#NoCodeNovember Week One: Educate Yourself

I’ve done my fair share of Salesforce training and went through the admin and developer in-person classes, which set a solid foundation for my certifications. When I wanted more, I created a training plan for myself and manually listed out all the Help and Training articles and videos that I thought I needed to know to be an expert in a certain area. But that list kept getting longer and harder to manage. Then Salesforce did what it does best and released something aligned with my needs. Enter: Trailhead. So this week when my team jumps into a month without code, we will lean on the guidance of Trailhead to help us pick up new skills!

Here’s Why Trailhead is Awesome

It’s informative. Naturally, a training tool should be able to educate. Trailhead hits on key Salesforce concepts like object relationships, Chatter, Mobile, and Lightning. It’s easy to navigate between topics and know when you’ve accomplished a track. It’s engaging. The writing style is very conversational; it’s made me both think and chuckle out loud.  And let’s face it: gamification works! Whether addressing a new concept or features I’ve known and used for years, getting points at the end of a challenge almost always got an out-loud, celebratory “Yes!” from me.  It’s comprehensive. Trailhead is not just a set of instructions, but implementation best practices. In a section about AppExchange, it not only told me about the different sections on the page, but also how to develop a strategy for choosing the apps that best fit my needs.

The Modules to focus on

To help my team prepare, I’m having them focus on these modules in Trailhead because they showcase the declarative problem-solving functionality that every developer should know about.

• My team will be starting with Process Automation. When presented with a business case, how do we choose between Workflow, Visual Workflow, Approvals, and Process Builder? This module helps us understand the features of each tool and gives an overview of how each works. The hands-on challenges ensure we get a chance to use each one before finishing the module—this will make us more confident in the capabilities!
• The App Customization pairs perfectly with #NoCodeNovember, and will help us develop apps without code. Even seasoned Salesforce professionals can benefit from this module, because it touches on how to use Lightning for building slick pages.
• Part of the Salesforce Platform Basics module, the AppExchange Strategy resource goes beyond just navigating the page into all the dimensions of a business requirement (budget, timeline, scope) and helps us ask the right questions before even typing keywords into the search engine. My team will be reviewing this section now because we will explore the AppExchange in the third week of #NoCodeNovember.
• Mobile has been a hot topic among my stakeholders, and you know what? We’re not waiting until December to get started. The Salesforce1 Configuration module will help us get our Salesforce mobile-friendly while remaining a #NoCodeHero.

Let’s launch #NoCodeNovember thirsty for a greater understanding of Salesforce; an investment in education can supercharge your efforts this month! Whether it’s Trailhead, recent release notes, or one of the many resources from the Salesforce community, carve out some time to learn something new this week.

Interested other #NoCodeNovember-friendly resources? Check these out:

• Looking for a Process Builder overview? Use Force by Design’s blog post to understand the capabilities of Process Builder at a high level.
• Want even more about Process Builder? Read here for a deeper dive into how the tool can be applied, and even a candid evaluation of the feature’s current state.
• If you missed the Spring ’15 announcement of Process Builder, check it out in this video, which includes a demo of the feature and a product roadmap to see where this tool is headed!
• Dig into more of what Process Builder has to offer in this one-hour webinar about automating business processes from end-to-end without code.
• Discover the what, why, and how of process automation during this demo with the product manager of Visual Workflow.
• Advance your Visual Workflow skill in this webinar that teaches best practices around design techniques and debugging, as well as how to make your flow mobile-friendly.
• This site gives you an overview of when to use which workflow tool—a helpful guide when choosing a solution for your users. (Bonus: it’s Trailhead, meaning you’ll get the conversational approach and points for completing the challenge!)

About the Author

Michelle Gillen manages a team of Salesforce developers in the health care industry.  She has been using Salesforce to help transform organizational processes since 2011. Follow her on Twitter @mellegillen to hear updates on her #NoCodeNovember journey!