💃 Milestones are Meh. Use this instead.🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerd! When Tony Stark announced to the world that he is Iron Man, the next movie was driven entirely by that decision!

He went from famous to infamous to all the wrong people.

Tony passed through a gate, from which there was no turning back.

A gate is a powerful tool for Salesforce projects, too. Also in your toolbox are milestones and checkpoints.

Each are effective in nurturing a successful project- you may need all 3. Here’s a look at each of them and how to effectively use them 👇

THE HIGH FIVE

Salesforce Milestones

Level: Beginner 🐣

What is it?

Some examples -

• Project kickoff.

• Sprint 4 out of 8, halfway point.

• QA completed. 

They’re kinda useless and lack anything but the highest-level context. What’s worse is that they might be temporary. For example, Salesforce hit a huge milestone getting their profit margin above 30%. But some bad decisions or a policy change drop it back down to 28%.

Why should you care?

Hey, if someone says “I’m hungry, get me some Taco Bell,” then why tell them there’s a michelin-starred street taco joint further down the street if they asked for the Bell 🔔?

Milestones aren’t useless - they give an idea of where the project is at. They’re just not the most effective tool in your tool box.

Milestones are effective as header-level items in a project plan. Disco → bus reqs gathering → design → build etc. But there’s better tools to manage project progress.

*blows whistle! TIMEOUT!!

Salesforce Checkpoint

Level: Intermediate 🐓

What is it?

It’s like timeouts in basketball. There’s 20 second timeouts, 2 minute timeouts, and a 15 minute halftime.

20 seconds is enough time to grab a drink of water and wipe down the sweat 😅.

15 minutes gets you time to reflect (“We’re out-rebounding them, but we can’t make our 3 pointers!) change strategy (“We gotta double team their center, even if it means leaving someone else open. He’s beating us, make someone else beat us!) and rollup the to-date stats (“We’re shooting 52% to their 54%, we’re out-rebounding them by 8 boards, great job! We have 5 turnovers to their 8, and 4 more points off those turnovers 💪”).

Why should you care?

Preparedness and structure are key to have successful checkpoints 💯. A basketball halftime is a Salesforce sprint retrospective where you can align the team and discuss strategy to make the next sprint better - What do we stop doing? What do we start doing? What do we continue doing?

A 20 second timeout is like the daily huddle - enough time to make sure everyone is still alive and breathing…and if there are any blockers, but not enough to pivot strategy.

I AM IRONMAN

Salesforce Gates

Level: Advanced 🦖

What is it?

You walkthrough a gate, and you close it behind you. No going back. You’ve locked in the progress you’ve made, and set the foundation for building up from there.

Everyone must now operate in a new reality.

Why should you care?

When Tony Stark announced he was Ironman, it was a conversion from “rich guy” to “person who is as powerful as national defenses.” And like a Salesforce lead conversion, there was no going back.

Gates are powerful stuff, so use them strategically and cautiously.

Internally, use them to align your team to the stakes of a point-of-no-return.

Stakeholder-facing, like Tony Stark - you better be able to back up what you say.

Here’s a specific example -

In a new Salesforce implementation, you will go through discovery, business requirements gathering, design, and then build the CRM.

The first few months of the project, you may barely touch the CRM. Meanwhile, your client has paid Salesforce a ton of licensing money AND your implementation company a ton of consulting money.

Needless to say, your client is itching for taste. They want to see their $1 million investment do something. “When can we see it? When will there be a demo? How do we know we’re on the right track?”

The stakes are high. The last thing you want is for their first taste to be a disaster. The road to recovery on that will take off years of your life.

You and your team need to understand the stakes - that the first time the client sees their new org in action, is a critical gate in the project. Once they see it, they will never unsee it. Once they see it, they will expect to see it every meeting. They will expect it improves week over week, month over month.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Takeaway

Focus on gates. They will move your project needle in ways you haven’t experienced yet.

Look through your project milestones - some of them may actually be gates. Treat them like gates!

Milestones have their place, and checkpoints are a necessary effort in Salesforce projects. But gates, with their stakes, the foundations they create, and the sense of accomplishment when you pass through them, are what will make you an effective Salesforce professional 🫡.

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Your Salesforce Memes