18 December 2020 - My DreamTX Highlights

2020 was my 5th Dreamforce. While this one was delivered in a virtual format in the comfort of my home, I still prepared for the event as I would with the in-person version, with an agenda. Prior to the start I trawled through all the sessions and picked out the ones that really grabbed my attention. 

Looking back over the 4 days it would seem that I was strangely drawn to sessions that were quite number list orientated. They also seem to have been the most impactful presentations for me too. Let me share with you some of my favourites:

Driving Innovations And Growth In Times Of Uncertainty

This session looked at how businesses can position confident steps forward when all the data around them is constantly changing, creating a challenging base for any solid decision making. Businesses have not been used to this way of working and it can be unsettling. Instead, they have needed to take a different approach, and concentrate on critical decisions first and be open to iterating on those decisions as new information arises.  

4 Key Pivots Growing Businesses Are Making This Year

The main points that came from this presentation were that for small to medium sized businesses who have been impacted by Covid have found that, in order to survive and thrive, they have had to make fast changes. They have had to put their customers first, listen to their needs and respond quickly. Businesses have had to accelerate their digital strategy to continue to deliver their services to customers as traditional methods may have been blocked due to Covid measures. In addition to the health crisis, this year has also had major economic and social impacts. Businesses have been exposed into considering the lives and career opportunities (or lack or) of all their employees and how privilege is still prevalent.  And lastly, 2020 has been a real eye opener, and for many they are planning ahead to have contingencies in place so they are not as impacted by any future business continuity issues.

5 Reasons Why Digital Transformations Fail And How To Avoid Them

What I found interesting about this session was the analogy used for transformation; a tree. They used 2 view points, everything that is above ground - the trunk, branches and leaves, that represented the elements of transformation that can be seen and felt, such as tangible technology implementations and the freedom to experiment and fail fast. Then they talked about the elements found below the ground - the roots. These are often forgotten aspects of transformation as they are not so visible, such as impacts from change on mindsets, behaviours, norms and culture. 

IT's 5 Step Playbook To Unlock Value From Salesforce

This session offered a different perspective to implementations, and dare I say, a more traditional one, compared to some of the faster thinkers and promoters of experimenting. They provided more structure to projects, you could almost feel ITIL and Prince 2 seeping out from the seams. These aspects are foundation layers for good delivery governance. While they may slow down the speed of a project delivery, they do allow outputs to land gracefully which can benefit overall system adoption.

6 Guiding Principles To Maximuse CRM Adoption

Which brings me tidily to adoption as a main topic. This session was super quick as they sprinted through the 6 principles as listed below, but they really are important if you want an implementation to be delivered safely and received well by end users. It's all about the basics of understanding why the project is happening in the first place, having sponsorship support from the top, capturing the right requirements, build true to the core of the system, deliver something that can be used by the company and remembering to support them throughout. 

Signals Of Change: 7 Key Trends Shaping Our Future

In a physical Dreamforce this session would have been held in a large breakout room and been filled to the rafters with attendees. I have literally sat on the floor at the back of the room to catch this type of session in a previous year. 20 minutes was not enough, an hour would have been more suitable as the elements they touched upon were so pertinent to every business. Easily my favourite session of DreamTX. A great quote in reference to point 2: A decision made too late is a bad decision.

My outputs from this session for each of the points were:

We see things differently. We are decisive. We have changed the way we connect with each other. We are open to experimenting and failing fast. We are taking responsibility. We are collaborating with our competitors. We are challenging our norms.

Develop Your Architect Mindset

Everyone wants to be an Architect and on Thursday there was plenty of Trailhead content to learn more. I liked this session in particular as the skills defined here as habits are relevant to successful project delivery and can be adopted by any member of a project team. If these habits are being used then you're well on your way to delighting your customers. 

You'll note that these presentations weren't Salesforce product orientated. I generally lean towards content that focuses on project delivery, human aspects of digital transformation and ecosystem trends. Extracting insight and opinions from other people's experiences are more valuable to me and I tend to hunt these topics down when they are available, then maybe seeing the latest product demo, which I can pick up via other sources at a later date.

But that's the beauty of a Dreamforce format. It offers so many different content angles that there is always something for someone to absorb. Overall, the 20 minute slots felt too short, especially when some presentations really warranted a longer session to go in more depth. Often times I felt the content was rushed through, but I did appreciate the follow up links to more information. Consider these presentations as tasting notes for you to be tempted to explore more at another time. 

And with all good Dreamforce's there is a place for gamification. I played along and completed the DreamTX Quest, spotted AppExchange products for their sweepstake and cracked the code to complete my postcard. I may not be dragging home a suitcase of swag this year, but equally I haven't spent the week jet-lagged, constantly on my feet, and eating conference food with one hand. I have missed the people, the networking, and the overall buzz that Dreamforce brings to San Francisco. But I know it will come back and we will be back together soon. 

Last quote from DreamTX, which I think I picked up from the Salesforce Community Group Leaders reunion, and so aptly sums up this global situation, which is, "not forever, just for now".