Salesforce podcast

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Geoff Flynn, Salesforce Community MVP. Geoff is a prolific leader of the Salesforce Answers community, with expertise in cross filters and formulas. Join us to hear about Geoff’s best practices and tips for conquering our fears about presenting — how he tackled it to go up twice (so far) on the Dreamforce stage. We talk about how he solves problems on the Answers community and look at how he’s using his developer’s edition to migrate to Lightning. You should  subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Geoff Flynn. Breaking into Salesforce Geoff’s first job was guiding his company’s implementation of Cognos from a business perspective, as opposed to an IT perspective, and from there he was quickly put in charge of implementing Salesforce. As Geoff says, “I was always that bridge between the business users, who get paid to sell stuff, and the IT users. Those two don’t always talk well together, and I was the one who tried to bridge the gap and talk the common language.” Because of Geoff’s broad skillset and because finding the balance between business and IT is key, Salesforce made sense for him. From Answers to Dreamforce Presenter “Growing up, I was petrified of speaking,” Geoff says, but when his boss surprised him by putting him up in front of a town hall, he came to an important realization, “you’re a lot more nervous than you come off.” The bottom line is that practice makes perfect. Another thing that helps is to make sure you’re talking about something you know well. If you go up there and talk about something you’ve just implemented or are really enthusiastic about, that passion and insight will come through. Formulas in Salesforce Geoff gravitated to formulas because of a need for more powerful reporting options, even importing data from other sources into the Salesforce dashboards to get the reports he needed. Spending a lot of time trying to get the reports to do what he needed them to do naturally lead Geoff to an expertise in cross filters and other formulas. Geoff explains that a key to getting formulas to add value is to figure out “how to make your data work for you.” Solving Problems and Finding Answers “You always want to try and break it down into little pieces, and really understand what the need is, and not what’s been put in front of you.” Geoff keeps focused by continually asking why someone is asking for something, and using those answers to pull the problem apart. For complicated problems, Geoff looks at the documentation and pulls out his Swiss Army Knife full of developer editions: “I’ve got so many developer editions that I need a password manager just to manage my Salesforce passwords.” Another rich source of answers is the wide variety of blogs that are out there. Using Developer Editions as a Scratch Pad Another great use of multiple developer editions is as a scratch pad because it lets you show prototypes as you go. You don’t need to track all the changes that you make, which means that you can iterate faster and show the different ways that things can look, especially in Lightning versus Classic. Each time Geoff gets started he makes an edition called “The Playground,” and on the homepage of that org he puts in big red text: “Do not expect this org to be right in any way, shape, or form.” Acknowledging that it should never be part of the development stream gives him the freedom to treat it as a whiteboarding session using the client’s own software. Being able to show, rather than tell, makes a big difference in finding the best solution to the problem at hand. For more insights, make sure to follow Geoff on Twitter (@geoffreyflynn2). We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the...

Formulas & Lightning with Geoff Flynn

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re speaking with Michael Gonzalez, a Director of Product Management at Salesforce working on App Builder. Michael is an expert in how App Builder is changing the way Admins can customize their pages and user experience. Join us to hear about the Lightning App Builder, the magic of Components, and what improvements are coming up in the Summer ‘17 release. We talk about how the App Builder team continues to make tweaks to give Admins more powerful tools, and more flexibility. You should  subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Michael Gonzalez. The Magic of Components Michael fell into the tech industry. Out of college, he went into the family retail business. But then he got bit by the tech bug and moved from marketing into building products. This kind of journey is perfect for working on App Builder because he’s also the target audience, which gives him a passion for components. “Components are magic,” Michael says, “they’re the building blocks of all of our pages that end users are going to see.” You can kick off processes through them, and they give Admins a lot of control: you can rearrange the layout of the page, update the properties, and more. Michael’s favorite standard component is Path. With the ability to add it to custom objects, “it’s a great way to visualize the life cycle of a particular process,” and it keeps getting better from release to release. The Future is Lightning If you’re a longtime Admin who is concerned that all of the time you’ve invested in Record Types and Page Layouts will get thrown out in the move to Lightning, Michael thinks you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Everything will render and look great, but beyond that a new feature in the Spring Release allows you to create custom pages and assign them to specific Record Types and Profiles. As Michael says, “if you’ve pre-created a lot in classic, this gives you another layer to leverage the work that you’ve done to be able to build tailored experiences.” The Powers of the Lightning App Builder Right off the bat, the great thing about App Builder in Lightning is that it’s a WYSIWYG tool. “When you open up a page you see real data in there. It takes all the guesswork out of knowing exactly what your end user sees as you go through and you customize it.” This helps you keep focused on what will work best, and not whether it will work at all. In addition to that, you have a library of Components: Standard Components, Custom Components that a developer would build for your org, and custom managed ones that come directly from the App Exchange. Once you’re familiar with those two things, you can jump right in and start dragging and dropping. It’s easy to make adjustments through the Component Properties feature. You can edit details, update properties, and see how they change in real time. As Michael puts it, “you know exactly how your page is changing as you’re going through and modifying it.” &nbsp;Looking Forward to the Summer ‘17 Release Coming through the pipeline is a pilot feature in the  Summer ‘17 Release, which allows you to control the visibility of a Component on a page. Instead of going through and recreating different custom Lightning pages by Record Type and by Profile, you can just control the visibility of an individual Component. “Having a dynamic page control is something that our customers and users have been asking for quite awhile,” and something that Michael is excited to deliver. If you’re interested in experimenting, reach out to your account teams to get ahold of it. For more insights, make sure to follow Michael in the Salesforce Success Community. We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. to @SalesforceAdmns to help us get more Awesome Admins on the podcast. We want to remind you that if...

The Magic of Components with Michael Gonzalez

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It's as easy as 1-2-3 to get involved in the challenge! First, learn the dance moves! Second, share a video of the dance! And third, nominate 3 #AwesomeAdmins to take the challenge!

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Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we have the second half of our live taping from Dreamforce. We have Aaron McGriff, Salesforce Business Systems Analyst at Masco Cabinetry in Detroit, and we’re joined by the original Button Click Admin himself, Mike Gerholdt. Join us as we talk about the differences in their experiences as someone who’s just learned Salesforce and someone who’s been with the platform for over a decade, and stick around for a special community Lightning Round. You should  subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Aaron McGriff and Mike Gerholdt. Getting comfortable at Dreamforce. For Mike, it’s his tenth Dreamforce. He’s evenly split them with five as a Salesforce customer and five as an employee. At the same time, we also have Aaron on the stage at his very first Dreamforce, so there’s a big contrast in experience represented on this episode. “I’m comfortable at Dreamforce this year,” Mike says, “it doesn’t feel as crazy and hectic and you’re just able to let it soak in. When I was in Aaron’s mode I remember getting back and thinking that I wished I spent more time in the hallway just talking to people.” Mike started using Salesforce in 2006, while Aaron has only been on the platform for a year. With the contrast in experience on the stage, we wanted to hear what the hardest thing was for Mike about learning to be an admin. “The biggest thing I struggled with was understanding how data relates to other data,” Mike says, “understanding how objects relate to other objects and how they link together just never made sense.” One day, he took a class with Salesforce instructor Wendy Braid that clarified everything. She drew a diagram on the whiteboard visually relating records and identifiers, and suddenly it all made sense. Learning and sharing Salesforce. “A lot of my friends are finding out that I’m a Salesforce admin now,” Aaron says, “and I didn’t realize how many of them use Salesforce for their jobs.” Even though he’s relatively new to the platform, he’s been able to use his knowledge to teach others. One of his friends needed to create a bunch of reports but she had no idea how to do it, so she came over and he was able to show her the ropes. For Mike, one of the first things he got taught was how to use roll-up summary fields to count items below items and sum them up higher. “It’s so much easier now to do stuff in Salesforce. I rebuilt an org the day before they rolled out a WYSIWYG editor,” Mike says, and with all the new tools the difference between when he started using the platform and where it is now is stark— “it’s the difference between digging a pool with a spoon and digging a pool with a shovel.” How to jump in with the community. “Volunteering is one of the best ways to get experience, and there’s tons of nonprofits everywhere, so find your local nonprofit user group and see what you can do for other people,” Aaron says. For Mike, “what’s interesting is that getting involved with the community constantly changes. You have to look at where you are in the world and also in your career.” If you live in Montana there’s probably not a user group within 60 miles of you, so it might be worth it to invest some time in social. “Treat Twitter like you’re going to a party,” Mike says. You don’t go around to everyone announcing that you’re there— you spend time listening. The same goes for if you are in a position to go to a live event. Spend time listening and focus on having quality conversations, and it’ll snowball from there. “Find one person, either online or at a community group,” Mike says, and focus on building that relationship. Attend a Global Gathering near you! The Trailblazer Community is #LivingtheDream and bringing the best of Dreamforce to you! Join a Global Gathering near you to connect, learn, have fun and give back with Trailblazers like...

LIVE from Dreamforce with Mike Gerholdt & Aaron McGriff

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re live from the Los Angeles Nonprofit Community Group to hear a special panel of nonprofit admins put together by Laura Derby. If you’re in the nonprofit spaces or thinking about getting involved, tune in for some great insights from Laura Derby, Salesforce Admin at the Nature Conservancy and co-leader of the Los Angeles Nonprofit Community Group; Shay Davis, Salesforce Admin at the Assistance League; and Heather Hart, who has a new role as VP of Information Technology at the Huntington since this podcast was recorded. Join us as we talk about how to fit everything into your budget, translate language like sales and leads to the nonprofit space, and how data modeling can work for these orgs. You should  subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Laura Derby, Shay Davis, and Heather Hart. Getting comfortable at Dreamforce. This week on the pod, we’re lucky to attend an Ask the Expert Admin panel with three experts in the field. Laura Derby is the Salesforce Admin at the Nature Conservancy and co-leader of the Los Angeles Nonprofit Community Group. She’s relatively new to the position, “but we primarily use the opportunities and contracts object to track land.” The Nature Conservancy will do things like pay farmers to intentionally flood their fields in order to protect a key bird habitat, and Salesforce helps them keep track of what they’re doing.  Shay Davis is Salesforce Admin at the Assistance League, having come over recently from the for-profit world. Her organization has 23,000 volunteers spread all over the United States, and their signature philanthropic program, Operation School Bell, addresses issues like literacy and hunger in local communities. “They brought me on because they said they have a lot of data in Salesforce but don’t know how to get it out, so I’m working on reports, dashboards, customization with click-and-pledge, screen steps, and more,” Shay says. At the time of this recording, Heather Hart was the Director of IT and Salesforce Admin at the Broad Museum, a contemporary art museum in LA. “Our mission is to make contemporary art accessible to the broadest popular public, and we use Salesforce in a lot of ways to achieve that mission,” Heather says. Salesforce is their central database for collecting information about the general public, whether that’s ticket reservations, shopping in their store, or subscribing to their email newsletter. “Reporting is really important to us, and we want to know exactly how many people are coming and encourage them to come back.” Like so many people on this podcast, Heather is an accidental admin. When she started she was the 7th employee and the museum was still under construction. “There was no infrastructure at all— we had a flash-based website,” Heather says, “it was a really great opportunity to build a really solid, integrated solution from scratch.” Because they decided that they needed to manage their data more effectively from the outset Salesforce was the obvious solution, so Heather went to an admin training and hasn’t looked back. The museum attracts 150,000 people a year with only 40 full-time staff members, and Salesforce is a big part of that. Shay is also an accidental admin, getting her start in the world of education as an administrator at Pepperdine. From there, she worked for a for-profit test prep and admissions consulting company. “We had a Salesforce admin but he was also our developer and our Director of College Prep,” she says, “our instance needed some TLC so I took it upon myself to go through Trailhead and get certified, which brought me to my new role at a nonprofit.” “I had familiarity with Salesforce but not as an admin,” Laura says, but she didn’t get a chance to dive into it until she became a temp at a grassroots environmental nonprofit. She happened to work for Paige Von Riper (who now...

LIVE from Los Angeles Nonprofit Community Group

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’ve got Rikke Hovgaard, Solution Architect at Salesforce, to talk Einstein analytics. We go into how to use these tools in your daily life as an admin and to help your organization. Join us as we talk about what Einstein analytics can do, how Rikke got where she is today, and how analytics can allow you to tell complex stories with your data and get stronger insights. You should  subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Rikke Hovgaard. The winding path to Salesforce. Gillian first got to know Rikke when she was preparing for a presentation about Einstein analytics on the Admin Theater Stage at Dreamforce. The presentation was so good she ended up getting hired to help people with Einstein full time. Like many, her path to the platform was a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work. “I ended up in a job interview and the guy that was interviewing me started talking about Salesforce, and I started panicking because I didn’t know what it was,” she says, so she thought she didn’t get the job. She got called in for a second interview and decided to bone up, which landed her in a job implementing Salesforce for customers. “Back then we didn’t have the wonderful tool of Trailhead so I couldn’t learn myself,” but Rikke’s colleagues had her back. Through little tasks and helpful pointers she was able to work her way up to building demos, and within a month and a half, she had her admin certification. From reports specialist to Einstein analytics expert. Rikke got involved in Einstein because she was in charge of report training for customers during Salesforce implementation. When Einstein was introduced, Rikke’s manager immediately put her into a four-day training in Paris (not as romantic as it sounds) so she could leverage her knowledge of reports. From there, she kept up to date by doing different use cases and actively teaching herself. Why should you think about using it at your organization? “Every single record we create makes more and more data,” Rikke says, “and we want to know how much more we have to do to get the job done.” There are limitations on reporting and sometimes you need more flexibility. Rikke’s presentation is about taking the standard Salesforce reporting that we know and love and then looking at what Einstein analytics brings to the table. There’s a bunch of features you can use, but Rikke really gets into when and where they can be deployed. She also gets into Einstein discovery, which is bringing even more to the table. Making Einstein work for you. “I like to call standard reporting operational— we want to have a list, we want to have that quick, instant look,” Rikke says, “but Einstein analytics is more for a strategic purpose.” It gives you the ability to get an overview but also drill down into your data and make a data story. “The way that Einstein analytics works is when you’re on your dashboard you can click on any of the widgets and everything starts reacting to it,” Rikke says, “and once you’ve found your data, you can take actions on it.” If it would be useful to notify the account manager that they need to take action on an opportunity, you can use global actions to empower that at scale with Einstein Analytics. Other tools like custom maps and compare tables give you the ability to create something useful from your data, immediately. We can create complex formulas right in the UI with no code, like to calculate “what is the percentage change in my opportunities from month to month.” Attend a Global Gathering near you! The Trailblazer Community is #LivingtheDream and bringing the best of Dreamforce to you! Join a Global Gathering near you to connect, learn, have fun and give back with Trailblazers like you. Register for a Dreamforce Global Gathering at dreamforce.com/globalgatherings. Resources  Rikke’s Dreamforce Session: The Admin's Guide to...

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The Salesforce Admins Podcast