How I Solved It: Managing User Requests with Andrew Russo

#AwesomeAdmins, in case you haven’t heard, we’ve taken our existing “How I Solved It” series from YouTube, sprinkled some extra magic onto it, and are bringing a five-episode version of it to Salesforce+, our free streaming service.

In our first episode (available now on Salesforce+), we see how Andrew Russo built a solution to manage his users’ requests and ensure his team delivers valuable solutions. Andrew shares how he uses skills from the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit—user management, designer’s mindset, business analysis, and change management—to create his solution and be a successful Salesforce Admin.

We recommend you watch the episode on Salesforce+ and then read about his solution below.

The challenge

Andrew’s users have lots of requests that come in from different channels, so it’s hard to track them. The requests don’t have the details he needs to determine the right solution. He also needs to show how much time his team spends on user requests and demonstrate the value his team adds to the company.

The solution

Andrew built a user management app!

He built a utility bar where users can submit requests from wherever they are in the app, which creates a case for Andrew and his team.

Once the case has been created, Andrew can prompt the user to submit more info about the request using an action on the Case record page.

Then, the user is prompted through screen flow coaching to create a proper user story, including a link to Trailhead to learn more, and provide a measure of success.

Once the user submits a complete user story, Andrew can easily change the status on the case record using the path component which notifies the user that their request is added to the roadmap.

Andrew also tracks the time spent on each stage of a case using a flow, so he can show how much time his team spends working on features and waiting for user responses.

Andrew pulls all of this data into an awesome dashboard to show how much his team is delivering and how much time his team is saving the company with automation.

Admin skills

Andrew demonstrates many skills from the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit in this episode, but we want to focus on user management, designer’s mindset, business analysis, and change management.

Here’s how he uses these admin skills (and how you can, too!):

User management

• Aim to build solutions focused on improving user experience that feel natural to use.
• Say “No, but…”
• Have a regular feature release cycle because users like predictability.

Designer’s mindset

• Focus on how to improve user experience.
• Create prototypes early and get stakeholder feedback.
• Make solutions that are familiar and intuitive for users.

Business analysis

• Ask “Why?” a lot and challenge users who come with a solution already in mind.
• Embrace saying “No” because, as the admin, you’re the steward of Salesforce and must adhere to best practices and keep the org clean.
• Coach users into what is possible to avoid conflict and create solutions they feel connected to because they feel invested in the solution.

Change management

• Document, document, document! Use help text and description fields.
• Use In-App Guidance to highlight changes and drive user adoption.
• Maintain a test sandbox that users have access to, where they can test solutions without impacting production.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Stay tuned to Salesforce+ for more “How I Solved It” episodes coming soon!

Want more?

Check out these great resources:

• Salesforce Admins Blog: Create a User Management Super App with Andrew Russo
• Salesforce Admins Blog: Best Practices for Building a User Request Management App from the Community
• Salesforce Admins Blog: Learn and Develop User Management Skills as a Salesforce Admin