The purpose of a design document

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

Casual Fridays

Unlike most days of the week, I’m more casual on Fridays.

This means booking fewer meetings, being less responsive to emails and chats, and generally winding down the week.

With all the extra time, I’m able to focus on projects that need more dedicated attention, and also work on my business.… Read the rest

The little things that make Salesforce extra fun

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

Are you ready for the new Lightning UI?

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

Attending Trailblazer Community meetups

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

How NOT to improve adoption

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

How to improve adoption

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

The biggest success factor

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

The hidden price of leaving a big city

There’s a recent article from BusinessInsider that makes some interesting points about leaving a major city.

The context is that since the pandemic, people have been moving out of metropolitan cities and moving to the suburbs or the countryside.  The trend continued until at least mid-2023.… Read the rest

Knowing what to do next

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

How to be stoic

As a human being and a Salesforce consultant, it’s sometimes challenging not to be emotional.

A demanding client, a stressful project, frustrating developers. The list of possible aggravations doesn’t end.

Most often, these emotional moments and your reactions to them won’t help you.… Read the rest

3 cons of being an independent Salesforce consultant

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

3 pros of being an independant Salesforce consultant

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

Scheduling downtime

Now that spring is right around the corner, it’s important to remember to take time to recharge your batteries during weekends.

As a Salesforce consultant, your weeks are probably pretty stressful. Allow yourself to rebalance and step away from the screen.… Read the rest

How not to be stupid

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

Logging decisions

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

Attracting clients as an independent Salesforce consultant

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

The one person that stands in everyone’s way

A fellow reader recently shared a story and asked for help. Here’s a summary of the situation:

Imagine you’re an in-house consultant. You were hired to onboard the sales team to Salesforce, but the stakeholder who hired you isn’t dedicating time to define requirements or approve the project launch.… Read the rest

Taking advantage of client visits

As a Salesforce consultant, you probably don’t spend much time in in-person meetings with clients. This applies to independent consultants and those working with agencies.

Apps like Zoom have become so prolific, that it’s unnecessary to meet your client face-to-face. And yet, when we do, it’s magical.… Read the rest

Crossing the threshold between business and personal

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

Estimating vs pricing

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

When you’re penalized for working fast

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:

  1. A single person with scissors will come and mow your lawn, trim your hedges, and make sure your garden looks great.
Read the rest

Breaking the income ceiling

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

In-office work is dead, long live hybrid and remote work!

We now have definite evidence that says traditional work, defined as Monday-to-Friday, and from 9-to-5, is over for remote-capable employees. This includes Salesforce consultants.

The new “hot” models are:

Hybrid 
This means you’re in the office perhaps 2 or 3 times a week, and you decide which are those days.… Read the rest

Trimming down your client list

As an independent Salesforce consultant, one of the best ways to set yourself up for success and happiness is to have good clients.

  • Good clients partner with you instead of just giving you orders.
  • Good clients understand you’re the Salesforce professional, and will lean into your experience to guide them.
Read the rest

Calling out the worse case scenario

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

How not to do a data migration

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

  1. One in a Dev sandbox
  2. One in a Test sandbox (which includes user acceptance testing)
  3. One in Production

With smaller clients or projects, sometimes you can merge the Dev and Test into one instance.… Read the rest