Why you shouldn’t use tags in Salesforce

Initially, tagging records seems like a good idea. And, in theory, it is. In practice however, not so much.

In Salesforce, tags are called topics. You can add the topic component to any lightning page, and then configure some basic settings such as the title, placeholder text, and number of topics shown.… Read the rest

Remote job stacking

An interesting article that crossed my path today was about remote job stacking.

As the story unfolds, a 48-year-old from Texas started working as a network engineer at company A. In this full-time position, he made $117,500 a year and worked on-site.… Read the rest

The benefits of hypercare

The first time I heard the word “hypercare”, I thought it was a nonsensical word. I quickly grouped it with other “hyper” words, like hyperforce, hyperspeed, and hyper-ridiculous.

After learning what it actually means and why it exists, I started offering it on all my Salesforce projects.… Read the rest

Owning your mistakes

We’re all human. And humans make mistakes. Which means you make mistakes.

Talking about mistakes is even a popular Salesforce interview question. It’s usually phrased as, “tell me about a mistake you made and how you learned from it”.

Taking the time to understand and analyze your mistakes is an important step to learn from them.… Read the rest

What is the iron triangle?

Salesforce projects, along with most other projects, work within three main constraints:

  1. Scope (features/capabilities)
  2. Time (schedule)
  3. Cost (resources & budget)

These are also known as the iron triangle, which you have to admit sounds a whole lot cooler than just saying, “three constraints”.… Read the rest

Bleisure: Mixing business with pleasure

Remote working became significantly more popular over the last several years. As a result, the hospitality industry took notice and started to adapt. They are attempting to attract people who travel for both business and pleasure. This mix, labelled “bleisure”, is a fast-growing buzzword.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Security

The last pillar of a Salesforce Center of Excellence is security. Here are three main considerations for security:

1. New/Old Users

With a small org, it’s common for new users to be manually added and maintained. When a user leaves the organization, they can be manually frozen or deactivated.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Metadata Management

Knowing how you will manage metadata is the next pillar of the Salesforce Center of Excellence. Here are three many considerations.

1. Source Code Repository

When you have a small org, it’s OK to start building metadata in a single instance, say a Development (DEV) sandbox.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Leadership

Nothing happens without leadership. It’s the staff at the helm of the ship that drives projects forward. Without them, everyone would randomly bump into each other, like bumper cars at the arcade.

Here are three important roles of leadership within a Center of Excellence.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Architecture

The architecture pillar of the Salesforce Center of Excellence is a massive conversation. Setting up the architecture team and For now, let’s focus on three topics.

1. Data Modeling

One of my favorite expressions in construction is “measure twice and cut once”.… Read the rest

Making digital nomadism more corporate

Until recently, employees that were permitted to work from home could pretty much choose where they wanted to work and for how long. Sometimes that meant actually working from home, and sometimes that meant remotely. Sadly, there are recent trends that suggest companies are starting to crack down on this freedom of choice.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Change Management

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying, “change is the only constant in life.” Despite being so common, people often resist change.

So in the context of a Salesforce Center of Excellence, the Change Management Office (CMO) is responsible for warming the audience to the upcoming change and supporting their needs.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Tooling

Selecting the proper tools is one of my personal favorite pillars of the Center of Excellence. Here are three themes regarding tooling:

1. When to Build vs Buy

One of the first questions to ask is, under what conditions should you build a custom piece of functionality or buy an existing product?… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Methodology

The methodology pillar, as part of a Center of Excellence, is about defining the delivery process. Let’s focus on three core topics of this pillar.

1. How to Deliver

This step is about determining how projects will be delivered. What business processes will projects use, how DevOps is weaved into the conversation, and .… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Governance

One of the most important responsibilities of a Center of Excellence is setting up a proper governance framework.

In short, governance is a system of rules and processes that a company creates. It determines who has power and accountability, and who makes decisions.… Read the rest

The 5 most difficult things about being a digital nomad

OK, I’ll admit it. Not every single aspect of being a digital nomad is like unicorns and rainbows. There are some minor downsides to this lifestyle.

Here are a few challenges you may have along the way.

1. Romantic Relationships

If you have a life partner and they are not able to join you on these adventures, well, that sucks.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Standards

Establishing and maintaining standards are important in a Salesforce org. They determine the basic rules of an implementation, so it doesn’t look like it was built by 3 admins and 2 devs.

Here are three core ingredients to build standards in a Salesforce CoE:

1.Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Vision

Vision is about the art of the possible. There are three main components to focus on.

1. Business Goals

Too many agencies focus on the wrong problem to solve. They focus on the inputs instead of the outputs. The number of hours something will take instead of what are the business goals.… Read the rest

Center of Excellence: PMO

Out of all the pillars in a Center of Excellence, the Project Management Office (PMO) is the one I’m least familiar with. So if any of my PM readers want to add to anything I say, please chime in 🙂

In a Salesforce context, three main functions of the PMO is:

1.Read the rest

Center of Excellence: Prototyping

In short, prototyping is the innovation hub that builds out Salesforce prototypes to show the “art of the possible”

This can be broken down into three main components:

1. User flow

It’s important that user’s know and understand how they will be using Salesforce.… Read the rest

Where are Europe’s best coastal cities for digital nomads?

Have you ever imagined doing client work while relaxing on a recliner on a sandy beach?

This fantasy doesn’t need to stay in your head. I’ve done it, and it’s … wonderful. Just make sure the sand stays away from your laptop and your mobile is fully charged to provide a Wi-Fi hotspot for a long time 🙂

With those rules in mind, the next step is to pick the best coastal city.… Read the rest

What is a Salesforce Center of Excellence?

Let’s start with a definition of what a Center of Excellent (CoE) is.

According to Wikipedia, it “is a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support or training for a focus area”.

In our world, this can be translated into providing the “best of breed” across multiple facets of the Salesforce ecosystem.… Read the rest

Two great options for Salesforce pages and layouts

Through the many projects implemented over time, I’ve designed two main options for Salesforce object pages and layouts. Clients seem to prefer one or the other, depending on their requirements and areas of focus. Here they are, in case they are useful to you.… Read the rest

A frustration with Salesforce pages and why you should fix them

One thing that amazes me about Salesforce (and not in a good way) is that out-of-the-box, nearly each standard object has a different layout on their lightning page. This also applies to some packages built by Salesforce.

For example, the account and contact objects have pretty consistent pages.… Read the rest

When is Salesforce not the right CRM?

Not so long ago, I started to feel overwhelmed. I was trying to properly organize my contacts and sales opportunities. They were  related to my project implementations, the Salesforce app for nonprofits, and notes about my coaching students.

Until then, I was using a combination of Google Contacts (contacts), Evernote (notes) and TickTick (todo list).… Read the rest

Another reason why you should specialize

When you decide to specialize in a specific industry or Salesforce Cloud, you encourage yourself to learn your domain better.

The more you learn about your domain, the better you become. It’s a positive feedback loop that guides you towards mastery.… Read the rest

Why be a Salesforce specialist instead of a generalist?

The last two emails talked about being a Salesforce specialist, instead of a generalist. Now, why should you bother specializing in the first place? Isn’t it better to serve a larger client base?

Actually, not necessarily.

There are a few advantages to being a specialist.… Read the rest