5 New Year Resolutions for Salesforce Professionals in 2023

Welcome to 2023!?

As we kick off another year in the Salesforce ecosystem, it’s a good chance to reflect on the past year and set goals for the year ahead. As I covered in my last article “2022: A Year in Review”, last year was full of excitement and progress for the Salesforce ecosystem.

So what might 2023 have in store??

Based on current trends that thought-leaders from around the Salesforce ecosystem are predicting, we’ve put together our “5 Important Salesforce Job Trends for 2023”, which has launched today. These include…

1. Predicting the success of the “Salesforce Economy”
2. Future-proof your career with specializations
3. Salesforce DevOps
4. Slack Skills
5. Salesforce Flow?

So as the start of a new year is a good time to hit the reset button and make positive changes in our lives, here are a few ideas for new years resolutions for your Salesforce career in 2023…

1. Learn Salesforce DevOps

The Salesforce DevOps ecosystem has been slowly growing since around 2013 and has exploded over the last couple of years. With thousands of Salesforce customers around the globe adopting DevOps best practices, and tools available on the Salesforce AppExchange.

But could 2023 be the year when 10,000’s of Salesforce customers start adopting DevOps tools? With the release of the native Salesforce DevOps Center, very possibly.?

The Salesforce DevOps Center is pegged as the successor to Change Sets, and whilst the original deployment functionality won’t be going anywhere for many years, this is a nod from Salesforce to say Change Sets are outdated, and DevOps Center is the future.?

Whilst you can start using DevOps Center to start deploying changes today, it’s best to educate yourself, and your fellow colleagues on the DevOps philosophy and implementation best practices first.

This will not only help your company use the new tool correctly but set you up for success in your own career. Salesforce DevOps skills are inevitably going to become a hot commodity in the future.?

Here are 20 resources you can use to start learning Salesforce DevOps today.?

2. Attend a Community Event

2022 was the first year that we saw Salesforce Community events come back in mass, after a 2 year hiatus.?

Whilst I love official Salesforce events like TrailblazerDX, World Tours & Dreamforce, there is something unique about Community events held around the world, that tend to focus exclusively on attracting technical Salesforce professionals, as opposed to broader roles such as executives in sales and marketing departments.

This creates a special kind of event with like-minded Trailblazers to network and mingle with. I will personally be attending dreamOlé, Londons Calling & French Touch Dreamin’.

For a full compilation of Salesforce events, check out our list here.

3. Build up your Specializations?

Whilst building up niche specialization skills in the Salesforce ecosystem has always been a surefire way to advance your career, in 2023, it could be seen as a requirement, more than a nice to have.?

There are probably 100-odd different, niche, specializations you could focus on in the Salesforce ecosystem, but we’ve picked out 30 specializations that we believe are interesting to look at in 2023. These range from learning new products such as B2B Commerce or CRM Analytics, to smaller, more niche tools such as Flow & DevOps Center.?

For the past few years, Salesforce has been on a serious drive to recruit new talent into the ecosystem, with initiatives such as Trailhead, Pathfinders & the Talent Alliance. This has largely worked well, and there is now a huge amount of new Salesforce professionals trying to land jobs.?

For new entrants coming into the ecosystem, learning about Sales & Service Cloud as the core Salesforce products are essential to building up your foundational knowledge about the platform. But for those that have a few years of experience under their belt, it’s time to start specializing to stand out from the millions of people who are starting to enter the ecosystem.

4. Master Salesforce Flow?

2023 is the year when our faithful friend Process Builder will start the road to retirement, with the ability to create new ones being turned off sometime in February (As happened with Workflow rules last summer). Which means we are in the final stages of the retirement timeline.

As many of you will already know, Flow is the powerful declarative tool that will be taking the crown as Salesforce’s top declarative automation tool. Whilst there is no doubt Salesforce Flow is more powerful than the other tools, it also has a steeper learning curve, and requires more thought when building out automation.?

So in 2023, it’s not enough to simply learn Flow, you will need to master it. A great place to start is by learning Flow Best Practices.

We will also be hosting our “Ultimate Salesforce Flow Crash Course” next week, sign up right here on LinkedIn!

5. Give Back to the Salesforce Community

Finally, we have a new years resolution that should be applied at all times when working in the Salesforce ecosystem, giving back!?

?I think you would be hard-pressed to find an individual in the Salesforce ecosystem who hasn’t been helped by another professional. Whether it's via the Trailblazer Community, YouTube videos, or one of the many blogs available, so it’s good to get into the habit of giving back. Here are a few ideas...

1. Mentor a fellow Trailblazer via Trailhead
2. Present at a Salesforce community event or User Group
3. Create content online?
4. Write for Salesforce Ben!
5. Answer questions on the Trailblazer Community

Summary?

Whilst 2023 hasn’t kicked off in the best of ways, with news that Salesforce will be laying off 10% of their workforce, it’s also important to focus on the positives that this year will bring.?

Movements such as Flow & DevOps Center are going to help Salesforce professionals deliver more value to their organizations, which in turn will help them through these turbulent, economic times.?

Anything I’ve missed out? Let me know your new year's resolutions in the comments below!?

Until next time,

SFB