Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Nicole Pomponio, Director of Delivery Management and Operations at SaltClick.
Join us as we chat about how admins can unlock the full potential of Slack in Salesforce. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Nicole Pomponio.
If you’re planning on coming to Dreamforce this year (or catching it at home), you’re probably going to hear a lot about new ways of combining Agentforce and Slack. That’s why I’m excited I got a chance to sit down with Nicole for this episode and have a conversation about her Dreamforce presentation.
Nicole is the Director of Delivery Management and Operations at SaltClick, a consultancy for Salesforce and Slack, so she’s eager to find new ways to get the most out of both platforms. The ever-deepening integration between Salesforce and Slack means there are all sorts of new ways to connect users with data.
As Nicole explains, all this means that the entire idea of what an admin can do is becoming more and more expansive.
If your organization isn’t using Slack, how do you get the buy-in you need to overcome inertia? And if you are using Slack, how do you get the most out of it?
Nicole is an admin, but she’s also a decision-maker at SaltClick, and when she puts on her leadership hat, she wants to hear about business problems and possible solutions. So the key to getting buy-in is to reposition Slack from something that sends messages to something that can solve real business problems.
“I think the magic of Slack is that when you’re using it and when you’re using it right, it’s easily adopted,” Nicole says, “you don’t have to sell it because when you use it, you showcase it.” For example, identify how many meetings can be eliminated with a dedicated channel on Slack, or show how much you can simplify your team’s workflow with the Jira integration.
As Nicole explains, it’s helpful to establish some rules of the road for how your organization will use Slack. Here are a few tips to get started:
Make sure to check out Nicole’s Dreamforce presentation, in-person or online. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode.
Mike:
Slack-first doesn’t have to mean Slack-only. And today’s guest, Nicole Pomponio, tells us why. Nicole is the delivery and operations manager at SaltClick, and she’s going to tell us, Salesforce admins, how we can unlock the full potential of Slack and Salesforce.
In addition, Nicole shares her journey from accidental admin to leadership, and she gives us some insight into building intentional channel structure, integrating external platforms, like Jira, and reshaping the admin role in this new very connected era. So whether you’re Slack-curious or already swimming in salty channels, you’re going to walk away with some ideas you can use.
And with that, let’s get Nicole on the podcast.
So Nicole, welcome to the podcast.
Nicole Pomponio:
Thank you so much for having me, Mike. Super excited to be here.
Mike:
I’m excited for everything that’s coming up for Dreamforce. Last week we got done talking about navigating flow errors as an administrator, and the irony is I had to do a workshop and navigate my own flow error. So it’s fortuitous the way things happen sometimes when you report a podcast.
Nicole Pomponio:
It was meant to be. It was meant to be.
Mike:
But Slack is a thing, and Slack’s been a thing for a while, and you’re going to present about Salesforce channels inside Slack. Before we talk about that, let’s learn a little bit about you, Nicole. Tell us what you do in your everyday life and how you got into the Salesforce ecosystem.
Nicole Pomponio:
Absolutely. I have been in the Salesforce ecosystem for about 14 plus years. I stopped counting because it makes me feel old. Got started reporting, and it grew from there. I was lucky enough to become a solo accidental admin, and then the opportunities just spun up from there.
My day-to-day life right now, I manage delivery and operations over at SaltClick. We’re a consultancy for Salesforce and Slack, so I get to work with very bright people building out super fun solutions for customers and ourselves, and that’s Salesforce and Slack together, which also gets me very excited.
Mike:
I reached the same kind of milestone where my Salesforce experience, somebody said, oh, it’s old enough that it could have graduated from high school.
Nicole Pomponio:
Oh, ouch.
Mike:
Yeah, burn. Yours at least has a learner’s permit.
Nicole Pomponio:
I’m almost driving, yeah.
Mike:
Right, almost driving.
Nicole Pomponio:
I’m almost driving.
Mike:
There’s no segue to talk about Slack and driving. Things you shouldn’t do while driving.
Nicole Pomponio:
There you go.
Mike:
Have your phone and use Slack. Why do admins need to discover channels in Slack?
Nicole Pomponio:
It’s such a great timely question, Mike. For me, there’s no better time because Slack is being positioned in front of Salesforce, and I know we just aged ourselves a little bit, but it’s really the first time that I’ve seen that happen and seen it done in a really meaningful way.
So from my perspective, we’re starting to see a really close merge of Slack, this communication powerhouse, with Salesforce and having the ability to understand and navigate both right now is going to be such an amazing opportunity, and I think it starts to rewrite the narrative of what an admin is.
Mike:
Oh, how so?
Nicole Pomponio:
An admin, I think it’s been changing over the years. If we look at what a Salesforce admin historically was, we’re creating workflows, we’re navigating some fields, some page layouts, and then we’re growing from there. We’re working with flows, and we’re starting to dip our toe into becoming developers maybe, if we want to take that path.
And now it’s merging more with other platforms. As a Salesforce admin, I need to also understand connected platforms, how to maybe connect to different systems. So over the course of, I think rapidly the past three years, what an admin has been I think is no longer just those foundational Salesforce elements. It’s really starting to evolve. So I see that happening too with Slack, so bridging the gap a little bit, expanding out to other systems. So I do think it’s shifting, and Slack has helped shaping that.
Mike:
I mean, I always look at how many meetings are people in. And I remember when Salesforce required Slack. Of course, we had a lot of collaboration tools, and organizations have a lot of collaboration tools. With channels, does the collaboration tool become the channel, or how does it really narrowly define what some of the users are looking for in terms of supplemental data outside of what’s on the record?
Nicole Pomponio:
That Slack channel, now merging with Salesforce, of course, we’ve got Salesforce channels, really is that collaboration. It’s a point where teams are coming together. They’re not having to wait for that weekly meeting. I’m not having to wait for my monthly meeting, my weekly meeting. I can work async in Slack, but all of that information is being condensed and surfaced in that Slack channel, so it’s easier for us to find what we’re looking for. Everything stays together. If we’re using threads like we should, all of those answers are within one thread. We’re seeing associated files. And now with Salesforce channels, we’re seeing that Salesforce data as well in details tabs and related lists. Everything’s right there surfaced and condensed for us, so it really creates an efficiency that I don’t think we’ve seen before.
Mike:
Do you feel in terms of broadening the reach and looking at other platforms, I mean at Salesforce we look at Slack and Salesforce is really just the platform, how have you navigated working with others in your organization to integrate platforms into Salesforce?
Nicole Pomponio:
It’s one of my favorite questions.
Mike:
Ooh.
Nicole Pomponio:
I love to bring things into Slack. I really want to, and this is a little bit selfish of me, I just want to be in Slack. I’m biased heavily here. So the more that I can bring in, I think the better it’s going to be for me.
But also our teams. We talk about Slack being our work operating system and wanting to do more in the flow of work, all these buzzwords and phrases we hear. What does that really mean? It’s bringing those systems in, whether it’s just the data or it’s actually actions and connecting out too.
So I think the example that is top of mind for me, because I’m in it constantly, is Jira. So I want to connect with Jira through Slack so that I can create issues, I can update issues. I just get things done faster with pulling in those external systems, the data, but now the actions too, right?
Mike:
Right.
Nicole Pomponio:
Which that gets me really excited because if we’re talking about our agentic era, then if I start to think about the data that’s available to me and the actions I could potentially do, I think natural next step is can I get an agent to do them for me? Which, if we’re talking about efficiency, frees up my time for the higher level things.
I love to spend my time with people. So I know that was a long way from connecting systems and bringing things in, but it becomes my favorite question because we can start to do so much when we connect systems that we’re using every day and when we’re actioning in those systems too.
Mike:
Well I, just for clarity’s sake, I prefer the long scenic route of the answer, not the short, short route.
Nicole Pomponio:
Oh, good. Oh, good. Yeah, mine are long.
Mike:
Drive around the block, got to see everything, take the long way. Sunday afternoon cruise in the convertible.
Nicole Pomponio:
Perfect.
Mike:
So one question I have, and this goes back to maybe I was an admin in a different era, it sounds like your organization is bought in and your leadership is bought in to let’s make Slack the interface for a lot of our work. Is that true?
Nicole Pomponio:
Yeah, we are Slack-first.
Mike:
Okay. Did you sell that vision or was that a consensus that came down from leadership that you embraced and get to work towards?
Nicole Pomponio:
I mean, Mike, I would love to take all of the credit for this. Sometimes I do. Just kidding. I don’t. It’s a top-down, bottom-up type of approach. I think the magic of Slack is that when you’re using it and when you’re using it right, it’s easily adopted, and I don’t have to sell it, if you will, because I use it, I showcase it, and then everyone sees the power of that. My favorite thing is the light bulb moments. So the more that we can do that, the easier that story becomes.
But I will say when I started at SaltClick, it was almost three years ago, time flies, it was already heavily being used, and one of my predecessors was really starting to push on what is Slack, how can we use it? And I really gravitated toward that, so I just started to pick that up, training sessions for folks, really empowering people and pushing them to Slack’s help articles because they’re amazing. So it just became a natural conversation for us.
And now it’s people coming to me saying, hey, can we do this with Slack? I just posted something about Gearset and getting notifications and then linking out to pull requests to understand what’s being validated, what’s failing. That wasn’t my idea. Shout out to Jacob on my team because he knows that we can use Slack for many different things, and he wants to make his own life easier.
So it’s become a natural conversation for us. What can we do in Slack, and how can we do it? People come to me with half-baked ideas. I love it, and then I just help get it to the finish line. I might have an idea I reach out to somebody about, but it is really all hands in on Slack.
Mike:
Okay, you win. You got the fun leadership. So let’s play the opposite side of that coin. The admin’s bought in, you, and you see the vision, you see the potential, but perhaps leadership, they’re busy. They don’t pay attention 24/7, like you do, to the innovation that’s coming out of Salesforce and Slack. But you know your users and you know the pains and the gaps within the organization. What would your advice be for an admin that’s maybe going to go to Dreamforce or maybe watched a YouTube video online about Slack or just knows that their organization has Slack, but it’s like, to me it’s like Slack’s like a Ferrari and you use it to go to the store and buy a gallon of milk every week and you don’t use it to its full potential. What would your advice be for those admins to get the organization to flip to where you are at?
Nicole Pomponio:
I think that’s such a great question. And just to be fair for the previous question, I am on our leadership team, so that was-
Mike:
So you have sway there too.
Nicole Pomponio:
…it’s an unfair advantage for me. But if I put my leadership hat on, what I’m looking for is not just the problem but the solution. So for folks that are trying to navigate, well, how do I really showcase this, it’s really difficult sometimes to get enough data to show ROI. But if you go to leaders in your organization, you say, hey, I see this problem. I think that Slack can solve this for us, can fill this gap, here’s how we could do it, I don’t know many leaders that would just say, hard pass. I don’t want to even look at that. I think taking that initiative would really show that you’re invested and showing the solution to that problem I think would be phenomenal.
I think as leaders we tend to see problems and we have potential solutions, but we really want input and buy-in from the people that are using the tools, right?
Mike:
Right.
Nicole Pomponio:
It shouldn’t just be the Nicole show. I want to definitely understand that it’s going to add value for folks. So if you are one of those people that are really trying to showcase what Slack can do, I would suggest going to Slack sessions at Dreamforce. I would suggest joining the Slack community and making some friends in there. I’ll definitely say hi to you, but really poke around at here’s a problem I’m trying to solve, what’s a way I could do it With Slack? I know I would be willing to help folks, but anyone in the community would be willing to help too. And I bet you, in some of the sessions that you’re going to, you’re going to see a lot of use cases and a lot of ways to solve those problems.
So that’s what comes to mind for me when I think, how do I reposition this tool that might just be seen as a way to send messages to something that can actually solve some business problems for us.
Mike:
I mean, I’ve felt that way. So you opened up a whole other can of questions when you said you’re on leadership. I think that’s incredibly awesome that you’re a Salesforce admin and you’re in leadership. For admins that aren’t in leadership, was this just the way that your organization operates, the admin is part of leadership, or how did you get that seat at the table?
Nicole Pomponio:
Such a great question. Many of your questions are great questions.
Mike:
I try really hard. I’m thinking of hosting a podcast where I ask questions. What do you think?
Nicole Pomponio:
I think this would be a great journey for you [inaudible 00:14:58].
Mike:
Okay, we’ll see how it works out.
Nicole Pomponio:
I think in our organization I have the flexibility and opportunity to be the Slack owner as well as participate in being that Salesforce admin as well. It’s a shared responsibility, so it’s not just me doing it. But because of the experiences I’ve had, not only being a Salesforce admin, being a Salesforce BA, being the doer and the navigator in different business units in my past life, I’ve been able to take that with me wherever I go. So it is a gift that I’m able to bring at SaltClick to be able to do multiple things, but I really enjoy coaching others on that too.
So for me in leadership, it’s been very powerful because I can understand how we can use our systems to really solve our business needs. And again, SaltClick gives me the opportunity to continue to do the things that bring me joy.
Mike:
That’s a really good, really good answer. See good questions, good answers. On the subject of Slack, because I’d love to know, how often do you communicate with your users broadly? Do you have a dedicated Slack channel? Do you run help through Slack? Is there a place for them to ask questions? How do you run user engagement on your end?
Nicole Pomponio:
So from the SaltClick lens, we have fun channels. We have learning channels, training channels. We have chit-chat channels. We all have some salty channels as well because we like to have fun. We have Salty Babies and Salty Pets. I’m a jokester, and I can’t help but bring corny jokes into every aspect of my life. And then as a Slack community group leader, I have a channel in our Slack workspace as well.
So from the Slack community lens, the engagement there is really answering questions that come in. Sometimes you’re going to get a meme. Sometimes you’ll get some help articles and some directions and a path forward. And it’s really posting consistently there to help people understand that you’re there for them, that you can bring them information in the flow of their lives that’s going to help them.
On the SaltClick side, it really is about trying to organize because I did some kind of research pretty recently to understand how many channels are we in, how many messages and files and all kinds of stuff are we sending around. It’s a lot. I think on average people are in 100 or 200 channels, so the noise can become pretty robust. You want to try and organize that and make it meaningful. So really helping navigate with channel descriptions. What are we even doing in this channel, what’s our goal, what can you expect? Letting people know that they don’t have to be in a channel. They can exit it. They can leave. They can set their own notifications. I really like to advocate for not only the way that we have our channels set up, but the way that they can help themselves in that experience as well.
But we have all kinds of fun. I think my favorite is probably the Salty Babies one.
Mike:
I won’t dig into that because who knows where that goes. I would like to know because, and we have this a little bit at Salesforce, did you enforce or did you… Enforce sounds bad. I don’t have a different word for it. Parameter, I don’t know, fence. Did you put out guidelines? That feels the best.
Nicole Pomponio:
Guidelines feels right.
Mike:
You put out guidelines. Guidepost, yeah. Because people can name channels whatever they want, did you put out a naming thing so that people know… You mentioned salty channels and chit-chat channels, and boy, say that one five times fast.
Nicole Pomponio:
I can’t. I can’t.
Mike:
I will. I’ll just get myself kicked off the air. And work channels, and we have that at Salesforce too, did you put out a guide and get leadership, I mean, you’re on leadership, but a corporate understanding of here’s how we should name things so that people can easily quantify stuff?
Nicole Pomponio:
Yes. You want to have some pretty solid channel naming conventions to help people organize their day and to make it easier to find things. So I did mention the Salty Babies channel. The fun ones could start with Salty. They could start with Fun, but you want to make sure that you are outlining what those are for your teams and that you’re building out some Slack etiquette. But thinking about too not only our internal channels, our external ones as well.
Mike:
Oh.
Nicole Pomponio:
So yes, we don’t want to confuse ourselves or our vendors or customers, so. And I’m sure you know, you might be in many different channels. And you have an external channel, you want to quickly know that it’s external, so putting ext in the front of it is definitely helpful for your eye to make sure you understand you’re posting something in the right location. And then if it’s internal, putting an int in front of it.
And then we did develop a standard naming convention for our project channels because again, we are Slack-first. So we are running our projects through Slack, and then we have our customers in Slack channels as well. So we wanted to define what those naming conventions were so that we could organize ourselves a lot more efficiently.
And then we also think about too what should go in that channel. Should there be a canvas or not? So not only are we thinking about standard naming conventions for channels, we’re also thinking about what would add value right there in the channel. So if I have a canvas for a project, what should I have in that canvas? If I have a canvas and a DM with one of my direct reports, what should I have in that canvas to make it meaningful?
So in my mind, it’s definitely thinking about the structures of the channels, how we’re using Slack, what our etiquette is for each other. And even things like defining the emojis that you use. A thumbs up or thumbs down could mean something else to someone.
I like to give the example of my parents texting one another back and forth. My mom sent a long paragraph to my dad, and then his response was a thumbs up, but we probably had a good five-minute conversation around what his thumbs up meant. Was it a good thumbs up? Was it a sarcastic thumbs up? So defining what your emojis mean could avoid some confusion down the line.
Mike:
Yeah, I would agree. There’s a few channels that, well, we have one internally on the admin team, and we use an emoji just to recognize or put your hand up for something, and I never realized how many different hands there were as emojis. Because it also kicks off a workflow that like, hey, so-and-so said, yes, and they would do this. And I’m like, I put my hand up. Why didn’t the workflow fire? Oh, I used the wrong hand. I used hand two instead of hand one.
Nicole Pomponio:
There are a lot. There are a lot. And then you can make your own custom emojis. That can get real.
Mike:
Oh, well, that’s a requirement on my team. Everybody has to have their own emoji.
Nicole Pomponio:
You have to have it. I love that.
Mike:
And I’m blessed enough somebody made one of me giving a thumbs up, so I got both.
Nicole Pomponio:
Nice.
Mike:
I got me and a thumbs up.
Nicole Pomponio:
That’s awesome.
Mike:
Last question. For all of the stuff that you’re working on for Salesforce, for Dreamforce… Sorry, so many forces. I’m sure it’ll be Slackforce, right?
Nicole Pomponio:
It could be.
Mike:
If admins were listening to this and they had to go what’s one reason I need to talk to my leadership about Slack and why because I heard it from Nicole, what would that answer be?
Nicole Pomponio:
My gosh, Mike, no pressure.
Mike:
No, none.
Nicole Pomponio:
I truly believe that we are going to continue to see an evolution of the integration between Slack and Salesforce. It feels like we’re on the arc, we’re on that path, right?
Mike:
Uh-huh.
Nicole Pomponio:
Purchased in 2021, started to hear some rumors about things being connected, started to see it happen. We’ve got Salesforce channels. We have to be empowered to understand what we can do with both systems. And the best way to do that is to immerse yourself in at least three days of sessions heavily centered around what you can do with Slack, what you can do with Salesforce, and what you can do by combining them.
I think it is the perfect opportunity. I was at TDX and started to hear a lot of Salesforce people asking, what’s up with Slack, what can we do there? A lot of people are starting to join the Slack community. It’s the perfect time. And I think with how fast things are changing, I don’t want anyone to get left behind. I don’t want them to feel like they’re being left behind, certainly not anyone’s company.
So I think, for me, it’s really, really being at this point of being able to understand both and connect them.
Mike:
Well, I think that’s very, very solid reasoning right there. I can’t think of anything better.
Nicole Pomponio:
It feels right. I feel like anyone would say yes to that.
Mike:
I mean, it’s also one of those pretty obvious things. AI is a very conversational tool, and so is Slack.
Nicole Pomponio:
Yes.
Mike:
It’s made for each other.
Nicole Pomponio:
I think so. I want an agent right in there chatting with me helping me with my day.
Mike:
I would love. I’m a fan of Marvel. One of these days I’m going to get my own assistant.
Nicole Pomponio:
Yes, yes.
Mike:
And it fires up, “Good morning, Mike.”
Nicole Pomponio:
I want my own J.A.R.V.I.S. I wouldn’t name them J.A.R.V.I.S., but-
Mike:
Oh, I would totally name them J.A.R.V.I.S., and I expect him to have a British accent because it sounds just very proper. But yes, open up my shades, tell me what the weather’s going to be in my first meeting and summarize the urgency of Slack messages that I got. That’s what I want.
Nicole Pomponio:
I don’t think we’re asking for too much.
Mike:
No. I mean, we were supposed to have flying cars by now.
Nicole Pomponio:
Yes.
Mike:
So…
Nicole Pomponio:
The least we can do is have a Slack agent that could do work around our house.
Mike:
That speaks in a British voice.
Nicole Pomponio:
Yes.
Mike:
Cool. Thanks, Nicole, for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it.
Nicole Pomponio:
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Mike:
Big thanks to Nicole for sharing how she’s leading with Slack and evolving the admin role along the way. I really love the fact that she is an admin for multiple platforms and has leadership in leadership at her organization. It’s great to hear from her how she’s building smart channel conversations and also, yes, finding that seat at the table. I don’t know about you, but I got a lot of strategy. I got a ton of inspiration out of this episode.
Now I know not everybody’s headed to Dreamforce, but if you are, I hope this session got you excited for some of the content that’s out there. If you’re not, that’s okay. There is a ton of content on Slack, on both Trailhead, on our YouTube channels. You’re not going to miss out. We’ll also broadcast a whole bunch of this. I do believe Nicole’s session will probably also be online, so I’ll just let that out as a sneak peek.
Now, if you learned something new or you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, share it with somebody, promote it on social, spread the word.
Let other admins find some of this great content that you enjoy listening to.
And with that, until next time, I’ll see you in the cloud.
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