DevOps Diaries

Meri Williams is the CTO of Pleo, and ex-CTO of influential challenger bank, Monzo. Meri has held technical leadership roles for the last 10 years, and over that time has developed a deep understanding of what it takes to build high-performing teams with a foundation of exceptional culture. She is also the Chair and Host of The Lead Developer conference — a conference for technical leadership centred around “Team, Tech, and Tools”.

In this fantastic episode Jack and Meri take a look at the nuances of culture and leadership. Meri gives her take on how you know you’re ready for that next step in your career as a people leader, or not as the case may be.. They also discuss the importance of reframing the feeling that doing great work only means more work to your detriment.

Meri is also a DEI leader, and has spent time understanding what’s important in creating an accepting, inclusive environment to work. It hinges on three things that you should consider as an employee or prospective employee in your organisation. Tune in to hear what they are!

Useful links based on key themes from this episode
How to improve team collaboration
How to create a successful Salesforce team culture
How to document your Salesforce DevOps processes
How to unite distributed Salesforce teams
Tips to assess your Salesforce teams' training needs

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

In this episode Jack reflects on 2023, sharing insight from across the year. Taking insight from The State of Salesforce DevOps survey, Jack dives into the response from the ecosystem; where we were, where we got to, and where we’re headed in 2024.

This episode covers the biggest buzzword in Salesforce right now, artificial intelligence. He dives into the buzzwords of the past — digital transformation, security, communities. And, the buzzword of the past that he thinks will make a strong resurgence, business value.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

Submit your responses to the State of Salesforce DevOps survey
How to adopt CI/CD for Salesforce
Learn Salesforce DevOps best practices
A complete guide to backup for Salesforce
How to calculate the ROI of Salesforce DevOps

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Randy is a Salesforce Consultant and one of the voices behind the popular Salesforce newsletter, Salesforce Cha Cha. Randy has a knack for simplifying technical content and injecting humour to make typically heavy concepts fun and digestible. Salesforce Cha Cha is a must-subscribe — “it’s a vibe”!

In this episode, Jack and Randy chat about how coming from different backgrounds outside of SaaS, consulting, or even Salesforce have been pivotal in the success of their careers. They talk about having forward looking vision, speak to process and scale, and bring culture to the forefront of the DevOps conversation. They also discuss how core skills are important, and going above and beyond as a consultant by caring, doing the right thing, and how you can empower clients.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

Salesforce Cha Cha
The secret to Salesforce success: DevOps culture
Creating a culture of success
How consultancies deliver DevOps successfully

Connect with Jack
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LinkedIn

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Julian Joseph is a Salesforce DevOps Engineer that has built hugely valuable experience during his time at Salesforce, Salesforce customers, and partners. Julian has built his career following best practice engineering principles and believes that a DevOps mindset has transformative power when combined with sound business strategy.

In this episode Jack and Julian dive into the importance of high-quality testing in the Salesforce delivery lifecycle, and how Julian has levelled up his career to help teams speed up and maintain high-quality Salesforce releases. They also explore the differences between developing Salesforce applications on the customer side and the partner side.

Tune in to also hear Julian’s recommendations for source control branching, his take on effective sandbox strategy, his predictions for the DevOps ecosystem as we approach 2024, and a surprisingly simple hidden challenge in Salesforce development.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

Should you use a sandbox or a scratch org?
How to automate unit testing for Salesforce
What are the salesforce version control best practices?
How to refresh a Salesforce sandbox
A complete overview to Salesforce test automation
How to avoid merge conflicts in Salesforce

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Linktree

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Nadina Lisbon is a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect and Golden Hoodie recipient, She is a pillar of the Salesforce community, supporting a number of great organizations focussed on skills, knowledge, and building great relationships to advance careers.

In this episode Nadina shares her brilliant take on becoming a Salesforce CTA and how it’s shaped her career. Tune in to hear her takes on how to learn effectively, how learning journeys change and develop, as well as how being an introvert is a superpower for communication. Learn from Nadina’s experience supporting the community through organizations like Ladies Be Architects and RAD Women, as well as how to communicate with executives and leadership.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:
Salesforce DevOps for Enterprise
The top 10 business benefits of Salesforce DevOps
Culture: the secret sauce to Salesforce success
Building your Salesforce network
RAD Women
Ladies Be Architects

Connect with Nadina
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Twitter

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Twitter

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Lorenzo Frattini has been a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect since 2016. He is also the founder of automated testing platform, Clayton.io. With extensive consultancy experience, having worked with some of the largest Salesforce implementations globally, Lorenzo brings a wealth of knowledge and problem solving experience to this episode of DevOps Diaries.

Tune in to hear Lorenzo's take on how Salesforce teams can embody a safe and secure attitude towards Salesforce development. Discover his recommendations for automated testing on the Salesforce platform, what it takes to "shift left", how process can outweigh technology in the race for success, and his opinion on how the role of artificial intelligence will improve the developer experience.

Useful links based on key themes in this episode:

- Salesforce test automation
- Shifting left with Apex static code analysis
- Automated unit testing for Salesforce
- DevSecOps for Salesforce teams

Connect with Lorenzo
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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Hayley Tuller is a United States Navy veteran, having served for 20 years as an Aircrewman, building deep technical knowledge and leadership expertise that has shaped an incredible Salesforce career transition. She is co-founder of Salesforce consultancy Navigators, is 12x Salesforce certified, and advocate for Veterans transitioning to tech supporting organizations like Trailhead Military and Merivis.

Jack and Hayley talk about Hayley’s transition to Salesforce, focussing on the technical skills, learning methods, and leadership lessons that make veterans an asset to organizations and communities post-service. They discuss what civilian organizations should look for, and how they can make the most of the community of veterans out there transitioning to tech.

Hayley also dives into some of the methods learnt in the military that have helped her become a successful Salesforce Consultant and Architect, including Operational Risk Management, a checklist mentality, and training for leadership, and how this applies to DevOps.

Useful links for key themes in this episode:

- The business case for Salesforce backup to mitigate operational risk
- Salesforce deployment best practices
- How to measure your Salesforce DevOps performance
- Salesforce Military
- Merivis

Connect with Hayley
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Connect with Jack
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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Justin Edelstein has 17 years experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. He is one of the co-founders and now board member of Salesforce consultancy Arkus, is member of the Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame, and has been a key figure in establishing Salesforce’s Web3 offering.

In this episode Justin and Jack uncover what Web3 is and what the foundations of this emerging technology is, including a dive into what the blockchain and NFT’s are. Justin also shares his experience of guiding the development of Web3 Cloud with Salesforce, and how this technology has the potential to transform customer experiences.

Web3 goes far beyond art and cryptocurrency. Justin gives his take on how to create mass appeal where consumers can leverage this emerging technology, and how Salesforce customers have started to use Web3 along with AI in a secure way to provide new customer experiences and brand partnerships.

Useful Links:
https://www.arkusinc.com/blog

Justin Edelstein
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinedelstein  
https://twitter.com/JustEdelstein

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Grant Mangum and Deepak Veera are Salesforce Consultants at consulting company, Cloud Giants. Between them they have 14 years’ consulting experience, and have spent the last 4 specializing in CPQ implementations. They bring to the table tangible real-world experience and understanding of the nuances of a product rising rapidly in popularity.

In this episode we discover in-depth what CPQ is, and some of the challenges of working with it as part of your DevOps process. Jack, Grant, and Deepak chat about the particularities of building CPQ, ghost quotes, and the 3 key things that form the backbone of a great CPQ delivery process.

Grant and Deepak also share their thoughts on the differences of working with config data vs. metadata, and how important it is to have a testing process that is robust to be successful. Listen to the end to find out their recommendations on where you can learn more about CPQ, as well as what makes Gearset’s CPQ product awesome.

Useful Links based on key themes in this episode:

- How Cloud Giants use Gearset for CPQ to halve their Salesforce CPQ migration times
- A how to guide for intuitive Salesforce CPQ deployments
- Free whitepaper: Salesforce CPQ deployments
- Compare and deploy complex Salesforce CPQ configurations with Gearset
- Milo Massimo
- Cloud Giants Ask an Expert

Connect with Deepak Veera
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Connect with Grant Mangum
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Connect with Jack
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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Taylor Grimes is an Architect at Salesforce, managing partner success with an Architect’s lens. Taylor has spent 10 years in the Salesforce ecosystem managing implementations for end-user customers, as well as designing solutions as a consultant. She is passionate about staying on the leading edge of technology, and ensuring the community has a wealth of resources to support their professional learning journeys. 

In this episode Jack chats to Taylor about the fast-start to her career, and how Salesforce has played a pivotal role in transforming employee experiences with technology. Taylor shares how leaning into and understanding data can drive better decision making and improves a customer's relationship with a business. 

Taylor also shares her take on what’ll be important for the partner ecosystem over the rest of the year, where we should focus our investment, and the most helpful resources that Architects can use as a foundation of successful processes. 

No animals were harmed in the making of this episode!

Useful Links
Helpful resources (Quip): https://grst.co/3VpzykP

Taylor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/salesforcetay/
https://twitter.com/SalesforceTay 

Connect with Jack
LinkedIn
X/Twitter

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.