Salesforce is, of course, a CRM, though it’s also one of the fastest application environments I’ve ever built apps on. You can go from zero to a fully functional database, declarative tooling, development pipeline, access control, business logic, etc. in mere minutes.
As Director of Automation and Customization, I was responsible for the team that designed the declarative tools that enabled non-coders to build on this amazing platform.
The following are some quick snapshots of the accomplishments my team and I made during this time.
The two main product areas I supported as Director were Automation and Customization.
Orchestrator is a brand new product as of 2021 that will enable millions of dollars in new revenue for the Salesforce Platform. The genesis of this project started on my team and was led diligently by Stella.
Lightning App Builder is a low-code WYSIWYG tool for customizing and building pages in the Salesforce app ecosystem. Sean cared for the tooling space and helped it reach success it hadn’t seen in years.
Part of the responsibility of the team was in continuing to push the boundaries of excellence and innovation. Liz led several key initiatives, including the exploration of builder navigation patterns across our 40+ tools.
Flow Builder is a tool that enabled Digital Transformation. It’s one of the most complex tools in the Salesforce arsenal. Penny and Brady brought it into the modern era with a renewed focus on accessibility and efficiency.
Aside from the rich set of resources and support for managers that Salesforce provides, I experimented and developed an additional toolbelt of frameworks that enabled me to connect with the humans on the team.
Sometimes you just can’t beat a spreadsheet. It’s not that pretty to look at but, this one I created got the job done and became the standard from which all other design teams measured capacity and velocity.
The team experimented with several pieces of software for tracking work including Monday.com and two of our own in-house tools, we all decided we preferred a spreadsheet and so stuck to it.
In the same spreadsheet, we collaborated with our friends in Operations, Product, and Engineering to form expectations around timeline and delivery for the release.
Finally, one of the impacts I was able to make as Director was running an analysis of UX to Eng and UX to PM ratios across the company, successfully using it to advocate for additional headcount.
