In Salesforce, bad data will creep up over time. As users manually enter data everyday, some of that data won’t be perfect.
It won’t matter whether you have good data governance in place or not. Users will inevitably type the wrong things, or the right things in the wrong places.… Read the rest
Once you’ve decided what to name your fields, the next step is usually deciding where to put them.
Here again, consistency is the key. If the Owner field is located on the top right of the 1st section on Opportunity, it’s a reasonable idea to put it in the exact same spot on Account.… Read the rest
When creating custom fields in Salesforce, having a strong naming convention is important. Here is my convention, which you can copy.
Proper capitalization
Always use title-style capitalization. This means most words are capitalized. Exceptions are words like “a”, “an”, “the”, “but”, etc.… Read the rest
While performing a UX evaluation of some new Salesforce functionality today, I made several observations.
The most striking one was, the implementor wasn’t consistent with field naming.
A previously created custom object had a picklist field called “Status”. Simple, easy to understand, cool.… Read the rest
Imagine you’re at point A on a map. And your goal is to get to point B.
You have multiple options to move from A to B:
Depending on how far point B is away from point A, some of these choices make sense, and some don’t.… Read the rest
In a conversation with a Salesforce colleague last week, he mentioned something quite surprising.
For his FSL project, he wrote a design document. No surprise there. However, his team is part of a larger project across multiple clouds, and he was the only one that wrote one.… Read the rest
Get ready, this is a short rant about Salesforce.
By now, you know I love Salesforce. Truly. Genuinely. However, every once in a while, a “feature” reveals itself, and I stop to wonder, “WTF is this nonsense!?”
Today’s example is about object visibility.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, there are additional implications of the upcoming new Salesforce UI.
The main one is this: whenever you build custom components, use the Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS) and other native elements.
When you use SLDS, you are guaranteed that any updates to Salesforce will be reflected in your components.… Read the rest
Coming soon to a Salesforce instance near you, the updated Lightning UI.
There seems to be a general trend at Salesforce that’s heading in the direction of a better overall user experience. In a recent meeting, they spoke about making the administrator’s experience less painful.… Read the rest
A few readers asked for more details about Knowing what to do next.
Let’s say you have a list of things to do, and a few tasks are added throughout the day. Here is my specific methodology.
I try to check my professional emails only a handful of times a day.… Read the rest
There was a Trailblazer Community meetup for the Salesforce Developer Group in Montreal this past Wednesday.
As Montreal is my hometown, it was a delight to attend.
A cozy group of developers, analysts, consultants, and a few architects were present. Although I wasn’t there for too long, I made several new connections.… Read the rest
On Aug 15, 2024, the first ever Montreal Dreamin conference will be held. There hasn’t been a trailblazer community event in Canada since True North Dreamin in 2019, so this is very exciting news!
I’m also proud to announce that Dryad Receipting for Salesforce is an official sponsor.… Read the rest
Sometimes it’s helpful to see things from another perspective.
Here are a few ways to certainly not help your end users and avoid adoption in a Salesforce project.
Don’t understand their current process
Before starting to build, you should have a good understanding of your client’s current process.… Read the rest
Adoption is one of the most important criterias for a successful Salesforce implementation.
Given this, here are a few ways to improve adoption.
Find your champions
Champions are future users that will influence others to your cause. It helps to have a combination of positive champions and negative champions.… Read the rest
After years of experience working on Salesforce projects, I’ve come to realize that one of the most important factors for a successful project has nothing to do about technology.
As an architect or consultant, this may seem counterintuitive. But upon further examination, this fact is rather easy to accept.… Read the rest
During a typical day, how do you know what to do next?
You may have multiple projects to work on, or multiple elements of a single project, in addition to personal things that need your attention, meetings to book, etc.
For me, I track things in a to-do list.… Read the rest
Looking at the other side of yesterday’s coin, there are some drawbacks to being an independent Salesforce consultant.
Here are a few for your consideration.
You need to be a one-person business
Instead of entirely focusing on discovery, design, or implementation, you need to manage every aspect of your business.… Read the rest
There are all sorts of reasons why people go independent. In the Salesforce ecosystem, here are three positive ones.
Autonomy
The lifestyle generally allows you to be in control. You choose your clients, how hard you work, how long you work, when to take breaks, and so on.… Read the rest
The other day I was reading an article from fs.blog. It’s a fascinating blog about thinking, mental models, how we learn and think, and all kinds of brain activities.
In the article, “How not to be stupid”, Adam Robinson discusses seven factors that lead to stupidity.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you’ll make tons of project decisions.
Some of these decisions are easy to follow-through and complete. No one really questions the choice, and the result is a smashing success.
Other times, the decision is not optimal and course-correction is needed.… Read the rest
OK, you’ve set up your one-person shop, hung your “we’re open” sign on your website, and now sit back and wait for clients to stroll in by the hundreds.
Several weeks later, and you don’t have a single client.
This is obviously a very bad way to start, as you should already have 1-3 clients lined up before becoming an independent consultant.… Read the rest
I’ve been at a client’s location for a handful of days this week. It’s great to see so many people in-person and in 3D, rather than the 2D we see through Zoom.
Last night, once all the productive working sessions were done, and the office small-talk ended, a few of us headed out for dinner.… Read the rest
In a typical Salesforce implementation project, you’re usually asked to provide a work estimate fairly early in the sales process.
The biggest problem with this is, you’re providing a number in a moment when you know the least about the client and the project.… Read the rest
Another problem with hourly billing as a Salesforce consultant is your incentives are in the wrong direction.
Imagine you have a house and are presented with two options:
Are you an independent Salesforce consultant that still charges by the hour?
Have you noticed the market limits your maximum hourly rate?
For example, the expected hourly rate for an experienced consultant is about $150 to $200 an hour, which results in an income ceiling of about $200k to $250k a year.… Read the rest
As an independent Salesforce consultant, one of the best ways to set yourself up for success and happiness is to have good clients.
Imagine a situation in which the Salesforce project implementation isn’t going well.
We’ve all been there, even the best of us. In a recent case, I worked with a subcontractor that was.. less than ideal.
As the upcoming deadline loomed, the client started getting nervous.… Read the rest
I’m currently managing a subcontractor’s work and a client’s expectations for a Raiser’s Edge to Salesforce migration. It’s not going well, and I wanted to share some lessons learned with you.
This was mentioned before, but it’s recommended to do at least 3 rounds of data migration, which includes
With smaller clients or projects, sometimes you can merge the Dev and Test into one instance.… Read the rest
Over the weekend, I spent some of my downtime at a cottage with an old friend. I’ve noticed that spending time in the country, close to nature and to water, really relaxes and rejuvenates me.
My friend’s father is close to 83 years old, and sadly he suffers from dementia.… Read the rest
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve partnered with iATS to provide payment to receipting capabilities for Canadian nonprofits using Salesforce.
Brickwork by iATS is a free, Salesforce-native app that connects with the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to track and manage donations.… Read the rest