Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Kate Lessard, Lead Admin Evangelist at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about the new True to the Core Deep Dive sessions coming to TDX.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Kate Lessard.
If you’ve been enjoying the True to the Core Deep Dive video series, we’ve got something exciting coming up for you at TDX. Each month, we host a virtual Q&A session with Salesforce product leaders about a topic chosen by the community. It’s a great opportunity to dig into tough use cases and thorny questions around a specific area of the platform.
The video series has been so helpful that we’re going to take it a step further. This year at TDX, in addition to the True to the Core Keynote, we’ll also host four live True to the Core Deep Dive sessions focused on specific topics like flow and automation. These will be can’t-miss conversations, and Kate Lessard is here to tell us what she has in store.
“The chance to actually connect directly with the Salesforce product leaders on those core platform topics is worth its weight in gold,” Kate says. It’s not just about solving problems; it’s about understanding the thinking behind why things work the way they do and where the product roadmap might be headed.
If you’re newer to the Salesforce ecosystem and worried that things might get too technical, Kate encourages you to check out these breakout sessions. “There’s a lot that you can gain from just being in the room, seeing who those product leaders are, hearing what’s top of mind for them, and how they’re answering questions,” she says.
You can better prepare for what’s coming next on the platform, and you never know when a random use case you came across might apply to you and your org. And even if you can’t be there in person, you can participate virtually on Salesforce+.
TDX is such a great opportunity to level up your technical skills and get to know the product better. One thing I used to do to prepare was conduct an audit of my Salesforce org. What products are we using? Where are we having problems? Where are we going next?
Figuring out what you’re interested in can help you make the most of your time at TDX. Hopefully, you’ll come back armed with information and insights to help your stakeholders chart a path forward with Salesforce.
Don’t forget to register for TDX to join us in person. Search “True to the Core Deep Dive” in the session catalog to view and favorite the four True to the Core Deep Dive sessions:
Listen to the full episode for more from my conversation with Kate about True to the Core Deep Dives at TDX, and be sure to catch her on Kate Clicks Through It. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast.
Mike Gerholdt:
Welcome to Salesforce Admins podcast. This week I’m joined by Kate Lessard to talk about the brand new True to the Core Deep Dive sessions coming to TDX and why they might just be your favorite part of the event. We dig into how these sessions are shaped by community feedback, what Salesforce admins, especially the newer ones, can expect, and how to ask better questions to get some real value from our product leaders. Kate also shares some practical tips on preparing for TDX, so you walk away ahead of the curve. So with that, let’s get Kate on the podcast.
So Kate, welcome to the podcast.
Kate Lessard:
Thanks. Happy to be back, it’s been a while.
Mike Gerholdt:
It’s been a while, yes or no, except if people are attuned to our YouTube page. You’re on Shorts whenever I’m not publishing something about the podcast, so they’re staying up to date. It’s not like you’ve gone missing.
Kate Lessard:
No, no. I love being able to just share those top of minds and the things that are important or the lessons that we’re learning as we really dive into Agentforce and all of the different things that we’re learning over here, especially we just went through a new release and there are always fun new features to call out.
Mike Gerholdt:
Constantly. And we’re heading into spring and spring means, besides new release, TDX.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah. That’s an exciting time of year.
Mike Gerholdt:
I think so because it’s kind of our shake the winter off, go out, see some fresh demos and some new stuff. I know as we’re recording this podcast, kind of content is in flight and things are being worked on and ironed on, and so is it fair to say sneak peek or I forget, we use all these terms and sneak peek means something, but you have stuff in the works for TDX that you’re working on that we’re going to talk about.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah, so I am working on deep dives, which is really exciting. So you might have been following along and watching our recent True to the Core Deep Dive virtual series, and we are bringing True to the Core Deep Dives to TDX as well, so that is what I have been working on lately.
Mike Gerholdt:
Wow. So tell us more about deep dive. If somebody hasn’t seen any video or anything about deep dives, what are they?
Kate Lessard:
So deep dives are really focused on diving deeper into community driven core Salesforce platform topics. So the virtual sessions, our community actually provides feedback and guides what those topics are. So they’ve been chosen using input from things like the idea exchange, past in-person True to the Core keynote sessions, as well as our virtual True to the Core sessions and feedback that the community shares. So it really gives the community a chance to guide the conversation and ask the questions that are really important to them.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, and you said True the core, which is always a popular session for anybody attending our events.
Kate Lessard:
And the thing about that True to the Core keynote, to just hop in there.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, no, no, no.
Kate Lessard:
It is, it’s really popular. I remember as an admin, it was one that I never wanted to miss. And whether I had a question to ask or whether I wanted to just sit back and listen and hear what other people were asking and get ideas and cheer with them on the different wins and things that we got approved and that we saw progress on, it’s so short that time flies by and inevitably there’s just not enough time. You always have people that are still lined up and waiting to ask questions. And then we also have people that are submitting questions online, so there’s no way to get to all of them, and I feel like these deep dives give us a chance to actually continue the conversation about certain large topics, things like flow and automation that people can come in and they can specifically ask their flow and automation questions that don’t get covered during the keynote because there’s just not enough time.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah. Well, that’s the beauty of like the times I’ve been at user groups where you sit down and somebody says, “We’re trying to do X, Y, and Z.” And you go around the table like a bird’s of a feather and you hear three different ways to do it and that person’s face is like, “Ugh.” And you kind of have to reassure them like there’s three different ways to do it, all three are right, but the one that’s right for you is the most right, which is why I think the True to the Core stuff is always so interesting because you kind of get people coming in with those edge cases.
Kate Lessard:
Absolutely. And the chance to actually connect directly with the Salesforce product leaders on those core platform topics, that’s worth it’s weight and gold I feel like because our community can get clarity on both upcoming features and some of the thinking behind the roadmap decisions and feel much more connected to the product and like they’re participating and influencing these future releases by asking these questions and by sharing feedback, it’s really important and impactful.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, and that’s the … Our product leaders are presenting at a lot of our events, but TDX, I know having worked on the track, they are really heavy into all of the product people. So the chances of you going to a session on flow or on Agent Builder or Lightning Web components, the chances of you seeing the product manager present and talk about that is really high at this event, moreso than a world tour or, well, Dreamforce, there’s just a problem of you need like 100 of you to go to all the sessions.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah, absolutely. And to run across all of San Francisco it feels like to get to all the sessions on your agenda.
Mike Gerholdt:
You put the Dreamforce marathon on your step tracker.
Kate Lessard:
Yep. Wear your running shoes, you’re going to need them.
Mike Gerholdt:
So True to the Core started a long, long time ago, way back when Salesforce launched Chatter, which was like, Hey, are you paying attention to the core features? Let’s break this down. If you’re a new Salesforce admin and you’re like, “So do I go to this True to the Core Deep Dive?” I could foresee somebody sitting there and being like, “I don’t understand why they’re cheering, why we get email updates when flows error out or like a obscure feature.” If you were a new Salesforce admin and you’re going to the True to the Core Deep Dive session, what should you expect?
Kate Lessard:
If you’re a new admin and you’re kind of hesitant to go, I would encourage you to just go check it out and sit there and listen. Even if you don’t have a specific question that you want to ask, I think that there’s a lot that you can gain from just being in the room, seeing who those product leaders are, hearing what’s top of mind for them and how they’re answering questions because they’re going to get questions about how they’ve built things and what’s coming next and being able to have that insight so that you can start to think, “Oh, this is how I do this now and maybe I’m new to this, but this is what is being developed, this is what is being worked on, this is what’s on the roadmap, this is kind of the future state.”
I feel like it helps you become a better admin and prepare for what’s coming next as well as to get some really insight into those use cases, as you mentioned, at community groups that get discussed so frequently because people will come with specific use cases and things that they’ve run into and really specific questions as well. And I just think it’s a ton of information to take in and just being in the room is really helpful as a new admin.
Mike Gerholdt:
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s talk about, you said questions about 100 times.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah.
Mike Gerholdt:
Well, I point it out because I’ve done a lot of webinars, this is going to date me, Jesus, back in the AM/FM radio days. What’s that? But I’ve done a lot of webinars, a lot of live events, like release [inaudible 00:08:39] live, a lot of Q&A stuff. I’ve even done Q@A’s after presentations. You’ve done a lot with this True to the Core content. For people going to TDX or people asking questions at these events, what is your advice on how to get the most out of it for just yourself and for everybody in the room?
Kate Lessard:
That is a great question and there I go using the question word again.
Mike Gerholdt:
That’s okay.
Kate Lessard:
I think that how you ask a question is really important, and we do, even as we do the True to the Core Deep Dive virtual series, we even cover how to ask a good question and context is going to be key. If it’s a specific use case, provide as much information and context as possible. If you know what specific feature or even which product manager you have a question for, being able to call them out and giving that information, super helpful. If not, we’ll get there. We do have our product leaders that will be on stage and they’ll pull in the different product managers that might be able to answer that question for you. But I think that context and just having a well-thought-out use case with all of the information that you want to bring into the question is going to be the most important thing.
Mike Gerholdt:
Do you often run into, because I would sit in these sessions a lot and be like, “Oh, I totally want to ask a question, but everybody’s going to think it’s silly”?
Kate Lessard:
Yeah, no silly questions, right? I think that that’s always a concern for all of us. We want to be seen as subject matter experts in front of our peers. But if you have a question, even if you think it’s silly, like nine times out of 10 somebody else has that question, and maybe it’s even something that one of those newer admins in the room that’s just there to listen and gain exposure, they have no idea. And you’re going to be bringing that to light and getting answers for yourself and for a number of other people.
So I always say that there are no questions you shouldn’t ask, and there are different ways that you can ask them as well. I think if you’re in the room, you can get up and ask the questions at the mic. We’re going to have a way to submit questions online, and that way we’ll also be able to bring in community members who aren’t in person. So this will be on Salesforce+ for people to watch as well. So I think that just deciding what way you’re comfortable asking the questions is just going to be important for you, but get the answers that you need.
Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, I think back to some of the True to the Cores that I would attend as a customer, and sometimes it’s really making friends with the people sitting around you and talking with them because there have been times when just happenstance I had an issue and the person sitting next to me is like, “Oh, I’ve run into that too. You know who you need to talk to?” And then they’ll tell you and it actually saves you from getting up and asking a question and moving to another question. And then you found somebody in the audience that you can be a session buddy with, so I think that’s super important.
Kate, when you were heading to a session like this as a customer, what would some of the homework be? Because admins have about, oh my, 40, is it 45 days to the TDX? I think it’s about 45 days.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah, it’s coming quick.
Mike Gerholdt:
What should they be doing for homework to get ready for sessions like this?
Kate Lessard:
Well, we’ve never had a session quite like this before, so that’s kind of a trick question. But I would say for all sessions in general, get on to the sessions on the TDX website and pick out the ones that are going to be most impactful to you. There’s just so much there, it’s impossible to attend and do them all. So pick the ones where you have questions, where you need more information, where you really want the chance to communicate directly and hear from those product leaders because as you called out, that really is the thing at TDX that makes it different, that makes it special. The opportunity to actually have those conversations with the product managers, with the product leaders and to get to know the product better, it really ups your technical skills.
Mike Gerholdt:
I couldn’t agree more. I always feel like I was doing somewhat of a technical audit before I’d head to an event, just to know what I had on my company’s roadmap and some of the features that maybe I was running into that I had issues with to come back, and it’s always nice to check those off and take notes.
Kate Lessard:
Yeah, that technical audit, that’s a really great point that I think that people should consider. Do an audit of your system. What are you using? What are you having issues with? Talk to your users about things that they might have questions about or struggles they might have. And really talk to your stakeholders as well about what their vision is for the future. Because you might be able to go to sessions and get information about products that you don’t have but that you’re considering and being able to come back and provide that information and a recommendation of either, “Yes, we should move forward,” or, “This is the implementation plan,” or, “This is the guidance that I got on this,” I think that that is going to be hugely impactful for your organization.
Mike Gerholdt:
Oh, especially when they say, “So what did you learn? How much did this event cost us?” And you’re like, “Well, I got to talk to these people and holy cow, I’m like four months ahead of the learning curve.”
Last question, how did you balance in-person sessions versus broadcast sessions and repeat sessions? What was your strategy?
Kate Lessard:
I think that with these deep dive sessions, the goal was to give people as much opportunity as possible to answer or to get their questions answered and to get that live time. So our goal is to have this after the True to the Core keynote so that if people were waiting in line or had questions that they were unable to ask, that they can come to these deep dive sessions and they can continue the conversation and really get the information that they need.
So thinking of that, we really were particular about the topics we chose and made sure that we went to the idea exchange and we went to our survey results we get from the True to the Core Deep Dive sessions, the ones that are done virtually, where people provide feedback about what they want to hear more about or where they have questions. And really just trying to give that space for people to be able to come in and continue the conversation. So because of that, all four of our sessions will be on Salesforce+, and then we’ve tried to kind of divide what will be able to be live versus video on demand so that we can reach the broadest amount of people.
Mike Gerholdt:
Makes sense. Kate, you have a series on YouTube. You want to talk about it real quick? Because I feel like it’s a really cool thing that, as a follow-up to this podcast, people can click over and watch some fun YouTube videos.
Kate Lessard:
Absolutely. So I am very much a person who learns by doing, as I think many Salesforce admins are. We want to really get hands-on with the different features that we’re learning about, that we’re delivering to our organizations and become those subject matter experts.
So I have a series on YouTube, it’s called Kate Clicks Through It, where we take one of these backend processes and we actually walk through it step by step, and I give you a chance to be in either a developer edition or a Trailhead Playground and actually follow along and click along beside me so that you can get hands-on versus just watching a demo and then trying to go and replicate it.
And it’s been really fun to do. I get to dive into these different topics that I think are really important for admins. And they can go ahead and do it along with me, learn by doing. And they’re pretty short and sweet, they’re all under 10 minutes so that our admins can go ahead and click through it with me on a lunch break or if they’re in between meetings or if they just want a little bit of fun learning outside of their regular workday.
Mike Gerholdt:
I like it. It’s awesome. Kate, thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
Kate Lessard:
It is my pleasure. I hope to see everyone. I know I’ll see you, but I hope to see all of our awesome admins at TDX and hopefully in these True to the Core Deep Dive sessions. Be sure to add them as favorites when you go and look at your sessions on the TDX site.
Mike Gerholdt:
Well, I want to thank Kate for coming on and helping us get prepped for the new True to the Core sessions. And I think they’re going to give you a chance to really lean in. I think she gave you some really good advice on how to ask better questions. And most importantly, just connect with the people around you and what you’re doing. So huge thanks to her for helping break that down on what to expect and how to show up prepared.
Now, if you’re heading to TDX, make sure you favorite those sessions. And if you can attend in person, don’t forget they’ll be on Salesforce+.
Now, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to share it with your Salesforce admin friends so they can get their questions ready too. And until next time, we’ll see you in the cloud.
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