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Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Denise Carbone, Director of Delivery at ImagineCRM. Join us as we chat about her journey from business analyst to external consultant admin and why AI makes BA skills even more valuable.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Denise Carbone.
Denise was working as a business analyst when she was first handed the keys to a Salesforce org. She remembers getting a plaque in the mail for being one of the first 500 people to become Salesforce certified.
Obviously we’ve come a long way since then, but the skills needed to understand a business problem and map out the requirements for a solution haven’t changed. As Denise explains, you have to be “process first, technology second.” I sat down with her for this episode to find out how these BA skills are even more important with Agentforce.
In order to really do your job well, an admin needs to be more than just an order taker. But if you’re spending your time running through a list of requests without having conversations with users and really understanding the business process, well, that’s a tough row to hoe.
Instead, you need to ask why. That’s where your business analyst skills come into play. You need to have a full understanding of how things currently work, where they could be improved, and who cares about it the most.
Another key business analyst skill is change management. You may have built the coolest solution in the world, but how do you get folks to actually use it?
As Denise explains, if you want your solution to be adopted, you need to make it adaptive. As you’re building, you need to keep going back to your users for input. If they feel like their feedback is a part of the process, they’ll have ownership over the results.
While Agentforce has greatly expanded what the platform can do, it’s still just technology you’re using to help solve a business problem. As long as you understand the why behind a request, you can build solutions that transform your organization.
Be sure to listen to the full episode for more from Denise on business analyst best practices and the importance of establishing AI governance policies. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday.
Social
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
So, I put my BA hat back on and went back to the team, and explained some of these points we had to clean up and just do better with some guidance, and some structure and rigor around using the tool in the platform me. And that was in 2004, so in 2006 I attended my first Chicago user group meeting. Completely intimidated. I had major imposter syndrome because I really didn’t know much about the platform. Do I even belong here? But I needed to learn, I had that desire and curiosity to really build out my skill set. So, I got a little bit more comfortable in this ecosystem. And then, in 2008 I was presented an opportunity to help co-lead the group.
The user group leader was moving on and actually going to work for Salesforce at that time, and left a vacancy in Chicago. So I said, “Yes, sure.” At the time I agreed to helping co-lead the Metro Chicago area, so just anything in the city limits. And that same year I actually took the certification exam. So, in October of 2008 I was certified as an admin. So that solidified, put to rest slightly the imposter syndrome that I was carrying along, but felt really confident and good about that. And a few months later I received a plaque in the mail, I was one of the first 500 people globally to become Salesforce certified.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I wasn’t sure if I belong, but it was a really cool opportunity for me to learn and grow, get to meet amazing people like yourself, Mike.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
It’s over-automated, over-architected, over-engineered, so I always like to peel it back and ask the questions why, and get to learn more about the users, more about what we’re trying to solve for. I love that journey, and when I joined the partner side I had the opportunity to really upskill myself in both BA, administration, and then just focused on delivery. So on the partner side today, I am a director of delivery. I stepped into a leadership role in the past 10 years. So, I started as a director of delivery in 2015 with a team of one. I was able to build a team of 14 people, which means I manage a team of consultants, and I am accountable for all of our project success. Today I’m in the same industry, work for a smaller SI. We are focused in the philanthropy space and also nonprofits. Again, I support a team of consultants and I am very client-facing.
I work day-to-day with our teams, I meet with our clients, and I’m accountable for the overall project success. So, one of the things I really love about the job I do today is the coaching and the mentoring for learning and upskilling. In this space in the day and age that we’re in today, things change fast. I remember last summer seeing a preview of the Dreamforce keynote where they’re talking about agents, and being presented to us, and what do we think about this, and how does this work? I will say Salesforce has done an amazing job at providing enablement so that we can all start this learning journey, and you have to stay up to date with it because it changes, as you know, as the ecosystem knows, almost weekly. So, it’s been fantastic. But today, again, I focus on project delivery with my teams, and upskilling, and supporting, and mentoring folks.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
And today in this space, I think it was even maybe eight years ago when people were really talking about career transitions, and they wanted to get into the Salesforce ecosystem and they wanted to learn Salesforce, and it was definitely a shift in that learning and it became a career back in 2004. And I don’t know about even yourself and folks, was that something people aim for? I think it started becoming a career path more towards maybe 2008, 9, 10, when certifications become more prevalent.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Because sometimes people say, “Oh, this is so different. You’ve probably never seen this before.” Well, some cases maybe because maybe really broken, or sometimes it’s just they never took time to step a few steps back and optimize, make things more efficient. So, I love efficiencies, I love optimization, I love the ability to break down complexities, I love the ability to speak in layman terms. I think that’s a learning that I’ve taken wholeheartedly through my journey because I can speak business speak, I don’t want to speak Salesforce speak if the recipient on the other end doesn’t speak Salesforce. So, I want to speak in a language that’s going to be comfortable for them, and then break down the complexity and really help and work to build systems that are going to bring the client along for the journey.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I think that should be the starting question honestly, and then go forward and then do the build if applicable. But it’s definitely a learned skill. The other flip side to that is, I think there was, I’ve heard it before and it’s so not true, that business analysts are not just note takers. They should never be a note taker. I mean, they can do documentation, but they’re not glorified note takers. It’s definitely a skillset where you talk about a user story, or a requirement, or use cases. Those are all three very separate things. And the reason why you do some of this documentation upfront is to make sure that what we’re building as admins meet the technical requirements for the end user.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
It’s really getting that buy-in as you’re doing the build so that it can easily be adopted, and you’re getting the feedback in the time where it’s more real time. So, if it’s features and functionalities that are, like you said, the bells and whistles of dependent picklists were amazing, but after a while it could become stale and they’re not using it. The goal is, I always say less is more. You don’t want to overkill something that’s not going to be used. Even today I was talking to somebody earlier about utilizing a tool to be able to scan all the metadata and see all the unused fields that were created at one point in time that are just sitting out there and untouched for a long time. So, we have to get rid of that technical debt.
So, my approach and my recommendation or suggestion is for people to really partner with who they’re building it for so that they can get the buy-in, get feedback. “Does it work? What would you like to see? Does the user interface still, is that intuitive?” I feel like with the new Lightning design pages, Mike, we grew up on Classic, remember that?
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I always still laugh because it still comes up today, we don’t want to do all these clicking. So, there’s many magical ways to make things a lot faster than to do all these clickings. The automation tools that are available today on the platform are amazing, the flow automation is just next level. So, I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity there to do really cool things, but you want to make sure the cool things are really going to support the folks that are going to use the platform.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I needed to be able to document and explain what needed to happen based on a client’s experience, or their workflow, or their processes. So, I would document processes and I would be able to document the heck out of how to explain or the build steps to create a flow. But I didn’t have to be hands-on right away. I do know how to build flow and I can build flows, but it wasn’t a skill that I had to learn because I was able to document that, write that, and I was able to articulate it well enough so that an admin or one of our builders was able to pick it up and run with it to build. But this day and age today with AI, it is here, it is not going away. It is not like a nice to learn later, it is if you don’t know it or if you haven’t started, you’re already behind.
And that’s one of the pieces I really want to emphasize is that if you have, and I would beg to differ with the folks attending Dreamforce, if this is not on the radar, if they’re not already in this learning journey, I’m sure a good majority of them are because it is so prevalent. But if they’re not, they’re already left behind. But I do feel that the human skills, storytelling, communication, ethnical reasoning, these are things that we bring to the table to it. Using AI, AI is really good at processing, data processing, or summarizing, maybe some automation. They’re good at pattern recognition, but they’re lacking certain human emotions, human elements that go into the work that we do today.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
The post How Do Admins Use Business Analysis Skills Effectively? appeared first on Salesforce Admins.
4.7
200200 ratings
Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Denise Carbone, Director of Delivery at ImagineCRM. Join us as we chat about her journey from business analyst to external consultant admin and why AI makes BA skills even more valuable.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Denise Carbone.
Denise was working as a business analyst when she was first handed the keys to a Salesforce org. She remembers getting a plaque in the mail for being one of the first 500 people to become Salesforce certified.
Obviously we’ve come a long way since then, but the skills needed to understand a business problem and map out the requirements for a solution haven’t changed. As Denise explains, you have to be “process first, technology second.” I sat down with her for this episode to find out how these BA skills are even more important with Agentforce.
In order to really do your job well, an admin needs to be more than just an order taker. But if you’re spending your time running through a list of requests without having conversations with users and really understanding the business process, well, that’s a tough row to hoe.
Instead, you need to ask why. That’s where your business analyst skills come into play. You need to have a full understanding of how things currently work, where they could be improved, and who cares about it the most.
Another key business analyst skill is change management. You may have built the coolest solution in the world, but how do you get folks to actually use it?
As Denise explains, if you want your solution to be adopted, you need to make it adaptive. As you’re building, you need to keep going back to your users for input. If they feel like their feedback is a part of the process, they’ll have ownership over the results.
While Agentforce has greatly expanded what the platform can do, it’s still just technology you’re using to help solve a business problem. As long as you understand the why behind a request, you can build solutions that transform your organization.
Be sure to listen to the full episode for more from Denise on business analyst best practices and the importance of establishing AI governance policies. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday.
Social
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
So, I put my BA hat back on and went back to the team, and explained some of these points we had to clean up and just do better with some guidance, and some structure and rigor around using the tool in the platform me. And that was in 2004, so in 2006 I attended my first Chicago user group meeting. Completely intimidated. I had major imposter syndrome because I really didn’t know much about the platform. Do I even belong here? But I needed to learn, I had that desire and curiosity to really build out my skill set. So, I got a little bit more comfortable in this ecosystem. And then, in 2008 I was presented an opportunity to help co-lead the group.
The user group leader was moving on and actually going to work for Salesforce at that time, and left a vacancy in Chicago. So I said, “Yes, sure.” At the time I agreed to helping co-lead the Metro Chicago area, so just anything in the city limits. And that same year I actually took the certification exam. So, in October of 2008 I was certified as an admin. So that solidified, put to rest slightly the imposter syndrome that I was carrying along, but felt really confident and good about that. And a few months later I received a plaque in the mail, I was one of the first 500 people globally to become Salesforce certified.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I wasn’t sure if I belong, but it was a really cool opportunity for me to learn and grow, get to meet amazing people like yourself, Mike.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
It’s over-automated, over-architected, over-engineered, so I always like to peel it back and ask the questions why, and get to learn more about the users, more about what we’re trying to solve for. I love that journey, and when I joined the partner side I had the opportunity to really upskill myself in both BA, administration, and then just focused on delivery. So on the partner side today, I am a director of delivery. I stepped into a leadership role in the past 10 years. So, I started as a director of delivery in 2015 with a team of one. I was able to build a team of 14 people, which means I manage a team of consultants, and I am accountable for all of our project success. Today I’m in the same industry, work for a smaller SI. We are focused in the philanthropy space and also nonprofits. Again, I support a team of consultants and I am very client-facing.
I work day-to-day with our teams, I meet with our clients, and I’m accountable for the overall project success. So, one of the things I really love about the job I do today is the coaching and the mentoring for learning and upskilling. In this space in the day and age that we’re in today, things change fast. I remember last summer seeing a preview of the Dreamforce keynote where they’re talking about agents, and being presented to us, and what do we think about this, and how does this work? I will say Salesforce has done an amazing job at providing enablement so that we can all start this learning journey, and you have to stay up to date with it because it changes, as you know, as the ecosystem knows, almost weekly. So, it’s been fantastic. But today, again, I focus on project delivery with my teams, and upskilling, and supporting, and mentoring folks.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
And today in this space, I think it was even maybe eight years ago when people were really talking about career transitions, and they wanted to get into the Salesforce ecosystem and they wanted to learn Salesforce, and it was definitely a shift in that learning and it became a career back in 2004. And I don’t know about even yourself and folks, was that something people aim for? I think it started becoming a career path more towards maybe 2008, 9, 10, when certifications become more prevalent.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Because sometimes people say, “Oh, this is so different. You’ve probably never seen this before.” Well, some cases maybe because maybe really broken, or sometimes it’s just they never took time to step a few steps back and optimize, make things more efficient. So, I love efficiencies, I love optimization, I love the ability to break down complexities, I love the ability to speak in layman terms. I think that’s a learning that I’ve taken wholeheartedly through my journey because I can speak business speak, I don’t want to speak Salesforce speak if the recipient on the other end doesn’t speak Salesforce. So, I want to speak in a language that’s going to be comfortable for them, and then break down the complexity and really help and work to build systems that are going to bring the client along for the journey.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I think that should be the starting question honestly, and then go forward and then do the build if applicable. But it’s definitely a learned skill. The other flip side to that is, I think there was, I’ve heard it before and it’s so not true, that business analysts are not just note takers. They should never be a note taker. I mean, they can do documentation, but they’re not glorified note takers. It’s definitely a skillset where you talk about a user story, or a requirement, or use cases. Those are all three very separate things. And the reason why you do some of this documentation upfront is to make sure that what we’re building as admins meet the technical requirements for the end user.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
It’s really getting that buy-in as you’re doing the build so that it can easily be adopted, and you’re getting the feedback in the time where it’s more real time. So, if it’s features and functionalities that are, like you said, the bells and whistles of dependent picklists were amazing, but after a while it could become stale and they’re not using it. The goal is, I always say less is more. You don’t want to overkill something that’s not going to be used. Even today I was talking to somebody earlier about utilizing a tool to be able to scan all the metadata and see all the unused fields that were created at one point in time that are just sitting out there and untouched for a long time. So, we have to get rid of that technical debt.
So, my approach and my recommendation or suggestion is for people to really partner with who they’re building it for so that they can get the buy-in, get feedback. “Does it work? What would you like to see? Does the user interface still, is that intuitive?” I feel like with the new Lightning design pages, Mike, we grew up on Classic, remember that?
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I always still laugh because it still comes up today, we don’t want to do all these clicking. So, there’s many magical ways to make things a lot faster than to do all these clickings. The automation tools that are available today on the platform are amazing, the flow automation is just next level. So, I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity there to do really cool things, but you want to make sure the cool things are really going to support the folks that are going to use the platform.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
I needed to be able to document and explain what needed to happen based on a client’s experience, or their workflow, or their processes. So, I would document processes and I would be able to document the heck out of how to explain or the build steps to create a flow. But I didn’t have to be hands-on right away. I do know how to build flow and I can build flows, but it wasn’t a skill that I had to learn because I was able to document that, write that, and I was able to articulate it well enough so that an admin or one of our builders was able to pick it up and run with it to build. But this day and age today with AI, it is here, it is not going away. It is not like a nice to learn later, it is if you don’t know it or if you haven’t started, you’re already behind.
And that’s one of the pieces I really want to emphasize is that if you have, and I would beg to differ with the folks attending Dreamforce, if this is not on the radar, if they’re not already in this learning journey, I’m sure a good majority of them are because it is so prevalent. But if they’re not, they’re already left behind. But I do feel that the human skills, storytelling, communication, ethnical reasoning, these are things that we bring to the table to it. Using AI, AI is really good at processing, data processing, or summarizing, maybe some automation. They’re good at pattern recognition, but they’re lacking certain human emotions, human elements that go into the work that we do today.
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
Denise Carbone:
Mike:
The post How Do Admins Use Business Analysis Skills Effectively? appeared first on Salesforce Admins.
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