The Song of Significance
The Song of Significance, by Seth Godin 🌔
How to do project work that matters, with people who care.
Very few #SalesforcePartners understand this.
They are not unkind on purpose… they kinda just became that way ‘organically’.
The Professional Services that bills by the hour or by the day or week, reduces a human being into a unit of resource.
And that’s the crux of it.
That’s the heart of being unkind.
When we do the emotional labour by honing our craft to deliver art (and I have seen this in the projects that my team has delivered) – we bring something amazing into the world.
We start by treating people as humans, not as resources. 🙅🏻♀️
We start by saying to the client:
“Here. We can do this for you better than anyone else.
“Yes we cost more, but we will deliver value which will exceed what you have paid for it.
“You will know that we have built it with care, because doing great work matters deeply to us.
“And when you see the finished product and how it has changed the lives of your end-users and your organisation for the better, you will know why we are the best at what we do.” 🌹
Billing on a Time and Materials (T&M) basis does not lend itself to this way of thinking, as the team will worry about how long they are spending, as opposed to innovating or being creative in the problem solving approach.
I believe that offering a Fixed Price (or Flat Fee) for the completed delivery is the way forward.
This depends on understanding the business, process and technology landscape – and doing what’s commonly called a discovery, a blueprint, or a scoping exercise.
Do this, and you’ll find that great talent will flock to you, as will your ideal customers. 💞
I’m working with a few partners who share this belief, and I can see the amazing things that are happening for them.
#ChallengeTheStatusQuo
You’ll be surprised by what you find.
What do you think?
#OnThePeiroll
You’re a bit rubbish
“You’re a bit rubbish at this self-promotion thing, you know.”
ÜberHub rolled his eyes at me. 🙄
I had just told him that I didn’t plug my #SalesforceDiscovery101 book at #TDX24. 😛
And I forgot to add the “Here’s how you can find me” slide at the end of my deck (Thank you Tristan Lombard 🇮🇱🕊️🇵🇸 🇺🇦 for making sure I mentioned it during the Q&A of my talk!)
I don’t know – it’s not something I talk about a lot, even if I do ask people to get it when we talk about #Salesforce discoveries – one of the most over-looked phases of a project.
Paperback currently only available on Amazon, with the kindle version still in the To-Do lane of my kanban pile 😬
Book 2 still in the works, though it’s currently on ‘pause’.
Anyway – for my new followers, if you are an #AwesomeAdmin or an aspiring consultant (or even a seasoned one!) you might find this book useful!
No nuggets of wisdom today, just a straight up plug for my book. 🙅🏻♀️
Unless you have a reason not to – and the only 3 unacceptable reasons are as below. 😁
Anything else is just excuses. 🤭
Do you have yours yet?
#GitItNow
#OnThePeiroll
🚨🚨Controversial opinion🚨🚨
🚨🚨Controversial opinion🚨🚨
The main reason why so many Salesforce orgs are so badly built is because it’s SO EASY to do things with…
🥧drag and drop
🥧no-code build
🥧fast deployment
Without real-world experience (that is built on learning from painful mistakes), those new to Salesforce gain a false sense of confidence from the ability to quickly do things powerfully.
Is it the right way or wrong way to teach a newly certified driver how to drive in a racecar??
Neither. It’s the MAX POWER way.
It’s the WRONG WAY, but FASTER.* 🙄
So why is this top of my mind at the moment?
Welp, #TDX24 is over, and as you’d expect – AI, LLM, and prompt engineering topics topped the charts in session and popularity.
I can’t help but ponder its implications.
What will it do to our young leaders, about to leave the world of academie and step into the working environment?
And to those of us who make a living creating things – written word, code, copies, art?
How about for Salesforce professionals who are (i) new to the ecosystem or (ii) seasoned professionals?
Are we outsourcing our thinking away?
Especially since so much of our learning process is based on making mistakes and gaining wisdom through excruciating pain and agony??
I muse on this in this week’s newsletter issue of #OnThePeiroll.
Deets to subscribe in the comments below 👇
What do you think?
* Only Simpson fans will understand this reference 😜
*THIS* was my poop slide at #TDX24.
*THIS* was my poop slide at #TDX24. 😆
OK not really.
All I did was adding the “AI’ed” bit on top of the CRM in the doodle I drew in 2021 but boy, is it still relevant!
It’s another depiction of #GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out.
While the demo during the keynote showing the slick Turtle Bay AI-assisted operations look so sexy, I hope no one underestimates the amount of work needed to get to that point in terms of data quality and optimal code quality.
It’s easy to sell sexy, but the hard graft and cost *cough* “investment” in terms of hard cash and resources to ready your org for full AI implementation is rarely mentioned.
Because not sexy.
Because hard.
Because dull.
😒
Who wants to deal with all that?
But deal we must (I’m sure this is bad grammar but whatevs 😛) if we want to reap the benefits of a well designed business critical software that will propel the organisation forward.
The message since the beginning of the IT revolution still stands.
Pay attention to the hard fundamentals:
🍩 Good data hygiene
🍩 Well-Architected fundamentals
🍩 Clean and streamlined processed
🍩 Elegant code and flows
As well as the human side of things
🍩 Initiate change from grassroots
🍩 Invest in education and training
🍩 Focus on user adoption
🍩 Turn sceptics into champions
None of the fundamentals have changed throughout all the different waves of tech advancement.
It’s easy to chase the sexy and shiny and to ignore the dull and boring.
I believe that’s the reason why so many projects fail to achieve business benefits.
What do you think?
#OnThePeiroll
(Lucky thing the poop 💩 in my diagram didn’t get me into trouble and I hope I’m allowed back in the future! 😁)
You said you’d remove the poops
“You said you’d remove the poops from your slides!” 😫
Ninja #3 wasn’t too happy with me after my talk at her school…. despite so many of her classmates enjoying my juvenile but fun talk on how a dead french astrologer shaped my life 😁
So anyway, I have a poo drawing in my #TDX24 talk tomorrow.
I’ve submitted my deck already, and have not had feedback.
I think I’m going to keep the drawing in though, as I am making a big smelly point. 💩
If you’re here in San Francisco, please come to my talk. 🙏🏻
There will be stickers!!! ❤
But… Do you think I’ll get into trouble for that poop? 😬
Add my talk to your agenda here: https://sforce.co/3IglyEi
#OnThePooroll
Do you have a checklist
Do you have a checklist that you use to review your SOW before you release them?
#SalesforcePartners have been reaching out to me to assess their sales-delivery processes because they’ve been having delivery issues where projects have been consistently turning RED.
Most of the time it’s because of sub-par scoping that includes:
🚩 didn’t ask the right questions
🚩 didn’t understand the answers properly
🚩 made too many assumptions and didn’t validate them
🚩allowed unconscious bias to seep into requirements
🚩 non-rigorous documentation practices, e.g. vague user stories, poorly written acceptance criteria, etc
This lends itself to badly written Statement of Works as well.
Having a checklist helps avoid potential legal disputes when projects go south:
⬜ Have you avoided dangerous words and phrases (like best practice, best endeavours etc?
⬜ Is the functional, non-functional and technical scope clear?
⬜ Are our responsibilities clear and unambiguous?
⬜ Are our deliverables defined clearly?
⬜ Are acceptance criteria defined, objective, measurable and under our control?
⬜ Are client obliations unambiuous?
⬜ Are our dependencies on client sub-contractors defined as client obligations
etc etc etc.
These are just a few items that have caught out SO MANY partners on so many projects.
There is an art to doing Discoveries properly, and part of it is ensuring clear language in gathering requirements and making the promises in the Statement of Work.
What else might you add to the contract/SOW checklist?
What might have prevented the horror projects you’ve been on??
#OnThePeiroll
#ProjectManagement