Managing priorities and handling expectations after two babies

In December last year, as the world was about to celebrate one more revolution around the sun, we welcomed a new client into our little family. This new client was needy, annoying and had the charming quality of asking for milk. This made the entire BAU team tizzy, as this new client needs additional support and guidance. While the older client was now much more stable and required less attention, he still needed support and guidance. Not to mention, with the understanding of his sandbox, he needed to know more about the world, the planet, animals and dinosaurs.

Yes, we now have two babies.

Every day is an adventure as I juggle the demands of my little ones. With his constant need for attention and affection, the new baby requires me to be fully present, much like a new client needing extra care. Meanwhile, my older child, full of curiosity and questions, thrives on exploration and learning, reminding me that nurturing their imagination is just as crucial. I constantly adapt our routines to ensure both kids feel cherished, whether it's storytelling sessions about dinosaurs or playful interactions that encourage learning about the world around them.

Drawing parallels to the real world and the office world, there have been cases in my career when more than one client sought attention or needed to do their tasks. If we change perspective and look from the client's perspective, their work is essential for them, and as with my babies, their need to seek attention is valid and essential.

So, to solve this conundrum, I do what I always do: I look into my quiver of Agile tools and methods to help with the problem.

So, let's look at some of Agile's tools to handle multiple stakeholders and babies.

1. Prioritisation with Backlog Management: Create a backlog that outlines tasks for both clients. Prioritise these tasks based on urgency and importance. For example, if the new client needs immediate attention, please focus on their needs first while still allocating time for the older client. Things like nail trimming and haircuts are weekly and monthly and, therefore, get added to the backlog based on their duration. Anything to do with milk requires a special skill, so having immediate access to the mummy is paramount.

2. Daily Stand-Ups: Hold brief daily meetings (stand-ups) to discuss clients' progress, roadblocks, and needs. This can help keep the team aligned and facilitate quick adjustments to support the new client's demands while ensuring the older client feels valued. We have sit-downs at the breakfast table and before bed to discuss options for changing our approach.

3. Sprints: Organise work into sprints—short, time-boxed periods where specific tasks are completed. This approach allows for regular reassessment of priorities and enables teams to adapt to the shifting needs of both clients. As most tasks in baby rearing are repetitive, estimating the work in each sprint becomes much easier. There are occasional time-box activities that get added to the backlog, like illness and discomforts that are added to the backlog.

4. Feedback Loops: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather insights from both clients regularly. This can help you understand their changing needs and adapt your strategies accordingly. For instance, if the new client finds the milk-related support insufficient, he will bawl a lot until the milk supply increases.

5. Collaboration: Involve all team members in the process. You can encourage collaboration to brainstorm creative solutions that meet clients' needs. This might include sharing ideas for new classes for the elder one, like driving to swimming or drama class or working on extra chew time for the teething little one.

6. Retrospectives: After each sprint, hold retrospectives to discuss what worked well and what didn't. This reflection will help identify areas for improvement in managing clients and adapt strategies for better results. We don't collaborate on the retrospective front, as most of what didn't work came from the team members.

7. Flexibility: I would like you to maintain flexibility to adjust your approaches as needed. The Agile methodology thrives on adaptability, so be ready to pivot your strategies based on changing demands. This article took me three additional days, as it was deemed low priority for the last sprint.

It was a stretch for me to apply agile principles to managing babies, but jokes aside, the principles are helpful if you have two stakeholders. Are you having difficulty with your Salesforce implementation? Or do you believe your consultant is taking gibberish when you ask him questions?

Send me a message to discuss how we can collaborate to make your implementation successful, Sforce Ninja style.

AI Use: Using Grammarly AI to correct grammar and ChatGpt to create image.

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What Toilet-Training my toddler Taught Me about change management

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and I had just finished a grueling design authority session when I smelled something foul. My poker-trained eyes spotted a tell on my toddler's face: He was about to soil his pants.
I then ran behind my toddler, begging him to use the toilet. Trying various methods of persuasion, I begged him to use the toilet. This scene was familiar in our house ever since my partner and I began training him to use the toilet. He giggled, darting around like it was a game of tag. As I finally caught up to him and we triumphantly reached the bathroom, I realized this chaotic scene had uncanny parallels to change management in the workplace. It's not the act in itself but the various persuasion techniques and changing behavior embedded in my toddler's whole life.
Here are some of the lessons my toddler taught me in change management.

Change Takes Time

Just as toddlers need time to adjust to potty use, employees and team members need time to adapt to changes. Rushing the process can lead to setbacks. Start small but determined steps.

Celebrate Small Wins

Recognize and celebrate every small success. Positive reinforcement encourages continued progress. Show them the benefits of the new ways and bring out the shiny numbers, outstanding reports, and dashboards.

Clear Instructions

Toddlers need clear, simple instructions, and so do team members. Avoid jargon and ensure everyone understands their role and the steps involved. Make a video walkthrough that users can refer to whenever they want. I have also found that clear instructions or how-to pages work better than a twenty-minute video.

Adjust Your Approach

What works for one toddler may not work for another. Similarly, different team members may respond better to various strategies. Be prepared to adjust your approach as needed. Some are quick to adopt change, others are slow to pick up stuff, and there is progress as long as we move forward.

Provide Support

Just as toddlers need support and reassurance, so do team members. Offer training, resources, and emotional support throughout the change process.
Establish Routines: Consistent routines help toddlers feel secure, and they do the same for employees. Establishing predictable processes can reduce anxiety and resistance.

Encourage Independence

Giving toddlers the autonomy to try things independently builds confidence. Similarly, empowering employees to take ownership of their roles and contributions can foster a sense of responsibility and engagement.
These are some lessons I drew parallels with training the kid to use the toilet.

No one likes change, not when you have become comfortable and compliant in your daily routine. However, as technology evolves, so does the need for change, and with a proper change management strategy in place, technology can succeed in being adopted.
This Tuesday, the adoption rate was 75%, meaning we successfully used the toilet three out of four times. This demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach and the progress we're making.

TLDR using generative AI:

Trying to potty-train my toddler taught me valuable lessons in change management, like celebrating small wins, providing clear instructions, and being prepared for setbacks. Like toilet training, change takes time and patience, but progress can be made with the right approach—even if it's not always a perfect success!

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Two arguments for a single-org strategy and one for multi-org

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It was a general catchup meeting with a stakeholder, we discussed about the health of their salesforce, about how different teams are doing and then the stakeholder mentioned something that made my ears standup, "We have audited our instances and turns out we have 5 Salesforce Org, what do you think is ideal?"

A deep breath. This question has come up more than once: the bigger the organization, the more complex the question gets; we discussed the health of their salesforce and how different teams are doing, and then the stakeholder mentioned something that made my ears stand, "We have audited our instances and it.

Many years ago, I was asked to look into an client with close to 8 Salesforce instances. One was just there to work on Ncino, and the rest were customized by different regions according to their needs. But when we analyzed the business model of all the regions, they were doing the exact same thing with different configurations.

So, that becomes the first argument for having a single organization across multiple regions and business units.

1. If your company aims to streamline processes and coordinate among different business units, consider using a single-org approach.

Each salesforce org is expensive, and the money increases exponentially as the number of users grow.

In a single-org structure, as multiple business units join a single organization, the complexity of maintaining the organization increases. In this case, there has to be a Global Center of Excellence and a governance body responsible for setting up guardrails in the organization.

However, if planned for the start, when the project is greenfield, there are guardrails set for multiple business units on how to use the objects, set up naming conventions and prepare to dedicate some time cleaning up tech debt, the org can be used for better. This approach needs additional time and effort to prepare the org to accommodate multiple business lines. This is a architecturally significant decision and the right way to do it.

2. Would it be more cost-effective to have a multi-org or put in additional effort to set up a COE for multiple business lines and regions?

Having multi-org will mean having costs multiplied across different orgs. All of them will need maintaining and teams to manage. Every enterprise company has a integration strategy, what will be the integration strategy for different salesforce data? What about master-data-management, if there are systems that manage master-data, will that data be replicated across the different orgs. Who handles conflicts in data?

You will also have to think about the different users who will need separate licensing for different orgs.

3. If you have independent business units with individual budgets that do not rely on each other, does it make sense to manage their own Salesforce instance?

Managing separate Salesforce orgs for independent business units with individual budgets can be a good idea. This approach can provide each unit with more control over their processes and data management. It can also help to prevent data overlap and confusion between different departments. However, weighing the costs of managing multiple instances against the benefits of having separate orgs is essential. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that the data can be easily shared across instances, if necessary, to maintain a cohesive view of the customer across the organization. Ultimately, the decision to manage separate Salesforce instances should be based on each business unit's specific needs and goals.Other factors to consider include budgets, timelines, and regulatory requirements to use multiple Salesforce orgs; however, those factors are not architecturally significant but more process-driven

We looked deep into the client org and realized that out of the 8, they could get rid of three of their salesforce instance and port their existing code and logic into one- master instance. Its been three years now and last I heard, they are down to three saving them a lot of money and not replicating their process.

What has your experience been managing multiple Salesforce instances for different business units, and how has it impacted your organization's processes and costs? Are you baffled by the expensive consultants who throw tech jargon your way? Drop me a note; maybe I can help.

TL;DR: Chat GPT generated summary:

The article discusses the pros and cons of using a single Salesforce org versus multiple orgs for different business units. The decision should be based on specific needs and goals of each business unit, budgets, timelines, and regulatory requirements. Ultimately, it is essential to weigh the costs of managing multiple instances against the benefits of having separate orgs. The article concludes by stating that deep analysis of the client org can help to reduce the number of Salesforce instances and save money while improving processes.

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