There are many different specialties spanning the various Salesforce products. You’ll often hear about finding your niche, that specialty where you’re the expert and you’ve found your groove. Whether you’ve found your niche as an administrator, developer, consultant, or in a highly specialized area (I’m looking at you, CPQ!), there are some common skills that, when honed and developed, are guaranteed to make your projects more successful.
One of those skill sets is the designer’s mindset.
My awareness of the importance of a designer’s mindset came from working alongside an especially skilled website consultant while implementing a sales process spanning the website and our Salesforce system. The thought process behind designing a successful website resonated with me: navigation, ease of use, and the end-to-end user experience (UX).
One notion that came up over and over again was how to design webpages so as to not make the user think. When a user is on a website and has to think about where to click next, you’ve already lost them. My colleagues must have started a pool around how many times each week they would hear “remember, don’t make them think” when we were designing anything, whether it was new Salesforce functionality or content for training. Shortly after, Trailhead started coming out with new badges around design that were hitting the exact same topics I had been studying in website design! This lead to a brand new credential: Salesforce Certified User Experience (UX) Designer.
The buzz around this exam was enormous, with the Twitter-sphere blowing up with Salesforce professionals nominating each other to take the exam. It was clear that this one was not to be missed.
A designer’s mindset, in its purest form, is about keeping your target audience—whether it be an end user, a lead, or a customer—front and center in the design of your project. It’s a human-centric focus that takes a step back from the technical systems and processes, and instead hones in on what the individuals impacted by those systems and processes really need.
There are many different design principles that come into play in a designer’s mindset:
Let’s take the example of creating a new custom field. We often hop over to the Setup menu, create the field, and are off to the next task. But adopting a designer’s mindset means:
All of these small gestures result in saved time, increased productivity, and all-around happier end users.
What is one of the top measures of a successful project? User adoption.
In fact, a study by Forrester cited “failure to adopt, once implemented” as one of the top four reasons why customer relationship management (CRM) projects fail, along with “focusing on technology, rather than people.”
That sounds pretty scary for the everyday admin. Our role consists of constantly pushing out projects, big and small, to enhance our Salesforce orgs while improving ROI and increasing team productivity.
So, how can we keep our superhero capes and ensure our projects are a success?
By keeping our end users front and center throughout the entire design process. That means gathering input from business stakeholders from the beginning, creating personas for each type of stakeholder to ensure an inclusive design, testing solutions on the front end as a user following multiple testing scenarios, and gathering feedback after implementation for user design improvement.
Adopting a designer’s mindset can help safeguard the success of your projects, take your admin game to the next level, and maybe even get you a new pair of boots to go with that superhero cape!
It’s never been easier to learn more about UX design!
The new Salesforce UX Designer credential has been foreshadowed as the first of many design-focused certifications to come, meaning that the designer’s mindset is here to stay. It’s no surprise, with UX design having an impact on everything from user adoption to project success—and we all know happy users make for a happy admin! With these skills arguably being applicable to any role within the Salesforce ecosystem, there’s never been a better time to start developing your designer’s mindset.
As an admin, you play a major role in how customers and colleagues experience Salesforce. Choices you make can connect your organization’s mission/purpose to the power of cutting-edge technology. When it comes to your org’s values, this is especially important, because customers care about what businesses believe in, and it’s often admins who translate those […]
Over the last 14 years in the Salesforce ecosystem, one of the topics talked about least has been maybe one of the most important ones: availability. Availability is a topic not too many people get excited about—that is, until availability is negatively impacted. But with a little thoughtful design, implementation, and eye toward maintaining your […]
Salesforce Admins deliver value to their organizations every day through the core skills they develop on the path of becoming an admin. At a time when many businesses face critical challenges and tightening budgets, admins are essential for driving efficiency and productivity through their core responsibilities. As an admin, you drive success for your organization […]
