Salesforce Developer Podcast

Andrew Lawrence is a Director of Product Management for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Today I am sitting down with him to talk about a wide range of topics related to B2C Commerce. We discuss how Salesforce has adopted a headless commerce approach, the new developer portal, and experience for commerce developers and some of the new tools coming out.

Andrew also explains how the pandemic has impacted commerce in general for developers. It brought a variety of challenges for retailers and changed the way they navigated commerce. Tune in to learn more.

Show Highlights:

• His early experience with technology and how that brought him to Salesforce.
• The challenges and shifts the pandemic brought to B2C commerce.
• How curbside pickup affected retailers.
• How headless commerce wove many different systems together to make contactless commerce easier.
• How developers can navigate all the different APIs and options being introduced.
• What the new Commerce Developer Portal does for developers.
• The community features of Commerce Cloud.
• How the upcoming Omni Channel Inventory Microservice will help retailers manage inventory at a massive scale.
• What Mobify is and what it will bring to Commerce Cloud.

Links:

1. Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew9990/
2. Commerce Developer Portal: Home | Commerce Cloud Developer Center
3. Trailhead Module on Commerce Web Apps: Discover the Commerce PWA Kit & Commerce Managed Runtime Unit | (salesforce.com)
4. Spring '21 Developer Release Readiness Live: Developer Preview Live – Release Readiness LIVE, Spring '21 - YouTube

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Tony Jiang is an Associate Product Manager for Salesforce. He joined an Associate Program right out of college. In the program, he’s learned about product management and he is now in his first rotation working on platform APIs.

In this episode, Tony and I are talking about implementing the OpenAPI specification, an ongoing project here at Salesforce. We discuss what it is and the various benefits that come with it. Tune in to learn all about how it will impact you.

If you'd like to participate in the “OpenAPI 3.0 Spec for sObjects REST Resources” pilot, contact your Salesforce Account Executive or open a support case. Your feedback is very important to us, so that we can give you the best developer experience possible. 

Show Highlights:

• How Tony got involved in the Associate Program.
• What made him want to transition from engineering to product management.
• What OpenAPI is and where it originated from.
• The advantages of implementing OpenAPI.
• How OpenAPI implementation will affect other projects.
• How they are developing OpenAPI right now.
• How OpenAPI supports Apex REST.
• The relationship between External Services and OpenAPI.
• How to get access to the spring pilot version of OpenAPI.
• The impact OpenAPI will have on SDKs.

Links:

1. Tony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TonyJiang_
2. Tony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-jiang/
3. Learn MOAR about OpenAPI: Learn MOAR with Spring ‘21: OpenAPI 3.0 Spec for REST API | Salesforce Developers Blog

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Lexis Hanson is a Senior Software Engineer here at Salesforce. In this role, she is also the primary front-end developer for Trailhead Live. 

Lexis’s interest in coding started with building Myspace pages. Eventually, she came to work for the customer support side of Salesforce. In this episode, we talk about how she went from there to becoming a software engineer. We also discuss various technologies such as JavaScript and React. Tune in to hear it all.

Show Highlights:

• Lexis’s side passion for finance.
• How she transitioned from an interest in coding to a determination to make it her career.
• The struggles she encountered when she started her journey towards becoming a software engineer.
• The difference between good and bad context switching.
• What to do when you get emotional about difficult coding.
• Why you should stick to a single language when starting out.
• Why Lexis is such a fan of JavaScript.
• Tools and resources that help when learning how to code.
• How Lexis got into networking and got other people involved in her journey.
• How to show experience if you’re applying for your first tech job.
• What reverse recruiting is and how Lexis used it to get her current job.

Links:

1. Lexis on Twitter - https://twitter.com/lexishanson
2. Lexis on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexishanson
3. Lexis on Github - https://github.com/lexishanson
4. So, You’re Thinking of Becoming a Developer 
5. Modern JavaScript Features Every Developer Should Know 
6. Acting on Daydreams: From Customer Success to Software Engineering

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more athttps://emeraldcitypro.com

Abraham David Lloyd is a director at Salesforce. He is also the lead evangelist for the B2C Solution Architect program. Abraham encourages everyone to become an architect to expand their sphere of influence, practice their skills, and support the creation of new customer experiences.

Today, Abraham and I are talking about the B2C Solution Architect program. We also discuss solution architecture in general. Abraham shares about his earliest experiences with computers and programming in which he realized his skill for listening to and practicing empathy with people. Tune in to learn how empathy applies to his work at Salesforce and more.

Show Highlights:

• Abraham’s time in the business of getting night clubs up and running.
• His current role at Salesforce.
• The 3 kinds of leadership Solution Architects practice.
• The overlap between business and technology in solution architecture.
• What the B2C Solution Architect certification covers and why it’s so essential.
• How to create a seamless customer experience.
• Why we should data model profiles as humans instead of modeling them as system-specific profiles. 
• How to leverage solution architecture to augment your transactional experiences.
• The importance of calculating your customers’ total lifetime values.
• What Customer 360 Data Manager and Audience Manager do for both developers and architects.

Links:

1. Abraham on Twitter: https://twitter.com/djb2c?lang=en
2. Abraham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrahamlloyd/
3. Credentials on Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/credentials/
4. Abraham on Github: https://www.github.com/b2csolutionarchitect

B2C Solution Architect Certification LinksBlogs and News

• B2C Solution Architect Certification: Guiding Companies Through Digital Transformation

• New Ways to Skill Up for Digital Transformation

• Driving Customer and Partner Success with the New Salesforce B2C Solution Architect Certification

Trailhead Resources

• B2C Solution Architect Credential

• B2C Solution Architect Exam Guide

• B2C Solution Architect: Preparation Trailmix

• B2C Solution Architect: Study for Trailmix

• B2C Solution Architect Certification Curriculum (26 courses on B2C use-cases)

Video Resources

• Salesforce Architect Success: Program Overview

• Grow Your Career: Become a Solution Architect

• The Partner Journey to B2C Solution Architect

• B2B and B2C Architect Careers and Scenarios

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Mohith Shrivastava is a Lead Developer Advocate here at Salesforce. His main role is to inspire our developers. In this episode, we talk about modern application development. We also discuss the content that Mohith has been producing himself in order to get that information out to you.

Mohith has a background in hardware engineering and consulting. Eventually, however, he learned about Salesforce and transitioned into the world of software engineering. Now he produces relevant content and answers questions for developers and gets their feedback on the technologies they use. Tune in to hear more.

Show Highlights:

• How Mohith was first introduced to Salesforce.
• His exposure to product development.
• How he learned about and started hosting weekly Trailhead Live sessions.
• The goal of the modern app development series.
• How Mohith uses Heroku to scale his applications.
• How using tools besides Apex help with scaling and efficiency.
• How Salesforce functions simplify coding work.
• How Schema Builder helps with building data models.
• When to use Salesforce, Heroku, Heroku Connect, and Redis.
• How the Apex piece fits into the jigsaw puzzle of modern app design.
• The benefit of having unit testing in place.
• What sketch tools and plugins allow you to do.

Links:

1. Mohith's Twitter account
2. Mohith's LinkedIn account
3. Mohith's Github account
4. Modern App Development YouTube playlist
5. Sketch Plugin

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Ines Garcia is an Agile coach and the author of a book on using Agile with Salesforce. In this episode, I’m discussing Agile with her. 

Throughout our conversation, Ines and I talk about Agile in general as well as how it can be used with Salesforce. We also touch on the book and the game she has created. Tune in to learn more about Ines, her early years, and her extensive experience with Agile.

Show Highlights:

• How Ines went from studying communications to the ecosystem of software engineering.
• How she got introduced to Salesforce.
• The 4 values of Agile.
• The process to becoming a certified Scrum Master.
• How the Scrum framework abates some of the risks in software delivery.
• What extreme programming is.
• How Agile breaks time down when it comes to things like sprints.
• What timeboxing is and how it’s being used to be more efficient.
• Agile’s perspective on documentation.
• The advantages and disadvantages Salesforce creates when working with Agile.
• Good resources for those who have been entrenched in Waterfall but are now interested in Agile.
• Why Ines decided to write a book and what the process of designing it was like.
• How Ines’ game can play into improving your team and projects.

Links:

1. Ines on Twitter: https://twitter.com/inescapinezka
2. Ines on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inesgarciaagile/
3. Ines on Github: https://github.com/GarciaInes
4. Ines’ Author Page: amazon.com/author/inesgarcia
5. Ines’ Game Page: https://birdsnerdsandturds.com/
6. Get Agile Company Page: http://getagile.co.uk

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Joe Andolina is a Director of Technical Marketing here at Salesforce. Today, I’m sitting down to talk with him about his long history of doing some pretty crazy experiments with the Internet of Things. We also discuss how some of that has dealt back into Work.com and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Joe even created his own degree in visual computer science to blend the real world with the digital world. Tune in to hear all about his ingenuity and what he’s doing today with IoT and Work.com.

Show Highlights:

• Joe’s earliest experiences with computers.
• What his 11 years at Adobe were like.
• How he started getting interested in the hardware side of things.
• The swarm of wireless devices he built that use mesh networking for audience interactivity.
• Some of the hardware that you can use to set up something like a fever-testing kiosk.
• How flow streamlines things to the point of moving away from programmatic code and towards visual code.
• What Density.io is and how it can help with tracking occupancy.
• How Joe structured Salesforce data to be able to track occupancy.
• Tricks for tracking proximity.
• IoT hardware to pick up if you’re interested in trying that architecture out.

Links:

1. Joe on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeandolina
2. Joe on Instructables - https://www.instructables.com/member/joe.andolina
3. Joe on Github - https://github.com/jandolina

Joe's Demos:

1. Nissan Connected Car - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/Natcj6SjW8wxgb4ziz51BY
2. Touchless Kiosk - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/wnU9qHTXncgum1Cs1KsYYU
3. Compliant Wash Station - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/YSsDE1t4ntfN64EC1pYxqu
4. Room Occupancy - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/i2dNBepExsptHYoyqGKJDf
5. Manual vs Automated Thermal Scan - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/CiAQb3aNJvV4RcPpmfL8vV
6. Workspace Crowding - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/s8DqzxH3AqMnc2wA5nVaww
7. Proximity Masks - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/J7LYjtXCFq5oxwpDGqaWU6
8. Iron Maiden AR - https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/Uzrp2jMBYke33pVsZZwS7s
9. Van Build: http://www.andomation.com/van-build

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Today’s guest is Aidan Harding. He is the Technology Director for Nebula Consulting. In this episode, we’re sitting down and talking about a variety of topics. Above all, we’re discussing how Flow and Apex can start being friends and working together. 

In the episode, we also touch on Aidan’s experience with programming, his time at Salesforce, and his current job at Nebula. Listen in to learn from his expertise with Flow and Apex.

Show Highlights:

• Aidan’s early days in the Salesforce ecosystem.
• What his current job is like.
• When he decided he needed to really look at Flow as a developer.
• How Flow aligns with programming.
• Skills that make it easier to pick up and go with Flow.
• What Flapex is.
• How to bring the concept of a unit test to Flow and how Apex can help with that.
• How important naming conventions are with Flow.
• How this has all changed Aidan’s approach to Apex.
• What lazy evaluation is and how it applies to Apex.

Links:

1. Aidan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AidanHarding
2. Aidan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-harding/
3. Aidan on Github: https://github.com/aidan-harding/

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.

Joey Chan is the Principal Consultant for Cloud Jedi Solutions. He also organized the Philippines Trailblazer Community Group and Philippines Dreamin. Though he is focusing more on business and marketing now, Joey has attained 15 certifications.

In this episode, we’re sitting down with Joey to talk about a wide range of subjects. We especially focus on the Philippines Trailblazer Community Group and Philippines Dreamin and how we went about organizing both. Tune in and you’ll learn a lot from his diverse experiences.

Show Highlights:

• Advice for people looking to get certified.
• How Joey has been training with Salesforce and interacting with the community.
• How he transitioned from learning and researching to organizing community groups and events.
• The benefit of holding live events.
• The challenges he’s faced in forming community groups and keeping them going.
• How the pandemic has affected his work and what kind of new content and interactions he’s seen as a result.
• The 5 free Salesforce tools that can help both admins and developers in their daily work.
• The drawbacks of the virtual interaction layer.
• His motivation for organizing Philippines Dreamin and when he began doing so.
• Advice for those who want to organize community events like Joey but have no experience.

Links:

1. Joey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyqchan
2. Joey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cloudjedi__c
3. Joey on StackExchange: https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/users/314/joey-chan
4. Philippine Dreamin' Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21WFqzYZzCw
5. Cloud Jedi: https://www.cloudjedi.com/#services

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Nina Rosen is a Salesforce developer and an architect for Neomatic over in Germany. She has built integration apps for a variety of platforms and companies in the past and is currently working on a partner relationship management system based on Salesforce data. 

In this episode, Nina and I talk all about integration with Salesforce. Specifically, we discuss the various aspects of integrating Salesforce with other platforms. Listen in and learn how you can do it yourself.

Show Highlights:

• What OAuth is.
• The distinctions she has found across implementations with OAuth.
• How to get the API you’re integrating with.
• What she does to structure Apex to make it friendly with different call-outs. 
• Tips for handling the different kinds of incoming and outgoing data formats.
• Considerations for the API being called into by Salesforce.
• How to protect yourself from an attack vector.
• Microsoft’s new Graph API.
• Things to consider when working with user interfaces.
• How she has worked around the lack of a patch method in Salesforce up until now.

Links:

1. Nina on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nina__mdt
2. Nina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-rosen93/

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com