The Functional Consultant role is 100% remote

“The Functional Consultant role is 100% remote – how effective will I be when doing workshops?”

M had gone through my Consulting masterclass series. With recent #Salesforce hands on experience with an end user and admin certs under her belt, she was feeling nervous about the role.

Functional consultants have a very important client-facing role as they have to truly understand client requirements, and interpret them into solution and technical documents for the internal team (who may be offshore) to build and develop.

Sharp communication is crucial here, and when we run in-person workshops, we are able to read and gather a lot of information as they are imparted verbally, and non-verbally.

We can detect reluctance, and probe gently.
Crossed arms and raised eyebrows signify skepticism, and we can re-frame our explanation.

Trying to pay attention to the individual expressions of the panels on the monitor distracts one from focusing on the topic at hand.

So, how effective are virtual workshops and discovery sessions?

There’s a difference between:
“Um, I guess that’s about right. Yes, that might be ok.”
and
“Oh my god that’s amazing! That’s EXACTLY what we needed!”

When you’re able to get a good feel for things, you’re usualy able to get things right.
When you have a fraction of the information you need to achieve the same goal, you’re going to miss out on a lot.

That’s ok – as long as everyone understands the implication of virtual discovery sessions.

It’s difficult, not ideal, but not impossible.
As with everything in life, especially with the pandemic – all we can do is our absolute best.

And that, is good enough.

#onthepeiroll
#requirementgathering
#awesomeadmins