You don’t have to be a technical person to start thinking like a Salesforce architect. In this article, I will share 5 concepts to bring a little architect-thinking magic to your everyday work.

Salesforce architect reflections from Northeast Dreamin’

In October 2023, I attended the premier ​​Salesforce community event in the Northeast, Northeast Dreamin’. There were plenty of informative sessions about AI, non-profit success, and others. I chose to focus my time on the sessions run by Salesforce Architects. 

• Architect Like a Pro: Using the Five Ws from Primary School – this session was led by Roger Mitchell from Dodge Labs. He shared a compelling approach to uncovering the real needs of clients during requirements-gathering sessions. The simple rubric of who/what/where/when/why can be an inspirational way to unlock deeper understanding. Because after all…
   
• A Salesforce Admin’s Guide to Data Modeling for Scalability and Performance – Here Brian Shea, a Fractional Salesforce Architect, shared principles for designing a data model utilizing the Salesforce Well-Architected framework. A big takeaway is the importance of sketching out your data model using Salesforce Data Model notation before you start building. This process makes our work more easily approachable and structured which makes it easier to understand for yourself and when shared with others.
  

But wait, just for Salesforce architects?

I was struck during these sessions, that the concepts are important to have in mind even if you are not a technical person or someone preparing to head down an architect career path. The reality is that everyone, in every position, can use the basic tenets of a Salesforce architect mindset to improve their everyday work and provide enormous value to our companies.

5 switches to activate your Salesforce architect mindset

When setting the stage for architectural thinking, it is important to zoom out and think about the big picture. Sure there are tactical details that need to be considered, but starting at a higher level will enable you to imagine beyond what is in front of you today.

An architect’s mindset is not reactive. It takes in various viewpoints and inputs that can help anticipate what your next move could or should be. No matter your role, the concepts below can help you elevate your thinking.

#1: Get curious

Think about your work in terms of the broader company and even industry trends. Think through a growth mindset lens and expand on what the questions are. With the growth mindset, the possibilities are limitless as we break away from a fixed mindset.

#2: Zoom out

Next time you are in a meeting, think about your mindset in terms of your camera. Your mind is like an aperture, when you open it you let more light in. How does this change your relationship with what is being discussed? When asked to make a change or perform a task, let more light in, zoom out, and ask broader questions to get to the heart of the why behind the ask.

#3: Get creative

Thinking like an architect is only sometimes a straight line. A heavy dose of thinking about the Art of the possible will open your mind and excite your stakeholders. Open a doc or a notebook and write out the wildest ideas you can think of. This is your chance to push the boundaries and turn some heads.

#4: Think longer term

Don’t be like Homer. Think about what the needs of your company might be in 1 year, in 3 years, in five years. What changes? What changes if you layer on a once-in-a-generation industry-shaking change? How would this inform how you build today with an eye toward a scalable and profitable future? You can go fast AND far.

#5: Analytics for the win!

Wherever possible, use data to support your thinking. This is especially important when pitching concepts to your stakeholders. If you and the teams you work with are using Salesforce, then lots of data is available to you. Moreso, if there has been an investment in more advanced analytics tools like Data Cloud and Einstein Analytics or B2BMA. With so much data at our fingertips, why not share?!

Bonus Tips!

• Be nimble as the needs of your company change throughout the year. Unexpected headwinds could force a change that can be faced head-on by thinking about the work differently.
• Don’t be afraid to share your work. Especially during fast-moving times, our ideas can really make a difference but we need to share them!

Whether you’re a developer, admin, or even a casual user, adopting an architect’s mindset can transform your work. So go beyond the tactical in what you do. By zooming out, getting curious, thinking longer term, and using data to guide decisions, you could lead to an architect mindset revolution in your organization.

Original article: 5 Ways to Adopt a Salesforce Architect Mindset Today

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In the Myth of Sisyphus, an essay by French philosopher Albert Camus, Sisyphus is sentenced to a punishment where for eternity, he must roll a boulder up a mountain. When he reaches the top, the boulder rolls back down the mountain and he must go back and start over.

Sound familiar? Some days our Salesforce platform administrators feel like they take one step forward and five steps back. 

Salesforce admins might get a bunch of requests that are handled swiftly, which just leads to more questions and requests. And then what about the latest Salesforce release that just went live? When will they have time to review much less implement all of the new sales efficiency features that the company is paying for? Oh, and they heard about some new Pardot features that could help the marketing team streamline their efforts, but…when will they be able to test, implement, and train them? 

Even the best admins really can feel like they are rolling the boulder of Salesforce up the hill to the top only to have it roll back down to the bottom. But your admins ​​don’t have to feel like Sisyphus!

Those Poor Sisyphus Admins

Luckily, we’re in the best ecosystem in the world. Not only are there many other admins in the Ohana to commiserate with, but there are more resources for support than you can shake a stick at. 

What can be done to help with the Salesforce boulder?

There are lots of options out there. So, I’m starting with the top 6 types of Salesforce resources that your admins can call on when the boulder has them feeling defeated.

Resource #1: The Trailblazer Community

There are thousands of people all over the world online at any hour of the day who are ready and willing to answer questions. This is great for difficult puzzles and you don’t know where to turn. It is also a place to research solutions and maybe even answer some questions. The Trailblazer community questions and answers are invaluable for Salesforce and Pardot administrators. I am also a huge fan of groups that push out information regularly which will be helpful for learning too! I recommend setting up your email preferences to get a weekly digest to stay on top of updates.
Top picks:

• Release Readiness Trailblazers – surfaces all the most up to date information about the 3X a year ​​ releases
• Admin Trailblazers – regular posting from Salesforce and #awesomeadmins 
• Salesforce Automation – we all love automation in Salesforce and there are great discussions here for learning more!

Resource #2: Salesforce Slack Communities

There are quite a few slack communities that have sprung up over the years that offer a way to have conversations with other people that can help you work through issues or puzzles in real-time. These are great not only for getting questions answered but they’re also great for community building. 

• Ohana Slack – A Slack workspace for all the Salesforce clouds and products. This space could be a lifeline for puzzled admins.
• Pardashian – very active Slack workspace that is all about Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (aka Pardot). All the major stars in the Pardot world are there – Lara Black, Jenna Molby, Jen Kazin to name just a few. If your tech stack touches Pardot, you will find great resources here.
• How to SFMC – a Slack dedicated to Salesforce Marketing Cloud community of users. Expect lively conversations! If your tech stack touches Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you will find great resources here.

Resource #3: Salesforce YouTube Channels

Sometimes text and reading can only go so far in helping me. I often go to YouTube to find more members of the community and Salesforce themselves posting short-form videos that give insight into the actual clicks needed to do the thing you need to do.

• Salesforce Support – Salesforce Support produces many short form “:how to videos” that can be just what you need to learn how to solve a problem.
• Salesforce Admins – Salesforce Admins is another channel from Salesforce. They product videos targeted specifically towards admins – there could be interviews.
• Salesforce Ben – This long running blog also has a top-notch channel with great explainer videos.

Resource #4: Salesforce Influencers on LinkedIn

There are some great people in the community on LinkedIn posting articles and newsletters about Salesforce, Pardot, and Marketing Cloud. What’s great about this is you can ask questions directly to the author and get answers. Because LinkedIn is such an important part of people’s digital footprint and tied so closely to their career, I’m seeing a lot of experts sharing great insights there. 

• Apex Hours – This Community led LinkedIn newsletter leans to the technical but anyone interested in gaining skills with declarative development (i.e Flow), will find a home
• Jordan Nelson – self-taught Salesforce wizard who shares actionable tips every single day!
• Pei Mun Lim – writes about Salesforce through a project management and business analysis lens. Plus great cartoons!
• Jodi Hrbek – A functional Salesforce expert who shares great content focussed on empowering admins

Resource #5: Local Trailblazer User Groups

Getting out there and meeting Salesforce users is super helpful for experienced and new administrators alike. At these free meet-ups, there are sessions about new tools, creative solutions and of course socializing with other Salesforce professionals. There are hundreds of groups around the world that are organized around roles (i.e. Developers, Admins), or interests (i.e. Women in Tech, Non Profits).

Resource #6: Bring on a Managed Services partner

What is great about this Is you get the benefit of an embedded resource without the cost associated with adding additional headcount to your team. With Salesforce Partners, like Sercante, when you sign on to the Managed Services Program you’ll not only have a dedicated engagement manager, but you’ll also have the whole Sercante team of experts behind that person providing input, guidance, and ideas. 

It’s really the best of both worlds. The right managed services partner has your back when it comes to new features and what to look out for in upcoming releases. They’ll work with you to build a roadmap based on your priorities and a backlog of items that may be under your radar.

Salesforce Community Resources are Your Admins’ Best Friends

It is true that your Salesforce platform administrators may often feel overwhelmed and like they are constantly struggling to keep up with the demands of their job. 

They may feel like they are taking one step forward and five steps back, and like they are unable to keep up with the constant stream of requests and new features. This can lead to feelings of frustration and exhaustion. 

Burnout among Salesforce admins is real. But it does not have to be that way.

With these resources, administrator support can be self-served. Or, you can reach out to Sercante today to talk about our managed services offerings!

Original article: 6 Resources to Keep Your Salesforce Admins Moving Forward

©2025 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

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The Salesforce Spring ’23 Release Notes are out, and they include important features for Salesforce administrators and marketers who are on the platform. 

We get three major releases from Salesforce each year — Spring, Summer and Spring. Each Salesforce release includes upgrades and enhancements that affect Salesforce orgs in different ways. 

So, if you’re a Salesforce Admin or if you’re managing marketing operations for your company or organization and want to know more about Salesforce CRM, then you’re in the right place. We’re going to cover everything you need to know about the Salesforce Spring ‘23 Release if you’re an admin or a marketer who uses Salesforce.

14 Platform Highlights from the Salesforce Spring ‘23 Release

The theme I see in this release is about efficiency and clarity. Whether it is for users working in Salesforce or administrators building declarative solutions. If our teams can quickly get the right information at the right time, the whole organization will benefit. With that, here are 14 highlights.

Highlight #1: Create Personalized Report Filters

The addition of relative filtering for Owner fields in reports will allow admins and managers to build one report for their teams to see the records they are related to. Any field that relates to a user can use this feature. Think things like “Show me Cases where I was the last person to Modify” or “Show me Opportunities that I don’t own but Created”

This will also reduce technical debt built up by workarounds (i.e. custom formula checkbox fields to show logged in users). I dream of a day that we can find this feature on List Views, too.

Highlight #2: Subscribe to More Reports and Dashboards

As soon as customers see the power of report and dashboard subscriptions, they crave more. For companies with Unlimited edition, users will be able to schedule 15 reports and dashboards. The previous limit was 7 reports and 7 dashboards. That’s a 53% increase!

Highlight #3: Track Field History for Activities

Finally in Spring ‘23, we’ll be able to track field history on Activities and Tasks. This has been a pain point for many admins that left them scratching their heads and wondering WHY can’t I see all of the people who passed the assignment of this Task around? Sadly there is a limit of 6 fields for tracking. Note, once activated, the Task History related list is added by default to the standard Task and Activity page layouts but needs to be manually added to any custom layouts.

Highlight #4: See More Records in Dynamic Related Lists

Dynamic related lists are truly an amazing enhancement to related lists in Lightning which allow admins to set dynamic conditions on what appears in a related list. The latest enhancement bring parity with standard related lists with the introduction of the View All link so users can see all related records rather than the current limit of just 30 on screen. Kudos to the development team for bringing this Idea to life!

Highlight #5:Convert Processes to Flows with the Migrate to Flow Tool

Admins will have a new tool in their toolbox to help with the migration of old Processes built with Process Builder over to Flows. This is great news for orgs that have many vital processes, but don’t forget that when Salesforce deprecates a feature, it is a chance to take a step back and determine if those old automations still make sense for the business today. Don’t just lift and shift! 

Highlight #6: Capture Inclusive Data with Gender Identity and Pronouns Fields

Any time Salesforce takes a step towards greater inclusivity and representation, I am all for it. Spring 23 will introduce new Pronouns and Gender Identity fields as optional picklist fields on the Lead, Contact, and Person Account objects. Just update the field visibility settings and add them to the layouts to start.

Highlight #7: Prevent Duplicate Cases with Lightning Threading in Email-To-Case

Lightning threading is a new Email-to-Case threading approach that matches incoming emails to cases using a combination of token- and header-based threading. What’s great about this new technology is it helps with a major pain point that Support teams and admins face with duplicate cases on incoming emails. Previously with the Case thread-id when a customer removed the unique thread I’d from their reply, a new Case would be created. 

Highlight #8: Shrink Outgoing Emails and Include Only New Content

Any support rep will know what a great improvement this is. When sending emails from Salesforce Cases, we will no longer reach size limits for outgoing emails (if they include new content only). It’s as simple as your admin checking a new box in the Email-to-Case setup.

Highlight #9: See Element Descriptions on the Flow Canvas

Sometimes Flows can get big and yes, confusing. The next release will see a great “quality of life” improvement with the new Element Descriptions. Flow developers will no longer have to click in and open up an element to see the description. We all know it is best practice to fill out the description when given the chance and this might give more incentive to do that!

Highlight #10: Select a Value from a List of Choices with the Choice Lookup Component (Beta)

For those jumping in on this Beta, they will see a set of features in this new Screen Flow component that is part “type ahead” functionality and part filter. Essentially you can set up a collection of choices for certain fields (picklists, record lookups) which will become searchable as a user interacts with the Screen. Will be very useful in cases where there are many values in a picklist but only a handful are relevant to the Flow at hand.

Highlight #11: Collaborative Forecast Modernization

I’m really excited that Salesforce is giving Collaborative forecasts some love in this release. There are 2 items to note.

Experience a Modern Forecasts Page

There is a reimagining of the whole Forecast experience that is designed to make navigating and reviewing the Forecast more intuitive for Sales leaders and sales people.

Build Custom Forecasts Pages That Work for Your Business
Here we will see the Forecast ​​Lightning page gain the ability to customize with components similar to other object Lightning pages using the Lightning App Builder interface. A great step forward!

Highlight #12: Take Action More Quickly in the Dynamic Activity Composer

Sticking with the theme of greater access to key information and actions, the Dynamic Activity Composer packs features in each of the tabs in this new interface. For example, for those that have multiple email fields on Contact, the email tab allows more choices for which email to send to. Another cool addition is the ability to add to a To Do list Task from the Email and Call tabs.

Highlight #13: DevOps Center (Generally Available)

With the general release of Salesforce DevOps Center admins will have a robust set of dev ops tools for release management. Key features include automatic change tracking with source control, easy to migrate changes with clicks and enhanced environment management with sandbox swapping.

Highlight #14: Enhance Case and Lead Record Pages with Dynamic Forms

Here’s another great push into accessibility of Dynamic Forms for standard objects with the introduction of this feature for Cases and Leads (joining Accounts, Contacts, Person Accounts, and Opportunities). Dynamic Forms allow individual fields to be placed in a field section component anywhere on the Lightning Page for a highly customized experience. Those sections can be access controlled with filter rules. With this update, admins will be able to fine tune their Case and Lead pages for better efficiency and visibility of key information.

Salesforce is getting bigger and better all the time

Salesforce Administrators and B2B marketers who come to Salesforce are usually looking to scale their efforts and grow in a way that makes sense. Additionally, they want to make the experience of the users frictionless. These latest enhancements from the Salesforce Spring ‘23 Release get admins and marketers closer to those goals by saving them time and resources. Contact the team at Sercante to get help implementing these enhancements in your Salesforce org. And leave us a comment below to let us know what you think about the Spring ‘23 Release.

Original article: Salesforce Spring ‘23 Release: Platform Highlights

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