Salesforce Developer Podcast

Michael Holt is a Technical Evangelist here at Salesforce. He really began to sink his teeth into coding in college when he started playing around with Visual Basic 6. From there, he started to learn Java and Accenture and eventually came into contact with Salesforce. He moved over to the company five and half years ago and has been an ISV technical evangelist ever since.

Michael is joining us today to talk all about ISV development. We discuss the ISV programs that help people get up and running as an ISV and success stories Michael has had the opportunity to be a part of. Finally, we talk about some interesting code he has written on GitHub that helps ISVs.

Tune in to hear Michael’s interesting insights and stories, all from the perspective of the ISV side of Salesforce.

Show Highlights:

• How Michael got introduced to computers and eventually Salesforce.
• His experience with operating system migrations.
• What attracted Michael to Salesforce.
• What his current role looks like.
• The blended ecosystem of partners he works with.
• The revenue model he and his team utilize.
• What the Business Builder Program is.
• What’s included in the ISV workbook.
• The tools included in the partner business org Michael and his team provide all their partners.
• Michael’s JabberJaw project and its use cases.

Links:

• Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SFMichaelHolt
• LinkedIn account https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelholtsf/
• Github account https://github.com/HoltMichael
• Business Builder Form: https://1.appexchange.com/salesforce-business-builders
• ISV Workbook: https://sfdc.co/ISVWorkbook

Matthew Frank is the Director of Technology Evangelism over at Blackthorn.io. In this interview, we share some mutual opinions and experiences on evangelizing technology, especially Salesforce, and the impact it can have on the community.

Being a natural showman, he came into evangelism easily and combined it with a love for marketing. He puts the customer at the center of every project he does. 

Tune in to hear more from Matthew about his vast experience and what his current role looks like, including various aspects of event management.

Show Highlights:

• Why learning Apex is key to getting into the Salesforce ecosystem.
• How Matthew found his way into marketing.
• What Blackthorn.io does.
• What Matthew does day-to-day in his Director role.
• His unique perspective on the beginning of the pandemic.
• What he’s learned about how to host successful virtual events since the pandemic began.
• How Salesforce can help you improve your attendee experience when you host virtual events.

Links:

• Matthew on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlfrank/
• Matthew Trailblazer: https://trailblazer.me/id/mfrank12

Christian “Szandor” Knapp is a Principal Technical Evangelist for DIA die.interaktiven in Germany.  He holds a degree in Philosophy but got into coding based on his childhood love for video games. From there, he experimented with various platforms and training until he ended up where he is today.

Szandor has a unique perspective in this community. He has intersected his many passions throughout his life and they make him who he is. We talk about many of these things in today’s episode and discuss his various experiences with computers and Salesforce. Join us to hear a great conversation on philosophy, gaming, and more.

Show Highlights:

• Szandor’s background and introduction to Salesforce.
• How his passions for philosophy, literature, and gaming all intersect.
• His reaction to Trailhead opening up.
• How he started getting actively involved with the Salesforce community.
• What he does in his current role.

Links:

• Szandor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ch_sz_knapp
• Szandor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/szandor/
• Szandor on Github: https://github.com/szandor72
• Szandor on Trailblazer: https://trailblazer.me/id/szandor

Jean-Michel Mougeolle has a long history of building applications and selling them on the AppExchange. He has also performed in many Demo Jams and been involved with the French Developer Community for years. In this episode, he’s joining us to talk about all of this extensive experience.

We also discuss building apps and getting on the AppExchange. If you’re thinking about becoming an ISV and trying to put an app on the AppExchange, Jean-Michel gives some fantastic tips throughout our conversation on how you can make this happen. Tune in to learn all about it.

Show Highlights:

• Jean-Michel’s first introduction to Salesforce.
• What the application SharinPix does.
• Why you should think about a business problem you can solve when trying to build an app.
• How to identify a problem that needs to be solved.
• What Jean-Michel’s participation with Demo Jams has been like.
• How to actually sell your app on AppExchange.

Links:

• Jean-Michel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jmmougeolle
• Jean-Michel on Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/jmmougeolle
• Jean-Michel on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jmmcloud

Parth Vasani is a Salesforce architect and consultant. He joined a Salesforce course in college and became hooked instantly. At the time, there were only three developer groups in India. Now, Parth is a long-time member of the user group community in that part of the world. 

In this episode, Parth and I discuss his long history with Salesforce. He shares all of the ups and downs of learning the program and starting his career in this field. We also discuss more about the work he does with Salesforce and how he ended up in his current role. Tune in to join our conversation.

Show Highlights:

• What it was about Salesforce that got Parth fired up.
• How he’d describe his current role in the Salesforce ecosystem.
• How much work it takes to keep developer groups running.
• How Trailhead changed the Salesforce ecosystem.
• How the pandemic impacted developer groups.
• How many certifications Parth has.
• Recommendations for studying for certifications.
• How Parth got his first job in Salesforce.

Links:

• Parth Vasani (@parthv4u) on Twitter
• Parth Vasani on LinkedIn

Today, we sit down and talk with Jung Mun, certified Salesforce Administrator, consultant, and developer. She talks about her long history in technology, her journey to learn Salesforce, and also her current work in various open-source projects, including Snowfakery and CumulusCI. 

Jung built her first HTML site from scratch when she was in tenth grade. Eventually, she went to grad school in New York City and got exposed to art and technology. She explored interactive installations with microcontrollers and sensors reacting to people's gestures. Then she ended up developing a mobile app for virtual and augmented reality. At a hobbyist level, Jung just loves having fun building things and showing up as a piece of artwork in a show.

Having been immersed in her art career her whole life, it actually took her months until she finally decided to move into Salesforce in her current role. 

Show Highlights:

• Her transition from art to Salesforce
• Why she finds it easy to learn to code in the Salesforce environment
• How she got involved in RAD Women
• Her Open Source Commons experience & her fourth Sprint
• What is Snowfakery?
• What her Snowfakery project looks like
• The concept of scratch org
• How Snowfakery impacts the role of an admin
• What makes a good README of a successful repo
• Her data dictionary project on her GitHub repo

Links:

• Jung on Twitter 
• Jung on Github
• Snowfakery-Recipe-Templates Github Repo

This is part 2 of our conversation with Dan Appleman, author, software engineer, and entrepreneur, where he shares some things he has learned about developing on Salesforce over the years. We pick up talking about his Advanced Apex book, which is now in its fifth edition, and what the new updates look like. 

Dan notes that while there have been many new changes in Apex programming such as improved platform events and easier metadata updating, most of the changes are in the triggers. He also foresees the future of Salesforce development for any medium to large application.

Show Highlights:

• Updates in Apex programming including triggers
• Things to consider when creating a framework
• Why focus on principles instead of frameworks
• The question of modularization
• The future of Salesforce development for medium to large application
• Custom metadata driving a trigger dispatch system
• The benefits of SFDX
• The power of focusing on foundational concepts
• Dan’s favorite presentations
• What makes the process builder evil

Links:

• Dan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/danappleman
• Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danappleman/
• Dan on Github: https://github.com/DesawarePublishing
• Personal blog: https://danappleman.com
• Advanced Apex blog: https://advancedapex.com/
• Custom search engine for all things Salesforce: https://searchtheforce.com
• Pluralsight courses: https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/dan-appleman

This is Part 1 of our conversation with Dan Appleman, author, software engineer, and entrepreneur. Dan has created several PluralSight courses out there and is very well known for his books on Advanced Apex. 

Not having any background in writing software in Salesforce, Dan spent months just experimenting and thinking about how one translates existing standard design patterns into the world of cloud computing with limits, different use of static variables, and execution contexts. He ended up creating an architecture around what he had learned and built the very first instance of their response management application based on that architecture. 

Show Highlights:

• Dan’s early years and his love for computing
• His introduction into Salesforce/cloud computing
• Dan’s first experience doing Apex trigger
• His passion for education
• How he got involved in Pluralsight
• The impetus behind developing materials targeting admins
• Why SFDX source is the center of the universe in the modern world
• The impact of automation on developers
• The power of admins and developers working together

Links:

• Dan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/danappleman
• Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danappleman/
• Dan on Github: https://github.com/DesawarePublishing
• Personal blog: https://danappleman.com
• Advanced Apex blog: https://advancedapex.com/
• Custom search engine for all things Salesforce: https://searchtheforce.com
• Pluralsight courses: https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/dan-appleman

Today, we sit down and talk with Jenh Vo about her long experience with Salesforce, her beginnings of learning admin and developer skills, and eventually getting deeply involved in various communities such as their local Women in Tech, Salesforce Saturdays, Li'l Trailblazers Book Club, and RAD Women, which jump-started her developer path. 

Jenh is doing such amazing work in the Salesforce community and she got awarded The Golden Hoodie at Dreamforce 2021. Jenh also started Superbadge Sundays with her mentor where they share great tips and tricks to get started with getting superbadges. Jenh now has seven superbadges – all of them as a result of starting Superbadge Sundays.

Show Highlights:

• Jenh’s first experience with Salesforce
• How she built up her resume learning more about Salesforce
• Getting involved in the community
• The format of Superbadge Sundays
• How RAD Women jump-started her developer path
• The impetus behind the Li'l Trailblazers Book Club
• Her Dreamforce 2021 experience
• The inclusion presentation which talked about Asian women in tech

Links:

• Jenh on Twitter - http://twitter.com/sfdcKokua
• Jenh on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sfdckokua/

Salesforce developer and technical consultant Atlas joins us today, and he shares his journey into the Salesforce ecosystem. Atlas talks about the opportunities he's getting from the ecosystem, some things he is learning along the way, and how he is giving back to the community.

Through his blog articles on Salesforce Ben, Atlas brings community members to the spotlight. Atlas is also part of The Salesforce Discord Exchange (SFXD), a community-first platform, which facilitates technical and informal discussions for operators and nonprofits. SFXD is a decentralized community that focuses on helping each other out. This involves summarizing release notes and organizing learning sessions, among others. 

Show Highlights:

• His introduction to computers at an early age
• His first consulting job experience
• His passion for online learning
• What he loves about the culture at Salesforce
• What is SFXD?
• How the pandemic impacted his work
• Breaking the barrier of impostor syndrome
• Atlas’ current projects
• The future of online community

Links:

• Atlas on Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/atlascansf
• Atlas on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/atlascan
• Atlas on Github - https://github.com/AtlasCan
• SFXD Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sfxd/
• SFXD Join Link - https://join.sfxd.org
• Blue Canvas - https://bluecanvas.io/
• Blue Canvas CPQ Deployer - https://bluecanvas.io/cpq
• EMPAUA Salesforce Partner - https://www.empaua.com/
• SalesforceBen - https://www.salesforceben.com/author/atlascan1/