Getting Your Salesforce Project Back On Track

As a paramedic, chaotic and intense situations were part of my daily job. Not every call, most of the time, calls were pretty mundane. But, occasionally, we would get a real emergency, and those calls could get off track. There is no pause button in such situations. You can't step out for a breather. You have to step in and get things right, fast. Going back to the basics was always the way to get back on track. "Scene safe? Airway, breathing, Circulation, Head to toe. Assess, treat, reassess, move."

The moral of the story: When things get tough, always return to the basics.?

At Dynamic Specialties Group, we have found a niche in assisting Companies in getting their Salesforce org back on track. I believe we excel in this space because we return to the basics and grow from there. Too much complexity raises the opportunity for failure. Adopting a new software platform while modifying business processes is a lot of change. Humans are not good at change or prediction, both of which must be managed. If we take many simple steps instead of several giant steps, the opportunity for success rises significantly. Much like running a marathon, one telephone pole at a time.

First and foremost, we need a solid discovery focused on listening to the client's needs. Communication is a skill and requires the ability to establish trust and rapport, listen without judgment, and say what you mean. Once we understand the current state and gain a feel for the desired end state, we can focus on the most immediate needs, then finesse the solution over time. This slow approach gives time to build trust between the client and us. Once we know we can trust each other, open communication is so much easier.

The second is a solid base installation. Minimize the complexity to understand where the challenge exists. Perhaps the org was not designed with the end users in mind. It could be that business processes do not align with the new tool's capabilities. Or likely, it is a combination of many factors, and not least is the human dislike for change. What they are doing now is what they know; something new could be better or worse. Humans have a negative bias. So we want to make the initial transition simple, bite-sized, and gather feedback from the end user.

Follow the agile approach of iteration. Be small, be nimble, implement, assess, adjust, wash, rinse, and repeat—the smaller and more frequent the iteration, the better. However, the secret is gathering feedback at each iteration, which must come from the end users. Adopting a new tool happens much better when the end has a stake in building it. They already know how it will improve their lives; they don't have to trust and hope.

I often like the comparison to wanting a Mercedes when you are sixteen. A sixteen-year-old needs to start with a Honda Civic, learn what a car is and grow into a Mercedes over time. This slower approach, "Crawl-Walk-Run," takes time; in business, time is money. The longer the implementation tail, the greater the perceived cost. However, making a thorough discovery and building small iterations that can receive feedback allows for usable tools in the hands of the end-user faster.?That is time & money saved!

The result may look much different than you planned, but that is ok. It will likely serve you better because you built what the end user actually needed, not what someone up the chain thought they needed. It's a journey, and we all grow along the way.

If you are in the throws of getting back on track, go back to the basics, breath, and with time it will all work out. Establish clear communication, get clear on what you need now, and involve your end users. Please feel free to reach out if we can be of service.