DevOps Diaries

In this episode of DevOps Diaries we cover some of the outstanding moments from DevOps Diaries in 2024. Hear about everything from artificial intelligence and Salesforce Flows, to Heroku and QA testing.

You can expect snippets of conversation with: Julián Duque, Steve Fouracre, Alba Rivas, Dave Carroll, Jon Robinson, Todd Halfpenny and Andy Utkan. Thank you to all our guests this year for sharing wonderful insights and knowledge!

All episodes from this year can be found on Gearset's YouTube channel as well as audio platforms.

Learn more:
- Deploy Salesforce Flows easily
- Salesforce DevOps for enterprise organizations
- Easy backup and restore solutions for Salesforce
- How successful are teams using Gearset?

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Julián Duque — Heroku and Salesforce
03:55 Steve Fouracre — Impact of AI on Salesforce Development
08:02 Andy Utkan — Why Salesforce Developers should care about Salesforce Flows 
10:58 Todd Halfpenny — The future role of Salesforce Developers
15:12 Dave Carroll — The best learning method for Salesforce professionals
19:38 Alba Rivas — How does Agentforce work?
25:38 Jon Robinson — How to implement a good Salesforce QA strategy

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy interviews John Robinson, a seasoned QA professional. They discus the significance of quality assurance (QA) in the Salesforce ecosystem, exploring the evolution of QA, the misconceptions surrounding it, and the necessity for dedicated QA roles within teams.

John emphasizes the importance of understanding testing practices at their core, the role of tooling, and why there's the need for education to elevate the QA standards in Salesforce implementations.

Jack and Jon's conversation highlights the challenges faced by teams in adopting effective QA processes and the critical need for a proactive approach to ensure quality in software delivery. They delve into the critical aspects of testing and quality assurance (QA) within the Salesforce ecosystem. They chat about the misconceptions surrounding testing, the importance of understanding user perspectives, and the need for a robust QA strategy.

Jon also shares his take on the shift left ideology and the necessity of collaboration between QA and business analysts.

Learn more:
- What is Salesforce test automation?
- How to integrate testing into your Salesforce deployment pipeline
- What are the best practices for Salesforce testing?

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to QA and Its Importance in Salesforce Development
06:03 The Role of Salesforce Tooling in QA
12:14 Educating the Salesforce Community in QA
17:46 Challenges of Salesforce QA and Perception of Testing
29:23 Understanding Good Salesforce Testing Practices
37:13 The Shift Left Ideology in Salesforce Testing
43:30 Resources for Quality Assurance in Salesforce

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy speaks with Alba Rivas, Principal Developer Advocate at Salesforce. They discuss Alba's journey in the Salesforce ecosystem, her role in engaging the developer community, and the evolving landscape of Salesforce technologies.

Alba dives in to the nuances of artificial intelligence and Salesforce's new Data Cloud. She shares insights on the differences between Agentforce and Einstein Copilot, the importance of hands-on experience, and how to effectively test AI applications.

Their conversation emphasizes the need for developers to embrace new technologies, engage with the community for growth and learning, and how to submit a great session for TrailblazerDX.

Learn more:
- How to pick the right Salesforce DevOps solution for your needs
- What is Platform Engineering and how does it impact Salesforce DevOps?
- Salesforce CI/CD Pipelines that include LWC testing DevOps
- Salesforce DevOps for AI Enterprise

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters: 
00:00 Introduction to Alba and Her Role
03:02 The Developer Advocate Journey
06:06 Engaging the Developer Community
10:00 Navigating the Evolving Salesforce Ecosystem
14:23 Embracing AI and Data Cloud
16:45 Generative AI: Surprises and Insights
22:04 Understanding Agent Force vs. Copilot
27:53 Hands-On Experience with Agent Force
37:45 Testing and Evaluating AI Applications
40:04 Data Cloud Innovations and DevOps
45:47 Final Thoughts and Learning Recommendations

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy sits down with Dave Carroll, a veteran in the Salesforce ecosystem. They discuss Dave's journey from being a Salesforce ISV partner to a key player at Salesforce for 21 years. Dave's mission has been to help develop the tools and practices that empower Salesforce developers to be successful, and has graciously stepped out of retirement briefly to appear on DevOps Diaries.

Jack and Dave's conversation covers the evolution of Salesforce, the importance of customization and integrated solutions, as well as the challenges faced by developers across the development lifecycle.

Dave shares insights on what it takes to build a successful developer evangelism team through experimentation, and offers valuable advice for aspiring developers looking to navigate the Salesforce ecosystem successfully.

Dave Carroll was a Senior Director at Salesforce, managing product development for Salesforce DX, Salesforce Einstein, and was the founding member of the Salesforce developer relations programme.

Learn more:
How to pick the right Salesforce DevOps solution for your needs
What is Platform Engineering and how does it impact Salesforce DevOps?
Salesforce DevOps for Enterprise customers
Improve the quality, performance, and security of your Apex code

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Dave Carroll and His Journey
02:54 The Evolution of Salesforce and Developer Tools
05:52 Customizability and Integration in Salesforce
08:59 Developing for the AppExchange Platform
11:51 Salesforce DX and Developer Tooling
17:52 Challenges in Developer Experience and Testing
23:48 The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Salesforce
29:

Todd Halfpenny is a Salesforce MVP, Golden Hoodie recipient, and community leader. His impact on the UK Salesforce community is extensive and far reaching. Todd co-leads the London Salesforce Developers user group, is an organizer of Salesforce community conference London's Calling, and a co-founder of charitable clothing organization, Shirtforce.

In this episode Jack and Todd discuss Todd's journey from a telecoms engineer to a prominent figure in the Salesforce ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of luck, opportunity, and community engagement.

Throughout the conversation, Todd explores the dynamic between declarative and programmatic development, the evolving roles of admins and developers, and the significance of empathy in collaboration.

Todd shares insights on the growth of business analysis roles, the challenges of managing complex Salesforce orgs, and the value of open source contributions.

They also touch on the impact of AI on future roles, the importance of building resilient applications, and investing in community relationships.

Learn More:
Gearset acquires Salesforce code analysis platform, Clayton
How to deploy Salesforce Flow with ease
Join the Salesforce community at DevOps Dreamin'
Discover Shirtforce

About DevOps Diaries:
Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:00 The Role of Luck and Opportunity in Career Development
06:06 Transitioning from Telecoms to Salesforce Development
08:57 The Dynamic Between Declarative and Programmatic Development
12:04 The Importance of Empathy in Admin and Developer Roles
15:01 The Evolution of Business Analysis in Salesforce
17:47 Navigating Complexity in Salesforce Orgs
21:01 The Balance Between Over-Engineering and Practical Solutions
23:59 The Value of Documentation and Flexibility in Development
27:11 Open Source Contributions and Community Collaboration
30:09 The Impact of Open Source on Developer Creativity
32:59 The Role of Shirtforce in the Salesforce Community
36:13 Building Resilient Applications in the Face of Outages
39:01 The Future of AI and Its Impact on Salesforce Roles
51:57 Final Thoughts

This week on DevOps Diaries, catch up on the recording of a game-changing moment in the world of Salesforce DevOps — Gearset has officially acquired Clayton.

Join Jack McCurdy as he chats with Kevin Boyle (Gearset CEO and Co-Founder) and Lorenzo Frattini (Clayton CEO and Founder) about their vision for the future. They discuss how this acquisition will transform the DevOps experience for Salesforce professionals, enhance product offerings, and unlock powerful new capabilities for customers.

Expect insights into:
- Why this acquisition? How Gearset and Clayton came together to redefine releases on the Salesforce platform
- What is code scanning for Salesforce?
- What’s next? An early sneak peek into the future of what to expect from Gearset
- Your role in this exciting new chapter!

This is your chance to hear directly from the leaders shaping the future of Salesforce DevOps. Whether you’re a current Gearset or Clayton user, a Salesforce expert, or simply passionate about Salesforce, you won’t want to miss this.

Learn more:
- Develop and deploy secure, well-architected Salesforce solutions using Clayton from Gearset
- Clayton’s 2024 State of Salesforce Development Report
- The State of Salesforce DevOps 2024 Report
- 10 common engineering mistakes Salesforce teams still make

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:10 What is Clayton and how did it come about?
07:00 Kevin’s background and how it resonates with Clayton
11:01 How does Clayton help Salesforce customers? 
17:46 Clayton is for everyone and shifting-left
24:23 The cost of vulnerabilities and the importance of security 
27:38 How Clayton helps catch vulnerabilities
32:00 Why Salesforce customers should adopt a more security-based mindset in an AI-driven world
38:54 Why Gearset acquired Clayton
47:10 What the future holds 
51:08 Outlook for Gearset and Clayton customers and closing

Andy Utkan is a Salesforce MVP, founder of Flow Canvas Academy, and a Salesforce Flows expert. His newsletter, Salesforce Break, has over 10,000 subscribers. His involvement in the Salesforce community has been profound, providing support and guidance for thousands of professionals brining declarative automation to their Salesforce orgs.

In this episode, Andy and Jack chat about the power and potential of Salesforce Flows for automating business processes. He shares the benefits of visual programming and the ability to simplify complex technical concepts.

Andy emphasizes the importance of collaboration between admins and developers and its importance in being able leveraging the strengths of Flows and Apex.

He also addresses the challenges of using version control, testing, and deploying Salesforce Flows. He advocates for improved testing capabilities, using Gearset's Flow Navigator, and questions whether a Salesforce Flow certification is necessary.

Learn more:
- Gearset acquires Clayton
- How to deploy Salesforce Flows successfully
- Discover Gearset's Flow Navigator
- Discover best in class code analysis for Salesforce

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Background
03:17 The Power of Visual Programming
09:01 Collaboration Between Admins and Developers
19:58 Challenges and Solutions in Flow Development
24:26 The Future of Flows: Specialization and Certification
35:34 Exciting Flow Updates in the Winter '25 Release

Steve Fouracre is the founder of Self Evolving Software (SES), and Head of Salesforce Delivery at Metacube. Steve started his career in the Salesforce ecosystem as a Salesforce Developer, and grew to managing Salesforce development teams for some of the largest businesses in the UK.

In this episode, Steve and Jack dive deep into the merits of using artificial intelligence to support Salesforce development. Steve's company SES provides a way to introduce AI into the development process in an impactful way — Steve shares what that means, and where in the software development lifecycle AI can have a positive and transformative effect.

Steve shares how we can make AI more useful for gathering requirements, as well as how the ability for AI to generate code is going to change the way that developers work. While it's easy to overlook the human aspect of this process, Jack and Steve discuss how people can make the biggest difference in the successful adoption and impact of AI.

Learn more:
- Where to find Gearset at Dreamforce
- How to automate your Salesforce tests
- Transform your AI enterprise with enterprise DevOps
- Connect with Steve

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Opportunities and considerations of using AI in Salesforce development
08:48 Streamlining the software Delivery lifecycle with AI
11:16 The role of human collaboration in AI development
27:17 The impact of AI on developers' careers
31:40 The future of AI products in the Salesforce ecosystem

Julián Duque is Principal Developer Advocate for Heroku at Salesforce. His background in Node.js allows him to think objectively about development on the Salesforce platform and how it scales. His work with Heroku gives him a unique perspective on where traditional software engineering, DevOps, and Salesforce development intersects.

In this episode, Julián and Jack discuss the importance of community in software development. Julián dives into how his career has developed in the Developer Relations space, and how sharing knowledge benefits the teacher and the student, building great relationships.

Julián teaches Jack what Heroku is, and shares some of the common applications. He explains how Heroku benefits Salesforce teams, and provides the foundation for integrating applications, enabling one source of truth for data so businesses can make data-driven decisions across their tech stacks.

Heroku is constantly evolving. Julián sheds light on the future roadmap, why he’s excited for the future of Salesforce and what we’ll be achieving with new technologies.

Learn more

Build applications with Heroku
Where to find Gearset at Dreamforce
How Gearset integrates with your tech stack
Salesforce DevOps for Data Cloud

About DevOps Diaries

Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gearset
Facebook: facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset
 
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:

00:00 Get to know Julián
09:09 The Importance of Community in Software Development
19:38 What is Heroku?
24:09 Integrating Salesforce & Heroku
32:54 Common Use Cases for Heroku
36:25 The Future of Heroku: Next-Generation Platform
46:02 Advice for Developers Transitioning to Heroku

Kevin Boyle, CEO of Gearset, joins Jack on this episode of DevOps Diaries. Kevin’s career has taken him from software engineering intern at Microsoft, to leading one of the most successful Salesforce ISV’s as CEO. His background gives him a unique approach to running a business, with a foundation of great software engineering and product strategy.

Kevin & Jack discuss the origin story of Gearset and how it has grown over the years. They also talk about the intricate challenges of implementing DevOps practices in the Salesforce ecosystem and how Gearset has developed features to address those challenges.

Kevin emphasizes the importance of understanding the users' needs and continuously iterating, one of the core principles of DevOps itself, to improve the Gearset platform. He also shares his experience transitioning from a software engineer to a CEO and applying software engineering principles to other areas of business.

Kevin discusses the importance of continuous iteration and feedback in product development. He shares how the onboarding process at Gearset empowers employees to develop this mindset.

Kevin is passionate about the  value of equipping Salesforce teams with the right tools to be successful in their jobs. He talks about some of the proud moments he’s had as CEO — expressing gratitude for the team and the positive feedback from customers.

Learn more:

Gearset revolutionizes Salesforce DevOps with new features
Manage long term projects in your CI/CD pipeline
Why DevOps toolchains need purpose build solutions
Five ways to improve your Salesforce DevOps strategy

About DevOps Diaries:

Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube and your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel.

LinkedIn:   https://linkedin.com/company/gearset 
Facebook: https://facebook.com/gearsethq 

About Gearset:

We launched Gearset when we saw how lackluster DevOps was preventing teams from taking full advantage of Salesforce. We’d experienced first-hand how Salesforce allowed anyone to become a Trailblazer and build amazing apps, but then left you stranded, with only change sets or complex command lines to get your work to users. Gearset makes DevOps on Salesforce as simple as everything else on Salesforce. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Jack is joined by Daisy Garcia, CEO and founder of ImagineCRM, and Hannah Kahn, CRO at ImagineCRM. Daisy and Hannah share a love for philanthropy, and driving foundations and nonprofits to success through technology. Their love for their mission is equal to their passion for uplifting women in tech.

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Hannah & Daisy discuss their experiences as women in tech, and how to support other women in the industry — including what they’ve done for each other. They share their diverse backgrounds and career paths, highlighting the importance of networking and mentorship.

Throughout the episode they emphasize the need for women to support each other and create opportunities for one another. The conversation also touches on the challenges women face in leadership roles and the importance of authenticity and vulnerability.

They wrap the episode with advice for attendees of the WITness Success, highlighting how to maximize their experience with networking opportunities that can be created intentionally.

Learn more:

ImagineCRM
Witness Success
Women in Salesforce DevOps, ignite your career
Bring your full self — Rebecca’s experience as a UX Intern
Join the women in Salesforce DevOps community

About DevOps Diaries:

Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
We launched Gearset when we saw how lackluster DevOps was preventing teams from taking full advantage of Salesforce. We’d experienced first-hand how Salesforce allowed anyone to become a Trailblazer and build amazing apps, but then left you stranded, with only change sets or complex command lines to get your work to users. Gearset makes DevOps on Salesforce as simple as everything else on Salesforce. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Over thirteen episodes in 2024, we’ve learnt a whole lot. About Salesforce, leadership, DevOps, and personal growth. To mark the half-way point in the year, Jack has compiled some of the best snippets from all thirteen episodes!

Strap in and listen to brilliant nuggets of wisdom from a star-studded line up. There’s something for everyone. Technical advice, how to support your team, artificial intelligence, deployment management. If you can think of it, a DevOps Diaries guest has it!

Thank you to all the amazing guests for making this podcast what it is, and committing to sharing your wisdom with the Salesforce trailblazer community.

Learn more:
Watch the whole series on YouTube
Learn more about Gearset
The State of Salesforce DevOps 2024
Upcoming live DevOps events

Connect with Jack
X/Twitter
LinkedIn

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Abi Claus has been in the Salesforce ecosystem since 2011. She is passionate about spreading her knowledge to empower women in technology. She’s grown from a Salesforce admin to a Salesforce platform owner and director, and is now dedicated to sharing her knowledge and wisdom through her new venture as co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of She Makes It Work.

In this episode, Abi discusses what it takes to be successful in the corporate world. She and Jack discuss the challenges of communicating effectively across your team, and with stakeholders above you to excel. They discuss how language plays a pivotal role in how information is relayed, using analogies as a powerful tool for being understood and heard.

Jack and Abi also dive into the importance of allyship, how you can make sure you’re seen and heard in every  room, and why events like WITness Success are imperative to the growth and betterment of the Salesforce community.

Abi is candid with her experiences, regaling the time she spent crying in bathrooms learning SalesforceDX, and how she brings her authentic self and “true genius” to work.

Learn more:

She Makes It Work
Get the most out of SalesforceDX
Accelerate digital transformation with Salesforce DevOps
Register for WITness Success

Connect with Abi
LinkedIn

Connect with Jack
X/Twitter
LinkedIn

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Jason Lantz is a prominent figure in the Salesforce ecosystem, known for his contributions to Salesforce DevOps and open source tooling. He is the founder and CEO of MuseLab, a company that enhances Salesforce ISVs' product lifecycles, and is the creator of CumulusCI and MetaDeploy. Jason was the Sr. Director of Release Engineering at Salesforce.org, where he led the development of tools that support nonprofits.

In this episode Jason talks about how to develop deployment practices with automation that benefit every Salesforce team. His experience in the ecosystem has been dedicated to addressing complex deployment challenges, which he talks about in depth.

Jack and Jason also discuss high-fidelity testing, sandboxes, and the merit of scratch orgs. They also dive into the human element of processes, why asking the right questions and effective partnerships leads to the best solutions.

Jason is an advocate for modular development — he shares how and where we can get started with second generation packaging.

Learn more:
Choosing between sandboxes and scratch orgs
Salesforce CI/CD best practices
Get the most out of SalesforceDX
How to automate Salesforce testing

Connect with Jason
LinkedIn

Connect with Jack
X/Twitter
LinkedIn

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Nathen Harvey is Developer Advocate and the lead for DORA at Google Cloud, their DevOps Research and Assessment unit. For ten years Nathen has spearheaded tech communities and authored several reports that now form the industry standard for measuring DevOps performance. He was once a CRM system administrator too — he knows his stuff and the challenges we all face too!

Nathen joins Jack on the DevOps Diaries podcast to discuss all things metrics. In an enticing and insightful conversation, Nathen shares with us how the DORA metrics came to be, what they are, and why measuring performance is important for all teams to drive their businesses in the right direction.

Nathen also shares with us some of the common pitfalls of metrics, including Goodhart's Law, and what we can do to avoid them. If you’re unsure of where to start when it comes to measuring performance, or how to improve, this is the episode for you.

Nathen and Jack also discuss the wider market trends and how engineering teams can up their game using the SPACE framework.

Learn more:
DORA 2023 report
The State of Salesforce DevOps 2024 report
The common pitfalls when measuring performance
How to align metrics with business performance

Connect with Nathen
LinkedIn
X/Twitter

Connect with Jack
X/Twitter
LinkedIn

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Jolene Mair is a Salesforce Application Engineer at cybersecurity company, HackerOne. She is also a Gearset DevOps leader. Jolene has six-years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem, is 11x Salesforce certified, and brings technical expertise and deep knowledge of Salesforce to an industry where protecting data and creating great user experiences are central to success.

In this episode Jack and Jolene go deep on data backup for Salesforce. They discuss why it’s important, why it’s overlooked, and why backing up and securing Salesforce orgs is a team sport.

If you’re wondering why Salesforce is tricky to back up, even more so to restore and how you can save yourself countless hours in downtime, this is the episode for you. Jolene shares some of the scenarios she’s found herself in, and what she did to overcome them — and you’ll never have to face the same challenges again.

Backing up your Salesforce org, or not, has consequences for your entire organization. Jack and Jolene dives into the knock-on effect on everyone from end-users, Salesforce admins, and even executives. This episode is your Salesforce backup bible!

Useful links
Who are Gearset’s DevOps leaders?
How to encrypt your Salesforce backups
Build a business case for Salesforce backup
The complete guide to Salesforce backup

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Derek Bisson is a senior technology leader. He’s worked in the Salesforce ecosystem for 14 years, and cares deeply about how he can get the most out of his teams while leaving them feeling fulfilled and motivated.

In this episode Jack and Derek dive deep into communication and leadership. They explore the concept of “native genius” and how to create environments where magic can happen by unlocking creativity.

Derek has a background in business analysis, so communication and understanding the “job to be done” is an integral part of who he is. He discusses how everything is rooted in value creation and effective questioning to achieve the best results, while navigating the challenges of performance culture.

Leaving no stone unturned, Jack and Derek also chat about how we can approach ourselves and our own growth with humility and emotion management — recognizing how fear of failure plays into how we approach our day-to-day. They also discuss how leaders can create emotional safety for employees.

Useful links
How to manage multiple Salesforce orgs
How to align metrics to business value
Upcoming Salesforce events to boost your career
The Work Flow Podcast
Diary of a CEO

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Melissa Hill Dees is an innovator. She is committed to the Salesforce community, no more so than the non-profit community — she shares her warmth and energy with everyone that’s fortunate enough to cross her path. And we’re lucky enough to have her share with us on DevOps Diaries!

In this episode Jack and Melissa jump into the world of Salesforce non-profit. They discuss the ways that non-profit organizations can be as successful as the best corporations — by investing in the people that work for them, the technologies that can accelerate their success, great user experiences, and freeing up humans to “do more good”.

Jack asks Melissa how we can innovate to stop ourselves and businesses stagnating. They also chat about how data will shape every interaction we have with companies and institutions, as well as the important role that AI will end up playing in our lives. And, maybe the biggest question of all, “is SMS dead?”.

Useful links
Boundless by Vala Afshar
How to protect your Salesforce data
A guide to masking Salesforce data
Seed your Salesforce sandboxes with ease
Deploying Salesforce Communities for a better user experience

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Joy Shutters-Helbing is a Senior Manager at CapTech Consulting. She is also a wonderful mom! In this episode Jack and Joy consider where life and work intersect and how the skills we develop in our personal lives are applied to our profession.

If you like analogies then this is the episode for you. Hot Wheels, Lego, cars, rocket ships, and flying carrots all have their place here! Filled with laughter from the start, Jack and Joy discuss the bigger picture.

Nothing is off limits. Joy speaks to her experience with the Salesforce platform and how that’s tied back to what she’s learnt as a parent. She discusses everything from user management, to stakeholder relationships, to the continually changing capabilities of Salesforce. Joy also shares the importance of the Salesforce and Chicago community, and how it’s played a big part in her success.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

Attend DevOps Dreamin’ and meet Joy & Jack!
How Gearset helps Salesforce consultancies
The top priorities for Salesforce teams this year
How to improve team collaboration with DevOps

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days. 

Lauren Krcatovich is CRM Development Manager at Cision. Her journey in tech has been shaped by business analysis and product management before taking the reins for overall Salesforce development.

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Lauren shares why product and design thinking is critical to the success of Salesforce implementations. She uncovers the key stakeholders that need to be involved in projects from the start to achieve the best results — some may surprise you!

Jack and Lauren also dive into the importance of accountability and quality management across the organization. Listen in to get Lauren’s take on retrospectives and methods for continuous improvement that help you learn from project experience. They also discuss strategies for tech stack consolidation.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

How to align performance with objectives
What are the business benefits of DevOps?
How to manage multiple Salesforce Production orgs
The State of Salesforce DevOps 2024
Who are Gearset’s DevOps Leaders?

Connect with Lauren
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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.