Salesforce Developer Podcast

Drew Tauber is a Salesforce Engineer over at Clear. He is joining us today to discuss somewhat of a hot topic: burnout. Burnout is being talked about more and more in our society and brought to more and more people’s attention. We want to dedicate an entire episode to furthering the conversation on it.

Throughout our discussion, Drew and I talk all about stress, burnout, and anxiety. We also discuss how these things can affect us in the workplace. Finally, we chat about what to do if you are experiencing burnout.

Show Highlights:

• How Drew became a coder and got involved with Salesforce.
• His current role in the Salesforce community.
• The early signs of burnout.
• How the early pandemic contributed to Drew’s burnout.
• How burnout leads to an unhealthy work environment.
• The steps Drew took to recover from burnout.
• How he prioritized socializing and exercising in his recovery.
• What he does now to prevent burnout.
• Communication boundaries he’s implemented.
• Why he decided to start doing presentations on burnout and stress.

Links:

• Drew on Twitter
• Drew on LinkedIn
• Drew on Github
• Drew on Trailblazer

Nico Pouilloux is a principal ISV technical evangelist here at Salesforce. He has worked for a variety of companies throughout his career but eventually came to realize that he wanted to work for a B2B software company. This brought him to Salesforce.

In this episode, Nico and I discuss his work as an ISV technical evangelist. We also get into his advice for ISVs and the Business Builders program he has helped develop. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• What Nico’s current role looks like.
• How he keeps up with all the latest developments.
• How he helps founders of new businesses get on the market.
• The evaluation process he goes through when founders bring in their ideas.
• A simple explanation of the Business Builders program.
• The communal features of Business Builders.

Links:

• Nico on Twitter: https://twitter.com/npouillouxsf
• Nico on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/npouilloux/
• Nico on Github: https://github.com/nicopollux

Daniel Peter is the Salesforce Practice Lead over at Robots & Pencils. Having had some incredible experiences throughout his life (including starting as a self-taught programmer, studying marketing in college, and taking some time mid-career to go on “sabbatical” and travel), Daniel brings a unique perspective to our show.

In today’s conversation, Daniel and I talk all about his time in the Salesforce ecosystem and what his current job looks like. We also get into the weeds a bit with the Slack and Salesforce integration. Tune in to hear all of this and more.

Show Highlights:

• Daniel’s history with computers.
• Why he decided to get a business degree and how it has benefited him.
• How he describes his current job.
• Why the designer role is so important.
• The benefits of Block Kit.
• How Slack can be used for more than communication.
• How the Slack and Salesforce integration can bring back some of the magic for developers.
• Daniel’s developer story with Slack.
• Slack integrations he has worked on and their use cases.
• Event structure in Slack.

Links:

• Daniel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danieljpeter
• Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljpeter/
• Daniel on Github: https://github.com/danieljpeter

Paul McCollum is a Salesforce Technical Architect over at Accenture. Though he pursued various interests in college, he eventually came to pursue a degree in Computer Science. From there, he began his first job as a Unix programmer and then found his way into architecture.

In this episode, we talk about just that: all things architecture. Paul shares some cool concepts with us regarding application design, UX, and big-picture architecture as well as what’s coming up for architecture in the future. Tune in to hear it all.

Show Highlights:

• Paul’s long history with computers and architecture.
• How he discovered Salesforce.
• Why the overlap between user interface and big-picture architecture is important.
• The level of planning and documentation an application owner can do without a designer.
• The rising importance of technical designers.
• Architecture blind spots Paul sees on the horizon.
• A hack that allows flow to work with infinite records.
• How Paul started getting involved in the Salesforce community and his current role in it.

Links:

• Paul on Twitter
• Paul on LinkedIn
• Dallas Developer Group

Cal Smith is a Senior Technical Architect and Associate Director for Cognizant. Cal has a long history with computers. He got his start in engineering school and has since done everything from animation to writing assistive software for the visually impaired. We discuss all of this (and more of Cal’s background) in our conversation today.

Throughout this episode, Cal also gives us a great overview of Health Cloud. We talk about its development and one of the unsung heroes of the platform: Omniscript. Tune in to hear all of this and more.

Show Highlights:

• How Cal got involved with Salesforce and creating communities.
• How he got started with Health Cloud.
• A typical use case for Health Cloud.
• What a validated machine means.
• How deletion of records is prevented within Health Cloud.
• What Omniscript is all about and what it does.
• Cal’s work and involvement with Dallas GiftForce.

Links:

• Cal on Twitter: http://twttiter.com/CloudMech
• Cal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Cloud-Mech/
• Cal on Github: https://github.com/crmprogdev

Last week we began a two-part interview with Joe Stern, a consultant and program manager here at Salesforce. Joe is passionate about advocating for those with neurodiversity and has made it his goal to increase conversations about mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. We started our conversation last week learning about Joe’s journey after being diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and some of the challenges that have followed from this diagnosis. Now, he coordinates support for mental health in the workplace to help others process similar obstacles more effectively.

In the second half of our interview, we’ll discuss some of the outlets that Joe has found helpful when taking care of his own mental health. From activities like networking on Animal Crossing, to creating Mental Health Matters resource groups at work, to finding a passion for roasting coffee, Joe has discovered that sometimes the simplest form of therapy is finding something that brings you joy and leaning into it.

Show Highlights:

• Finding therapeutic relief for mental health in unlikely places
• How socializing with others from the workplace in ways that do not involve work can boost both group morale and individual happiness
• The importance of setting up workplace resources for mental health support
• Why it is so important to find a hobby you love and stick with it

Links:

• Joe on Twitter twitter.com/mrjoesterne
• Joe on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/jamesjosephsterne
• Joe on Github https://github.com/joesterne

Joe Stern is a consultant and program manager here at Salesforce. Though he has many interests—outdoor camping and shoe drops to start—Joe’s passion lies in being an advocate for those with neurodiversity. As someone diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, Joe has grown to appreciate the importance of addressing the impact that mental health can have on one’s ability to function successfully both in and out of the workplace. Now, he coordinates support for mental health in the workplace for others.

In the first part of this two-part episode, we begin our discussion with Joe about his path to becoming a developer and how neurodiversity has affected the trajectory of his life. We also discuss some of the trials he’s faced in the workforce and how getting therapeutic support for his mental health has positively impacted both his performance at work as well as his other various hobbies and responsibilities.

Show Highlights:

• How to define neurodiversity
• Where to find a community and resources for those that identify with neurodivergence
• Challenges of learning how ADHD can impact your work life
• Warning signs that mental health is negatively impacting your work life
• Benefits of finding treatment or help for mental health issues

Links:

• Joe on Twitter twitter.com/mrjoesterne
• Joe on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/jamesjosephsterne
• Joe on Github https://github.com/joesterne

Meighan Brodkey is a Director of Technical Architecture at Vorys. With a background in language and religious studies, she had a fairly smooth transition over to coding. She saw it as the technical version of translating numbers and letters.

Today, she not only works in technical architecture but is also heavily involved in the Salesforce community. She works a lot with other women in tech and within the Ohana Slack workspace. She is joining us on the show today to talk about all of these things, Slack integrations, and what she does in her current role.

Show Highlights:

• Meighan’s college journey and first coding experiences.
• How she got involved with Salesforce and became an architect.
• Her passion for connecting people.
• The various communities she is involved with.
• What got her into Slack and the work she’s done with Slack integrations.
• The basic structure of Slack apps.
• What the block kit builder is.
• A quick overview of GDPR.

Links:

• Meighan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meighansf
• Meighan on LinkedIn: https://Linkedin.com/in/meighanbrodkey
• Meighan on Github: https://Github.com/meighan
• Meighan's blog: https://meighanrockssf.com
• Join Ohana Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/salesforceohana/shared_invite/zt-1atj9vqqu-tJvNMMzizu9ZvQ5YQPK0bw

If you joined us last week, you met Ian Varley. Ian is a Principal Architect here at Salesforce who has extensive experience with Salesforce CRM and multi-tenant architecture. He also comes from a musical background which has helped him develop his coding skills.

Last week, you heard part one of our conversation on Salesforce architecture. We split our discussion up so you could listen to it in full. Today in part two we talk all about metadata and why it is so important. We also get into one of Ian’s favorite topics - cognitive bias in technology.

Tune in to finish the extended version of my discussion with Ian Varley.

Show Highlights:

• The value of deeper semantic integrations of data.
• How meta-databases physically work.
• How unique IDs are generated.
• What an instance is.
• Why some IDs are 15 characters and some are 18.
• Why awareness of cognitive bias is important.
• The software Salesforce created to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Links:

• Ian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefutureian
• Ian on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianvarley/
• Brains Considered Harmful: http://bit.ly/brains-considered-harmful

Ian Varley is a Principal Architect here at Salesforce. He joined us a while back on the podcast to talk about Salesforce architecture. We had to edit that conversation down so much that I wanted to bring it back and share it in full with all of you. We’ll split it up into two episodes over the course of two weeks.

In today’s segment, Ian and I discuss his long history, experience, and knowledge with Salesforce. More than anything, we get into his experience with the inner workings of Salesforce CRM and multi-tenant architecture. 

Tune in to hear his rich thoughts on all of this and more.

Show Highlights:

• How Ian got interested in computers.
• Why people with music backgrounds are often so good at code.
• How Ian came to work at the core engineering team at Salesforce.
• What the architecture platform was like when Ian joined Salesforce.
• What multi-tenancy is.
• How grouping individual software services within Salesforce works.
• All of the things that multi-tenant service providers take care of for customers.
• What microservices are.
• The benefits of monoliths.
• What Salesforce Core includes.

Links:

• Ian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefutureian
• Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianvarley/