エピソード

  • #31 - From Patterns to Platforms: Talia's UX Journey in the Salesforce World
    2025/04/01
    Salesforce Trails and Trials features Talia's journey into the Salesforce ecosystem, emphasizing User Experience (UX). Starting from a creative background in art and design, she transitioned to Salesforce through experiences like her photo booth business and programs like Supermums and Talent Stacker. Talia highlights the crucial role of user-centered design for all Salesforce professionals. She shares her experience facilitating a unique origami workshop at Trailhead DX 2025 to foster connection and mindful engagement. The episode underscores the value of community building and the power of collaborative workshops for better decision-making and user buy-in in the Salesforce world. Talia advocates for understanding user needs and incorporating UX principles throughout the Salesforce delivery process.
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    55 分
  • #30 - Tales from the Fails: The Birmingham City Council ERP Disaster
    2025/03/25
    Podcast explores Birmingham Council ERP failure due to non-technical issues: poor planning, communication, over-customization, weak leadership. Learn from failures to improve project success.
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    35 分
  • #29 - Agent Personas: Anthropology to the "Ai Team" with Kay Stoner
    2025/03/18
    In this episode of Salesforce Trails & Trials, host Jon Cline welcomes Kay Stoner, a seasoned tech professional, to discuss her unique journey and her innovative approach to artificial intelligence using personas. Kay shares her early aspirations as a writer and her background in cultural anthropology, explaining how her interest in understanding people and cultures unexpectedly paved the way for her career in technology. She recounts her initial foray into the tech world through a temp agency and her early experiences with word processing and technical writing. Her skills evolved with the rise of the internet, leading to web development and an understanding of the importance of website maintenance. The conversation then explores Kay's deep involvement with data analysis, including natural language processing, machine learning, taxonomies, and ontologies, highlighting the challenges of data cleanup and normalization in the early 2000s. The central focus of the episode shifts to Kay's concept of "aftermarket customizations of AI" through the use of detailed personas. She explains that by creating persona overlays with specific characteristics, personality traits, and communication styles, users can significantly enhance their interactions with AI models, receiving more focused and contextually relevant responses. Kay shares fascinating insights from an experiment where she presented a complex decision-making scenario to AI models reasoning in different languages, revealing culturally specific reasoning and varying processing times and token usage. She and Jon also discuss the practical applications of these AI teams for brainstorming, planning, gaining diverse perspectives, and overcoming creative blocks. Kay emphasizes the value of having AI as an objective thinking partner that can provide different angles and help clarify ideas. The episode concludes with Kay offering recommendations for listeners interested in exploring the potential of AI personas and highlighting her website where individuals and teams can experiment with this approach.
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    1 時間 1 分
  • #28 - Storytelling, Discovery, & Demo Failures with Paul Pearce
    2025/03/11
    Discover the secrets to Salesforce success with Paul Pierce, a 20-year ecosystem veteran! Learn how to transform soft skills into hard cash by mastering storytelling, discovery, and the art of the demo. Paul shares insights on crafting compelling narratives, conducting effective discovery at every client interaction, and delivering impactful software demonstrations. ◦ Key Takeaways: ▪ Storytelling: Use stories about your customer or someone similar to create a connection. ▪ Discovery: It's not just for business analysts; everyone interacting with clients should be involved. ▪ Demos: Turn demos into conversations, focusing on the customer's needs and the impact on their life. ▪ AI: Leverage AI for faster discovery and increased credibility. ▪ Menus: Use a "menu" approach to let clients choose what they want to discuss. ▪ Last thing first: Show the end result first to pique interest. • Avoid common pitfalls like feature-based demos and unused solutions. Learn how to engage clients, boost win rates, and become a trusted advisor. Whether you're on the ISV or consulting side, this episode is your guide to achieving Salesforce success
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    52 分
  • #27 - Agentforce acceptance, overcoming Imposter Syndrome, Architect Dreamin', and the power of a single word.
    2025/03/04
    This episode covers the Admin Skills Kit, differing definitions of "technical", and imposter syndrome. It provides advice for career growth, clear communication, and sharing knowledge while overcoming self-doubt.
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    40 分
  • #26 - From Window Washing to Salesforce Success: Jackson Hull's Trailblazer Story
    2025/02/25
    The episode "Salesforce Trails and Trials: Jackson Hull's Journey" explores Jackson Hull's unconventional path from washing windows to becoming a Salesforce Business Analyst (BA). It emphasizes the value of soft skills, mentorship, and strong relationships in the Salesforce ecosystem [from our conversation, 68, 87]. Key aspects of Jackson's journey include: * Early influences: His childhood interests in music, video games, and writing helped him appreciate how smaller elements can combine to create something impactful. * Initial career expectations: Jackson initially planned to become a financial advisor, but he realized that he was drawn to more creative and public-facing roles. * Introduction to Salesforce: He learned about Salesforce through business classes and a conversation with Jon Cline and became intrigued by the idea of integrating different business processes into a unified system. * People First Academy: This program was crucial in developing Jackson's technical skills and soft skills through curated learning and real-time project simulations. Mentors guided him towards a business analyst role and emphasized leadership and conflict resolution skills. * DevPod for Salesforce Partners: Jackson worked with nonprofit and for-profit clients, connecting Salesforce solutions with their specific needs and creating user-friendly test plans. * People First Method: Jackson helped formalize this program to develop soft skills and leadership qualities, teaching conflict resolution and continuous learning. * AI and the Future of Salesforce: To remain valuable, Salesforce professionals should focus on leadership, empathy, and relationship-building skills, which differentiate them from AI. Ultimately, Jackson's journey emphasizes the need for Salesforce professionals to have technical expertise and to develop leadership abilities, empathy, and a commitment to building strong relationships. The episode also touches on his unexpected departure from becoming a life insurance agent.
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    59 分
  • The AI-Fueled Future of Work, Learning, Adaptation, and Prompt Engineering with Pranay Joshi
    2025/02/18
    This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials features Pranay Joshi, who shares his journey into technology and Salesforce, emphasizing curiosity, continuous learning, and embracing change, especially with AI. He discusses his experience with Salesforce, from initial adoption to recognizing its broader potential beyond sales. Joshi highlights the importance of adapting to industry shifts and encourages leaders to empower their teams to explore AI. He also introduces his product, GudPrompt.com, to facilitate prompt engineering and knowledge sharing.
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    1 時間 6 分
  • #24 - From Titanic games to tackling admin needs using AI with Bill Appleton
    2025/02/11
    This episode of Salesforce Trails and Trials features a conversation with Bill Appleton, CTO of MetaZoa. Appleton, a lifelong software developer, discusses his career, including creating early App Exchange apps. The discussion covers challenges for Salesforce admins, like managing complex orgs and technical debt. They also discuss using AI to address these issues, emphasizing tools for org transformation, metadata management, and security. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding dependencies and improving org agility.
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    47 分