly with developers.

Admins and developers tend to speak in different languages. Addressing technical debt is a full-team effort, so it’s crucial that both parties are clear when it comes to communication. Don’t just throw a problem over the fence and hope your dev team will know how to deal with it.

“We all work in the same metadata, regardless of what we're doing,” Angela says. “We're all responsible for the system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”

Featured Guest: Angela Mahoney of Forcelandia, RAD Women and Roycon

💥 What she does: Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, and VP of Delivery Excellence at Roycon.

💻 RAD Women on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

💻 Forcelandia on the web: Twitter

💻 Roycon on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Angela on the web: LinkedIn | Trailhead | Twitter

🧠 Angela’s big idea: “Ultimately, we all want systems that won't break, that will be sustainable. So when you add more business processes in, or you change them, or you take what Salesforce has produced, you want to be in a healthy spot to do that. But it takes everybody to do that. It's not just a single person thing.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Technical debt can be a temporary solution, but not a permanent one.

[05:31] “It's like dust in a corner. I have plenty of experience with that in my house. But if you don't handle it every now and then, it just keeps collecting there. So periodically, you need to go vacuum it out. And just be aware of it. Know what your limits are.”

💡 Make notes when you notice technical debt.

[08:26] “It's a discipline. I'm a big fan of — whether you use Jira, or something homegrown, or Excel, whatever works for your company — but make notes of these things. Treat them as tickets. [...] People like numbers. It helps them make decisions. So being able to quantify what you've got, even though you might think, this will never get done. Maybe it won't. We all know that. But being able to say, we've got 14 tickets, or we've got 186, or whatever it happens to be — it's good to have those numbers there when you're making those arguments to get time dedicated to dealing with technical debt.”

💡 Keep your users and developers happy.

[17:25] “When your systems get frustrating, and you keep saying no to your experts — your developers and admins that are the experts on the systems — at some point, you run the risk of forcing them to leave, because they know what's best and you don't listen to them. And I think we all know that it's difficult to hire great people right now. So you also have to listen to your experts on your system. And if they are highly recommending something, do that to make them happier at work. Which I think sounds cheesy and it's hard to quantify, but it's really important that you've got happy software development teams.”

💡 Aim for clear communication.

[18:58] “We tend to speak in acronyms. We're very good at that in IT, we're very good at that on the developer side as well. So it can make it really hard for people to understand each other. And we have to be able to do that. In my experience, a lot of people lack confidence, for example, when they're talking with dev teams. Because sometimes we tend to — we shouldn’t, but we tend to put developers on a pedestal. They're solving the same problems we are, they just use a different tool for it. But developers will speak in a different language than admins, so it can be hard to have the confidence to say, This is wrong, it's not working. I'm going to make this change.”

💡 Don’t just ‘pitch it over the fence.’

[22:20] “I think there's a certain element of — admins do the admin work, devs do dev work, QA does QA work. And you open the door when you're done, throw it through to the other side, slam the door, move on to the next thing. And then on the other side of the room, [they’re] pulling their hair out. I go back to what Dan Appleman said years ago — we all work in the same metadata. Regardless of what we're doing, we're all in the same metadata. We're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”

Top Quotes:

[07:58] Kristi: “You're less likely to set your cup in the sink in a clean kitchen. Once things have started to accumulate, once you've started doing things a certain way, it's easier to just add to the top of the pile, even though you know that creates problems for you in the future. It feels like an ingrained habit that we have to make efforts to work against.”

[17:45] Angela: “You have to listen to your experts on your system. And if they are highly recommending something, do that to make them happier at work [...] It's really important that you've got happy software development teams.”

[22:39] Angela: “We all work in the same metadata. Regardless of what we're doing, we're all in the same metadata, we're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”

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Episode Description

As a Salesforce administrator, you’re likely familiar with the frustration of your preferred “build vs. buy” solution not being approved. Maybe your organization doesn’t have the budget to buy, so a quicker, easier fix is needed.

There’s no one right answer to build or buy. That’s why understanding your organization’s needs is important, so you can continue to learn and grow with your team.

“Even in the same scenario, we might pick different paths and sometimes be right and wrong,” says Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP.

Part of that means thinking outside the box. Try investing in solutions for yourself rather than just for the customer, or building semi-automated custom solutions that can continue to improve over time.

In episode three of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins, we dig deeper into the “build vs. buy” debate with Emilie Jensen, who at the time of the recording was the Sales Operations Director at Infrascale.

Listen to this episode to learn:

The pros and cons of semi-automated solutions
What it means to invest in your own solutions
Key factors to deciding whether to build or to buy

Episode Summary

Do you remember to invest in yourself? As a Salesforce administrator, solutions that might make your own life easier may seem hard to justify. But they can be life-changing, says Emilie Jensen, who at the time of the recording was the Sales Operations Director at Infrascale.

In part two of our “build vs. buy” conversation, Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, is joined again by Emilie as they dig deeper into the weeds of the build or buy debate.

“Sometimes it feels harder to make arguments for things that aren't customer-facing or time-optimized … [it] doesn't feel like the thing you would make time for against those user things, but it's equally — if not more — important,” Kristi says.

But is there really one solution or correct answer to the question of whether to build or to buy? What factors should you consider when drawing up a proposal, and what should you do if management settles on a solution that you weren’t actually rooting for? Do the pros of semi-automated solutions outweigh the cons?

We walk through these questions and more on episode three of Serious Insights for Admins. Don’t forget to listen until the end for tips and resource recommendations from Kristi and Emilie!

Key Takeaways

Building a semi-automated solution can be a quick fix, but also a challenge.

Sometimes a partially-automated solution that you’ve built yourself is enough to kickstart the transition process from an old system to a new one. It may not be the final product — there may be more features you want to add in the long run — but your team has everything they need. Then, they can provide you with questions and suggestions until you reach the best possible custom solution together.

The challenge, though, can lie in the ongoing development. “How [to] get people to articulate that information correctly, I think is the next big step for most admins,” Emilie says.

Invest in yourself.

It can be difficult to make a “build vs. buy” argument for solutions or products that benefit admins rather than users. But they can be just as, if not more, important — and can make an admin’s life a lot easier.

For example, a few years ago, Emilie took a Salesforce Accelerator coaching session on data hygiene, which enabled her and other users to become data stewards. “It changed my life. That was so great,” she said. “Starting with a data stewardship perspective, when you're thinking on a build versus buy conversation, can really help simplify a lot of the decision making.”

‘Build vs buy’ does not have one correct answer.

The debate over whether to build or buy your solution isn’t about landing at the “correct” answer — it’s about landing at the solution that works best for you and your organization at the moment. There are a lot of factors that go into that decision, from pricing and available resources to billing and vendor evaluation.

“Even in the same scenario, we might pick different paths and sometimes be right and wrong,” Kristi says.

Featured Guest: Emilie Jensen of CashApp/Infrascale

💥 What she does: Salesforce Administrator at CashApp and former Sales Operations Director at Infrascale

💻 CashApp on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

💻 Infrascale on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Emilie on the web: LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Emilie’s big idea: “Starting with a data stewardship perspective, when you're thinking about a build versus buy conversation, can really help simplify a lot of the decision making.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 If building is the easier and more efficient option, just build it yourself.

[4:54] Emilie: “Sometimes I would spec out options we could buy and then I would feel like I could just build this in the same amount of time with the same result. And I don't have to present options to the CFO. I can just be like, I'm just gonna build it. And they'll be like, great, cost savings, whatever, wash my hands of it, and then I get the solution that I wanted without having the fear of them not selecting the one that I wanted.”

💡 Invest in solutions for yourself.

[15:41] Emilie: “I took an accelerator on data hygiene and it changed my life. That was so great because what it really helped me do was enable myself and other users to be data stewards. Starting with a data stewardship perspective, when you're thinking about a build versus buy conversation, can really help simplify a lot of the decision making. Thinking about, where's this custom field going to be used eventually? Is this solution significant to a just-for-now problem? Or is this significant for a long-term business problem? Getting users to define scope is so important in a timeline type of perspective, versus just a what's the problem I want to solve perspective.”

💡 There is no one correct answer to the ‘build vs. buy’ question.

[23:00] Kristi: “What I like about this conversation is that there are no right answers. Even in the same scenario, we might pick different paths and sometimes be right and wrong.”

💡 Why hardcoding IDs into your automations doesn’t work.

[28:00] Emilie: “I already knew you don't want to hard code IDs into your automations. But this article from Jen W. Lee on her Salesforce blog just gives such a good summary explanation around why. You could kind of figure out for yourself why, but not only does she give you the why, she gives you, what are your alternatives? Because sometimes you just don't want to do a look-up to find the correct record type. You just don't. You want to just put that record type ID in there, you want to put that user ID in there, and then deal with the repercussions when the user gets deprecated or when the record type gets deprecated.”

💡 Stop looking for Salesforce experience at nonprofits.

[29:50] Kristi: “[My recommendation] is a Medium article by Gordon Lee about when people are getting started, the idea of, go volunteer at a nonprofit is a common thing people say. [...] Don't do that.[...] because even if you do work at a nonprofit, you might leave them some spaghetti that they're gonna have to deal with after you're gone. But you can't necessarily promote the things about those projects in the same way as you could something that you own.”

Top Quotes:

[14:11] Kristi: “I also like the idea of considerations of things to build or buy for yourself, which I think can feel like a different argument […] but I think sometimes it feels harder to make arguments for things that aren't customer-facing or time-optimized […] but it's equally, if not more, important.”

[20:56] Emilie: “[Having a philosophy or architecture] helps somebody who's just getting into the system to quote something. What you're looking at, as far as your partner custom object goes, you're giving some guidelines on how the sales process works. And I think that defining where you're going to put that, whether it's a custom object or an approval process, is definitely part of your admin journey.”

[23:00] Kristi: “What I like about this conversation is that there are no right answers. Even in the same scenario, we might pick different paths and sometimes be right and wrong. It just is about an awareness of understanding if you have the budget to buy something [and] even if you do, evaluating vendors, which I think is a whole separate conversation.”

View Details

Episode Description

To build or to buy? When it comes to finding a solution for your business’s needs, that question requires more consideration than you might think.

The decision comes down to a lot more than cost or ease. But before even weighing those factors, the most important thing admins can do is understand the problem they’re trying to solve.

“It seems really obvious. But I think having a strong approach is the hardest part,” says Emilie Jensen, who joins us on this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins.

Emilie is another accidental admin who at the time of recording was the Sales Operations Director at Infrascale. In the first half or our two-part series on the topic, we discuss some of the biggest pros and cons of building versus buying.

Listen to this episode to learn:

The basics of finding a solution to your organization’s problem
The different costs of building vs. buying
A shortcut to building smarter

Episode Summary

To build or to buy? When it comes to finding a solution for your business’s needs, that question requires more consideration than you might think. And purchasing the solution to the problem or building your own is likely a debate most Salesforce admins have stumbled across before.

Simply understanding the core problem you’re trying to solve is the most important part, but it can also be the most challenging, says Emilie Jensen, who first started with Salesforce as an accidental admin and now works as a Salesforce administrator for CashApp after over 7 years in sales at Infrascale.

The best way to plan your solution? Think like a journalist, and imagine your program as the story you’re trying to tell. In order to tell the story of your solution well, you need all the details. Think about the ‘five W’s’ in journalism: who, what, where, why and how.

“Before you can even approach a ‘build or buy’ conversation, I think the idea of asking ‘why’ five times and really digging into those requirements, and really understanding that business process is a key part of it,” adds podcast host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP.

Tune in to this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins to hear Emilie and Kristi talk through some of the biggest pros and cons that complicate the ‘build vs. buy’ decision. They discuss strategy, cost and product options; Emilie even shares a few of her own secrets — and tips for what not to do — that she learned as an admin and problem-solver herself.

Key Takeaways

Know the core challenge.

Understanding the core problem you’re trying to solve before even beginning to think about whether you should build or buy the solution may seem obvious. But having a strong approach is often the most challenging part of the process, especially when the solution needs to satisfy multiple departments across your business. Operating on a budget only adds to the challenge.

Think of the solution as a story. Imagine yourself as the journalist who needs to convey that story to your audience. That means you need to ask all the right questions — Who? Where? Why? — to land at the best solution.

Know the costs of buying vs. building.

Sometimes, the answer is more straightforward — a tight budget may force you to build your own solution rather than buying an easy fix.

But the time spent on researching and creating the right solution comes with a cost, too. Building a solution from scratch takes time and expertise, not to mention the time an admin will have to spend training users on how to use a new feature. “A lot of the time when I was considering, do I build it, or do I buy it? I would lay very heavily in the, do I have to train people to use it? column,” Emilie says.

Know the types of products you’re willing to spend money on.

As a Salesforce admin, you’re dealing with a ton of moving pieces. If the right solution to your problem is to purchase a product, you also need to think about what kind of product you’ll be purchasing and how billing works.

Some solutions may require a one-time flat fee, or a subscription, or a product that may come with upgrades down the line. Knowing whether you want to purchase, for example, a flat-fee product when all of your other products are subscription-based is an important question to answer when planning your solution and defining your business’s needs.

Featured Guest: Emilie Jensen of CashApp/Infrascale

💥 What she does: Salesforce Administrator at CashApp and former Sales Operations Director at Infrascale

💻 CashApp on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

💻 Infrascale on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Emilie on the web: LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Emilie’s big idea: “You have to have a strong architecture philosophy before you implement things that have object creation-based specifications. If the architectural philosophy is there, [if] it makes sense, then you don't really need to develop one.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 Building doesn’t always save as much as you might think.

[09:43] “There's a lot of different resources in the question. There are time resources: Does your admin have time to spec a new solution? Does your admin have time to research the variety of solutions that are out there for the business need? Does your admin have time to install it and then train users to use it? For me, the training of users was such a big part of the equation that a lot of the time, when I was considering, do I build it or do I buy it? I would lay very heavily in the, do I have to train people to use it? column.”

💡 Purchasable solutions could confuse users.

[12:36] “Getting hung up on user interface differences is a huge issue for human beings in general. And this is why when you switch from an iPhone to an Android, you're like, What do I do? What is this alien technology?... And it's the same if you're moving between different operating systems, or something slightly different: the contact page layout in Lightning looks different, columns are in different places, the phone number isn't in the same place or the email is slightly off to a different direction, and someone's been trained to look in the upper left hand corner for that information, you're going to have to do a retraining.”

💡 Change can be hard, even for trainers.

[13:50] “Especially for your salespeople, you don't want them to have to think about [things like interface changes]. You're trying to make a smooth process for sales enablement, to enable them to sell the things to keep the lights on and to try and make things easier. But sometimes the change itself feels hard. I over-explain things sometimes because I'm thinking about all those little background things that matter to me that maybe don't matter to my users.”

💡 Just Google it.

[20:28] “I didn't Google a dang thing. I didn't look up, did anybody do this before? I was just like, I'm gonna just do it…I'm just gonna gung ho into it. And man, I really wish I hadn't…You spend a lot of time when you don't do research in finding the little bugs, in finding the little gotchas. For me, I really had to accelerate what I knew about automation in Salesforce within the span of a few weeks. And not a lot of people have the luxury of that kind of time to figure out errors. Fortunately, the company was in a position, and I was in a position where I could experiment like that. But I don't think a lot of admins get to do that. By looking into, what are the limitations of Process Builder? or, what's going to happen if I create race conditions in Process Builder? How many? How many versions is that going to take for me to figure out? For me, it was about 17 versions. So I don't recommend it.”

💡 Know how different products are billed.

[23:07] “[There are] one-time products versus subscription products versus tiered products — Now we want to introduce a training? That's a flat fee. So how does that fit in when everything else is subscription? And then partner selection becomes a big part of it, too…So depending on the size of partner you're working with, if you do make a suggestion or need a feature, then how long might that take to get? And can you work around it? Which, again, goes back to where we started, of really having your requirements defined. And if it's just kind of a ‘nice to have,’ then maybe you can wait a little while.”

Top Quotes:

[10:33] Emilie: “When you're in sales operations and you're an admin, you're wearing two very similar, but very different hats. You have sales operations, which is very user-based, very sales-focused, very sales-driven…And then sales administration [where] you have the other departments behind you asking for assistance. So you kind of have a conflict of fires. And then you add in user training into that confluence of fires, and you're like, oh boy, how much do I have to spend on the phone training sales or reinforcing training with sales? And is that worth my time?”

[19:49] Emilie: “ I didn't Google a dang thing. I didn't look up, did anybody do this before? I was just like, I'm gonna just do it. I'm just gonna gung ho into it. And man, I really wish I hadn't.”

[24:57] Emilie: “You have to have a strong architectural philosophy before you implement things that have object creation-based specifications. If the architectural philosophy is there, [if] it makes sense, then you don't really need to develop one.”

View Details

Administrators are no longer just front desk help or an assistant to the CEO of a company. They’re multitalented multitaskers who dip their toes into every corner of a business or company.

When it comes down to it, admins are problem-solvers. That’s why we like to call our Salesforce admins “adminitects.”

They work with big-picture thinkers to find solutions.

“The great thing about being an adminitect is that you don't have to write the code. You just need to know when it's necessary and what would make the most sense; can you do it in a declarative way?” says Melinda Smith an “accidental admin” turned consultant.

Melinda, the Delivery Team Manager for the Salesforce consulting company EightCloud, joins the premiere episode of Serious Insights for Admins.

Listen to this episode to learn:

What it means to be a Salesforce admin
The transition from admin to consultant
Keeping up with Trailhead

Episode Summary

Administrators are no longer just front desk help or an assistant to the CEO of a company. They’re multitalented multitaskers who often dip their toes into every corner of a business or company: development, business analysis, user creation, project management, and solution architecture.

When it comes down to it, admins are problem-solvers. They don’t have to have a specific expertise. But they do need to know how to ask the right questions and navigate their way toward the right answer.

That’s why we like to call our Salesforce admins “adminitects.”

“You could have an admin who is doing data entry, doing user creation — a ‘doer.’ [There’s] the thinker, imaginer, versus the ‘doer,’” says Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP.

On the premiere episode of Serious Insights for Admins, Kristi sits down with seasoned Salesforce Adminitect Melinda Smith of EightCloud, a Salesforce consulting company.

An “accidental admin” turned consultant, Melinda joins us to chat about everything from the early days of Trailhead to the challenges and joys of pivoting from admin to consultant.

The best part of the job, she says, is working with a hive mind of experts in different Salesforce areas and getting to work on new skills to bring in a variety of projects: “So that's fun because I get to touch and play with more things than I would if I was an admin.”

Key Takeaways

Admins do a lot more than just administrative work.

Although she’s now an admin superstar, Melinda is an “accidental admin.” She was working at a snack distribution company when her superiors asked if she wanted to administrate a then-new program called Salesforce. “I just kept learning out of a challenge,” she recalls.

Plenty of Salesforce admins today started out like Melinda because administrating a program like Salesforce goes far beyond typical admin work. It includes a number of jobs: you’re an occasional developer, project manager, even a business analyst. That’s why we like using the term “adminitect” — an administrative solutions architect for your company.

Adminitects are resourceful — but expertise isn’t required.

Salesforce has redefined what it means to be an administrator. It’s no longer just a support person at a large company — you might have a hand in many different areas of the business.

But that doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in every field either. Being an adminitect doesn’t necessitate knowing how to write code; all you have to know are the basics so that you can ask the right questions and problem-solve your way toward the appropriate solution.

The best part about consulting is having the freedom to explore.

Being a consultant gives you the ability to hone certain skills and become the experts in those skills for your team. “I have access to this Arkus hive brain with ridiculously brilliant people I work with,” Melinda says.

That also means you can always work on new skills you want to acquire and take on a wide variety of projects. Exploring new trails and playing around with your own skillset is the best part, Melinda says. “So [it’s] fun because I get to touch and play with more things than maybe I would if I was an admin.”

Featured Guest: Melinda Smith of EightCloud

💥 What she does: Delivery Team Manager at EightCloud, a Salesforce consulting company.

💻 EightCloud on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔗 Melinda on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trailblazer

🧠 Melinda’s big idea: “There's no real path. No one says, you should come in as an admin, you should come in as a BA. I feel fortunate that I was an admin first because I know what it's like to use [Salesforce]. I know what it's like to manage it, to be frustrated, to not have help. So I like that I have that path. I think it gives me a better view to be a better consultant. But that doesn't mean you can't be an awesome consultant and ask the right questions without knowing.”

Episode Highlights

Key excerpts from the episode transcript

💡 There is a path for becoming a Salesforce admin.

[05:45] “When Trailhead started, it had, what, two trails? There were like a lot less titles, if you will, [or] paths. And then people were like, wait, I like that. I'm going to intentionally do that. And the accidental admin, I think, is still a thing. But I think it's interesting how a lot more people seem to be [becoming] an ‘intentional admin.’”

💡 Salesforce admins are more than admins: they’re problem-solvers.

[11:13] “I feel like Salesforce has gotten to hijack and steal a bunch of titles, and then kind of rearrange it. Because if an admin or administrator back in the day was maybe a front desk person that supported the CEOs. And we reappropriated that. Like [the role of] business analyst [or] solution architect. I mean, the first time I had the solution architect title, I was overwhelmed, because I'm like, what am I going to architect? I mean, you do: it's using your brain to figure it out. And like you said, the great thing about being an admineloper, an adminitect, is that you don't have to write the code. You just need to know when it's necessary and what would make the most sense; can you do it in a declarative way?”

💡 Passing off an admin role is the hardest part of consulting.

[16:33] “The transition from an admin to a consultant is realizing it's not your instance, which is super hard. And that was harder in the beginning. Now I'm really grateful when there's a strong admin on the team. We do a lot of mid-market type nonprofits as well as for-profit, and a lot of them either don't have an admin, [have an] accidental admin, or aren’t strong, so you have to teach that. So handing off these things, [there’s] lots of documentation, lots of training as much as possible. You kind of hand off your baby in the hope that they take care of it. And when you get an error message two months later because I was the last person that touched that Flow there, I'm like, I should contact them. No, leave them alone. Definitely don't go and fix it.”

💡 Being a consultant means more exploration and variety.

[18:56] “I have access to this Arcus hive brain with ridiculously brilliant people I work with. So I think that having a niche is kind of nice because you're gonna get all kinds of projects. I'm always going to be working on NPSP, I'm always going to be doing some kind of automation, some kind of implementation and data loading. So that'll like never go away. But it's also nice to know if I've honed a little skill that maybe I get more of those [projects]. And if there's someone on my team that I know is really brilliant with Flow, I know who I can ask right away. Granted, we have a questions channel and things like that. But I would say that in my consulting world, our team is trying to hone a little skill so maybe they get more of those if you want to flip it up, and now I'm more marketing cloud, or now I'm more accounting subledger. Because there's so much and really, we get to play with a ton. So the more skills we have, the more different kinds of projects that we can bring in as well.”

💡 You don’t need to hone every Salesforce skill.

[21:49] “I am more of an on-demand Trailhead user. I go and learn the things I need to learn. There was a time that I would sit on a Friday night and do a couple of trails, especially when the badges were lower, and it did feel like you're kind of climbing up. I had, like 155. And 100 at one point in time, like two years ago, was more, right? So now that there's so much, for me, it definitely got to a point where it felt overwhelming, like I can't keep up. And that's an added stress, for what? Why would you do that? So I didn't continue that path. So now it's more on-demand. And I share with my clients…if they're really new, you want to give them the tools, again, to admin the system later. So I provide a lot, and then I'll use it on demand.”

Top Quotes:

[08:51] Melinda: “To any admin out there that … [doesn’t] consider yourself a project manager, I promise you are, 100 percent. Whatever you're doing, you're managing, even if it's like a handful of asks [from] the project management.”

[12:18] Melinda: “I think that there’s no real path. No one says you should come in as an admin, you should come in as a BA. I feel fortunate that I was an admin first because I know what it's like to use [Salesforce] … but that doesn't mean you can't be an awesome consultant and ask the right questions without knowing.”

[12:50] Kristi: “I think to me, there was/is the perception that admins grow to be developers … but for me the idea of solution-ing … that to me is the core of maybe more than an admin.”

Serious Insights for Admins: Recent Episodes

Kristi Campbell