Salesforce MVPs'

Top 10 Lessons
From career advice and design
tips to Salesforce Awesomeness
Are you considering a
career in Salesforce?

Did you inherit a Salesforce org

and need to make sense of it?

Are you thinking about expanding

your product knowledge?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, then you

should take a few cues from four Salesforce MVPs
and learn from their experience.
 The core community of Salesforce
is the Trailblazer Community, and
thousands of questions and threads
are exchanged over the communities
and Salesforce help forums every
single day.
But experts on Salesforce often
branch far beyond Salesforce-owned
communities: some run Youtube
Every year, Salesforce experts around
the world apply for the title of MVP, and
those chosen convene to help guide the
experience of Salesforce talent and the
next generation of Salesforce products.
MVPs specialize in all elements of
Salesforce--it’s not just developers or
architects who run the community.
The following are ten lessons learned

10 lessons Channels, write books, run product

blogs, coordinate user groups, or
teach specialty courses to get others
from four Salesforce MVPs, all of whom
have a combined 43 years of Salesforce
experience. Ranging from career advice
learned interested in Salesforce connected,
supported, and scaled up with the
to managing your product roadmap,
this global crew of Salesforce wizards
from four Salesforce MVPs, right skills to succeed. can help you navigate all aspects of
growing with Salesforce.
capturing 43 years of experience. To recognize excellence for their
contributions to the Salesforce
community at large, Salesforce
created the MVP award,
which is the most prestigious
designation of expertise in the
Salesforce ecosystem.
Meet
the
Experts
Meera R Nair
Enterprise Solutions Architect
UST Global
Salesforce MVP | 16x Salesforce Certified
A Salesforce Enterprise Architect at
UST Global who has been working on
Salesforce for over 11 years, Meera
is an enthusiastic participant in the
Salesforce Trailblazer community.
Meera is a 16x certified Salesforce specialist and is a
Certified Systems Architect AND a Certified Application
Architect, both of which are very difficult certifications
to attain, requiring several sub-certifications.
Meera is also an avid blogger and participant in
Salesforce conventions and presentations. Her
blog, meera-r-nair, breaks down some of the more
complex elements of Salesforce administration and
development, and Meera frequently gives talks and
tutorials at Salesforce events, such as 100 Days of
Trailhead, Virtual Dreamin’, and Apex Hours.
Paul Battisson
COO
Cloud Galacticos
Salesforce MVP | 4x Salesforce Certified | 2x Published Author
As the lone Briton in our group of
experts, Paul has been a Salesforce
MVP for 7 years. He has 12 y e a r s
of experience across a wide variety
of Salesforce roles and holds 17
Salesforce Certifications. Paul has authored two books
about Salesforce, Learning Salesforce Development
with Apex: Write, Run and Deploy Apex Code with Ease
and Mastering Apex Programming. While he writes for
his own blog, paulbattison.com, and has contributed
to the iconic Salesforce blog, Salesforce Ben.
He frequently references the video tutorials he creates
on his YouTube channel, Cloudbites.tv. Paul continues
to spread his expertise and also teaches a course on
Udemy about Apex testing methods, and he runs the
North England Salesforce Developer group.
Johan Yu
Application Architect
Tableau CRM Ambassador
Salesforce MVP | 15x Salesforce Certified
As the first Salesforce MVP of South
East Asia, Johan Yu holds a whopping
15 Salesforce certifications. While he
is now a Business Systems Architect,
Johan has been working on Salesforce
since its early days in 2004, during the Salesforce forum
era, long before the Trailblazer Community or Trailhead
as we know them today were created.
Johan has been leading the Salesforce Singapore
user group for the last 9 years and is a vocal member
of the Salesforce ecosystem. The author of the
Simplysfdc.com blog and three books, Salesforce
Reporting and Dashboards, Getting Started
with Einstein Analytics and Salesforce Lightning
Reporting and Dashboards, Master the art of
building successful reports and dashboards, Johan
is dedicated to sharing his expansive Salesforce
knowledge and helping people answer tough
technical questions.
Yash Shah
Head of Product Consultant
Slack
4x Salesforce Certified | Guiding CRM Strategy
While not a Salesforce MVP, Yash
is a Salesforce powerhouse with
over five years of experience in
the Salesforce Ecosystem. Yash’s
expertise spans several products,
including Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud,
and Community Cloud.
Four times Salesforce certified, Yash has a background
in Siebel and Oracle and made the transition to
Salesforce after discovering Trailhead and getting his
hands into a build.
He is currently the head of Product Consultant at
Slack and helps guide CRM strategy as they join the
Salesforce community.
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

Join the Trailblazer

Community

1
Strategize Your
approach salesforce
Salesforce Career with an open mind
Leverage Native
Salesforce Tools
lesson learned # You don’t necessarily need a
Computer Science degree if you
are interested in working on
All of our experts highlight the
importance of using point-and-
click tools and native architecture
Salesforce, but it certainly helps first, referencing that much of
if you plan to be a developer Salesforce is learned on the job
Design with Your or an architect. While Meera, as you problem-solve. If you’re
End-Users in Mind
Johan, and Yash all hold formal flexible and interested in growing
credentials in Information your knowledge, you can make
Don’t Burn
Technology and Computer your way through Salesforce. Get
Bridges Science, Paul holds a math on Trailhead, start taking courses
degree (to be fair, understanding you like, and begin growing your
algorithms and complex variable SFDC network!
There’s No Shame structures really help with
in Googling
coding).
Salesforce has been designed to
Start With the be declarative-first architecture,
End in Mind
and if you can understand
relationships between data
tables, you don’t have to write
Backup Your
Data code for most configurations.

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

2
Join the
the Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Join the Trailblazer
Community
Community Community
lesson learned # One of the best things you Furthermore, don’t ignore

Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
can do to grow a career in
Salesforce or even to get some
tips on Salesforce solutions
Leverage Native that are stumping you is joining
Salesforce Tools the Trailblazer Community. It’s
free, easy, connected to your
Trailhead Account, and opens
Design with Your
End-Users in Mind
up the door to a wide variety
of Salesforce documentation
and experts.
Don’t Burn
Bridges Salesforce is all about The
Ohana, whose core value
is fostering a big culture of
There’s No Shame helping other people learn,
in Googling
succeed, and troubleshoot
their technical issues. Being
open to continuously helping
Start With the
End in Mind others, even experts use the
community to research new
products or issues they’ve run
Backup Your into. You’re never going to be
Data
done learning, says Johan.
"
Salesforce User groups where
you live, which you can find One thing I love
out about on the Trailblazer from the Salesforce
community. community is about
Many Salesforce enthusiasts learning, as we help
meet up on weekends or other people, we also
after hours to discuss their learn new things that
products, help people study we may not have
for certifications, or organize known previously.”
other mini Salesforce events. −
Some of them are even held Johan Yu
digitally, so you can join in the
fun even if you can’t physically
attend.
If there’s no user group in
your area, consider starting
one! You can also consider
applying to one of the
“Champion” programs to
specialize in a certain area of
Salesforce and network with
other experts in your field.

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

3
Join the Trailblazer
Community
have a centralized strategy
for your salesforce career
Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # Part of growing your career is having a portfolio
of successful projects and implementations
you can point to during your next interview or "
I see a lot of new starters who think
Leverage Native networking opportunity, and you will want to they can learn everything about all the
Salesforce Tools
show off your expertise. products.

Becoming well-heeled in Salesforce takes My advice is to focus on a core set of

Design with Your
time, and getting to the next level of your products, maybe just even one to start
End-Users in Mind
career progression requires personal and with.
organizational strategy. Get to know it really well and then
Don’t Burn
Therefore, in your day-to-day job of managing expand out. It will make it easier for you
Bridges
whichever aspect of Salesforce you have to pick up new areas and ensure you
chosen to specialize in, you need to think understand the groundwork.”
There’s No Shame concretely about the way you plan to manage −
in Googling
your Salesforce products, and which areas Paul Battison
you want to specialize in, and which projects
will help you and your organization grow.
Start With the
End in Mind
While there are a few incredible, highly-skilled
Salesforce generalists out there, it’s best to
take it one bite at a time.
Backup Your
Data

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

4
Join the Trailblazer
Community
leverage lightning and
native salesforce tools
Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # Salesforce is designed to be
used on a specific framework,
SOQL querying your way to the
insights you seek. Yash agrees
and its core architecture that Salesforce reporting and
should always be your jump- dashboards are some of the
Leverage Native off point before introducing most underrated elements of
Salesforce Tools
custom code or configuration the platform.
into your org. Meera loves the new Lighting
Design with Your Think very carefully about App Builder capabilities, which
End-Users in Mind
what it is you plan to do with negate the need for custom,
your design--don’t just read a hand-coded UI. Paul is a big
requirement, slap it together any fan of simplifying your data
Don’t Burn
Bridges way that seems interesting, and experience by using formula
call it deployed. fields or identifying use cases
Heavily investigate the for simplifying your architecture
There’s No Shame
native tools that come with with Platform Events.
in Googling
Salesforce and understand
what your options are before
Start With the you introduce redundancy or
End in Mind needless complexity into your
org. While you may need to
graduate to Einstein Analytics
Backup Your
Data
later, Johan suggests looking at
Salesforce Reports first, or even

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

Join the Trailblazer

Community
Salesforce is intended to be the central hub of an organization’s
operations, and the best Salesforce orgs are the ones that are designed

5
Strategize Your to serve the people who use it every day-
-this includes designing for the people
Salesforce Career
design with your behind the curtain who have to administer
end-user in mind and develop on it, too!
Leverage Native
Salesforce Tools
lesson learned # When you’re considering what to build, put the needs of the end-user
first--consider what would make their lives easier, what would keep their
Design with Your
End-Users in Mind data cleaner, and what home page or report experience would help
them make better decisions during their day-to-day life. Be balanced in
your approach and design for personas. Paul notes that it is important to
Don’t Burn bear in mind that the people who shout loudest might not understand
Bridges the entirety of the strategy, so focus on that end-user experience within
the context of the strategy as a whole.
There’s No Shame
in Googling
It is never a bad idea to measure your user feedback against
the long-term development goals of the Salesforce team or the
Start With the
overarching goals of the organization as a whole.
End in Mind

Backup Your
Data

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

6
Join the Trailblazer
Community make friends and
don't burn bridges
Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # Even though there are many
products and a wide variety of
specialties within Salesforce,
check on you by asking their
peers what it was like to work
with you. Be advised that some
do not forget that working in of these people might not be in
Leverage Native Salesforce is still a very niche the country you live in, so take
Salesforce Tools
skill, with a wide cavern between a cue from Yash and be sure to
experts and new Trailblazers. make an effort to be considerate
Design with Your When you are working in a of your offshore teammates.
End-Users in Mind
specialty pool of people, you While it’s just generally a good
will almost certainly run into idea to avoid burning bridges
them again. Even if you have a in any professional context, it
Don’t Burn
Bridges cranky boss or a mean client, it is is also important to consider
important to keep your cool and that many folks who work on
maintain a good relationship Salesforce did not begin their
There’s No Shame with everyone you work with careers in Salesforce.
in Googling
in the Salesforce ecosystem or The IT service desk guy today
Salesforce-adjacent, as it is a may become a Salesforce
small world. developer tomorrow, so be
Start With the
End in Mind Furthermore, many tenured sure to conduct yourself
people hiring for Salesforce professionally, and take
roles leverage the Ohana and Johan’s advice: “Be kind and
Backup Your
Data
will do a back-door background stay humble.”

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

7
Join the Trailblazer
Community there's no shame in googling

Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # As discussed above, Salesforce is
gigantic. No joke, the user guide for
Sales Cloud, the oldest and most
common Salesforce product, was
Leverage Native
at one point literally over 5,000
Salesforce Tools pages long (It is a brutal read. To
be fair, a large chunk of it is blocks
of Apex code and what feels like
Design with Your configuration for every human-
End-Users in Mind
created currency since the dawn of
time, but still, it is LONG).
Don’t Burn Even the current user guide for
Bridges Service Cloud is over 1700 pages.
Beyond that, Salesforce releases
updates to their products three
There’s No Shame
in Googling times a year and is constantly
acquiring new software to add to
their offerings. There is absolutely
Start With the no way you will know everything
End in Mind ever about the product, and
our experts even acknowledge
that they’re constantly learning,
Backup Your
Data researching, and collaborating.
If you are stuck, reach out for help. Type in the
configuration challenge or setting you are searching for
into Google, and see what pops up. Chances are other
Trailblazers have run into the same issue as you, and they’re
willing to help. Many forums have Apex snippets or formulas
already typed out for you, and the Trailblazer community is
happy to weigh in when you have common problems. Yash
also recommends reaching out to the community or the forums
when you’re trying to debug code or find a cleaner automation
solution.
Often, you will find explicit solutions for the things you are trying
to achieve, and searching through the guides in Salesforce Help
can assist you in determining which technical setting will be right
for you.
“Keep on learning! Salesforce is coming up with
new features and products in each of the releases
and it is important for us to understand this to have a
successful career in the Salesforce ecosystem.”
−
Meera R Nair

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

8
Join the Trailblazer start your design with
Community
the end in mind
Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # keep salesforce strategy at the
center of your desing. It is essential
that introduce technical debt.
Additionally, if your organization
to roll out good projects to grow is large enough, you may want
your career, but in a professional to consider setting up a Center
Leverage Native environment, good planning and best of Excellence (CoE) to help guide
Salesforce Tools practices can often be steamrolled by your organization on Salesforce
other parts of the business making development best practices. Even
demands as to how they think your if you cannot formally staff a CoE,
Design with Your
End-Users in Mind
Salesforce products should work. creating guidelines, tips, and rules for
To mature your skills in Salesforce, the way Salesforce and API-accessible
you will want to learn how to software interact will help you avoid
Don’t Burn guide non-technical folks through technical debt and keep your product
Bridges a Salesforce solution, while not roadmap on point.
compromising the integrity of your Meera states that the proper vision
organization. You should always set of a CoE is “the success of that
There’s No Shame
in Googling up a roadmap for your Salesforce Organization, one that motivates the
instance, and you should do your best team always, understands the market
to avoid bad development practices demand, and acts accordingly.”
Start With the
End in Mind
“The direction of the business strategy and Salesforce strategy are now
intrinsically tied together and so need to be aligned. You should have
strategic goals for your Salesforce org to support business aims long term,
Backup Your as well as tactical solutions to deal with short to medium term needs.”
Data −
Paul Battison
Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

9
perform impact analysis and whatever
Join the Trailblazer
Community

you do, back that data up

Strategize Your
Salesforce Career lesson learned # While many low-impact changes to Salesforce can be done
directly in production (let’s be real, who wants to put
themselves through the drama of changesets for updating a
Leverage Native single picklist value), you need to deeply consider and plan for
Salesforce Tools any more substantial changes to your org.
It is so vital to plan for a complex for a call center--fortunately, the
Design with Your build and have a test strategy database had been backed up
End-Users in Mind in place, and using a tool like only 30 minutes prior and the call
Panaya Foresight can help center was not open at the time,
you determine where potential but that could have completely
Don’t Burn
Bridges
pitfalls lay. shut down operations if he did
Understanding dependencies not have a backup in his back
and holes in your architecture pocket.
There’s No Shame
in Googling
can save you time and money, Meera also recalls a time where
and ensuring you have a a team member accidentally
rollback strategy and a backup triggered an email notification
Start With the
is a critical component of this to millions of users, effectively
End in Mind planning. Paul recalls a time tanking the internal mailbox
before his days in Salesforce system owing to the sheer
where he inadvertently deleted volume of emails sent at once.
Backup Your an entire production database
Data

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
Approach Salesforce
with an open mind

10
Join the Trailblazer don't sleep
on dreamforce
Community

Strategize Your
Salesforce Career
lesson learned # Dreamforce is the largest marketing convention
in the world and it is Salesforce Disneyland.
It is really difficult to explain the
absolute magic of Dreamforce to the
Leverage Native
Salesforce Tools
uninitiated, but it’s far more than a
mere marketing get-together in San
Francisco. While the 2020 version
Design with Your of Dreamforce was online, 2021’s
End-Users in Mind Dreamforce will be a hybridized model
of in-person, online. and satellite
events.
Don’t Burn
Bridges Incredible people convene at
Dreamforce--prior keynote speakers
include people like President Barack
There’s No Shame Obama, President Bill Clinton, Colin
in Googling
Powel, George Lucas, Sir Richard
Branson, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Yo-
Yo Ma, and, for some reason, Metallica
Start With the
End in Mind is almost always there.
The best Salesforce minds in the world
give speeches on all topics, at all levels
Backup Your
Data
of expertise, and the whole downtown
of San Francisco is transformed by
innovation and creativity for a week
during Dreamforce. There are multiple
meetups, events, parties, and even
dog adoptions during Dreamforce,
and you will accumulate an impressive
variety of Salesforce swag and stickers
in the backpack they give you.
Dreamforce is the time to network, meet
new people, and learn new skills. If you
are looking to become more prominent
in the Salesforce community, apply to
speak at Dreamforce. Noting on your
resume that you’ve been a presenter
at Dreamforce will open doors you
never imagined, and you can meet
other MVPs or Champions while there.
Indeed, Meera even notes that
attending Dreamforce in 2018 inspired
her to share her knowledge more
broadly with the community at large.

Don’t Sleep on
Dreamforce!
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