CzechDreamin is over, long live CzechDreamin

2.8.202226.7.2022 • Salesforce • 0

Wow, that was a hell of time and it took us super long to wrap it up due to upcoming holidays and plenty of other things.

This year it was our third try to deliver the perfect conference. First year in person for roughly 200+ people, skip one year, do a virtual conference and this year get back to in-person.

We intentionally didn’t do it hybrid nor record the conference, we really wanted to get the people together, overwhelm them with the content, make their heads spinning.

This was my first Salesforce conference. It was a great change of work routine and every talk gave me some information to think about.

At it was success, 400+ people registered, roughly 380 of them attended. We had attendees from all over the world, some even made it from States (and connected us with London’s Calling and YeurDreamin), we had majority of first timers to Dreamin events or community events at all. But even the first timers weren’t alone and they already knew someone else, which is great and shows how the community is connected.

Andre published a great video from YeurDreamin on his profile and what are these conferences about, definitely worth watching. And Paul put it in writing with his point of view. And finally – a few people asked about the Toastmasters program. Definitely a great way how to improve your speaking skills.

CzechDreamin 2022 statistics about attendees

Our schedule was super busy. We opened the gates at 8am, run sessions in 6 parallel tracks and finished at 6pm with open bar opened till 8pm and unofficial after parties at multiple locations organized ad-hoc by the people. On Saturday we organized trip to Pilsen and Sunday was dedicated to Prague tour.

Did you think about making this a two-day event?

We had an absolute awesome set of sponsors who helped us run the event. Even though it is paid event for attendees, the majority of costs has to be covered by partners. We are so grateful for them and was surprised with the wave of support we got, we signed the very last sponsor just a few days before the event, others committed a few years in advance (they wanted to sponsor the 2020 and stayed all the time with us).

The content

At the end we had 50 presentations (if I count correctly) and of course I didn’t have time to attend a single one. Luckily we got all the presentations (you can see them on our web) and I had time to go through them all. What catched my attention?

Andre’s session about data quality, which ends with „Don’t do it all by yourself“. So true;
Anna spoke about CI/CD and DevOps maturity matrix. I love the different angles and what benefits can you look for;
I actually attended like 5 minutes of Robert’s session about 7 ground rules for developers. It was super awesome and they are all great – leave the code cleaner that you found it, grow a safety net of awesome tests, minimize custom code and much more;
custom predictions and Pratyush – I probably never saw it in real life but it has a potential. Plus it is included for free;
Szandor and Christian – just the names are synonym for perfect presentation and they delivered. I love the picture of all the death they had to face;

LWC, LDV and causes of death illustration

David and his approach to migrate to APEX enterprise patterns. Interesting to see there are a few ways how to tackle it and looks like you don’t have to achieve perfection in round 1;
Igor and custom made data periscope when you have external data and don’t (want to) have money for Salesforce Connect;
Anastasiya and real time marketing 101 – it is pretty scary how the whole interaction with user can be customized on the fly, I wonder where are the limits and borders and when we should involve psychologist just not to make the website a bit creepy;
Vaclav spoke about reducing unwanted communication from Marketing Cloud. Looks like a pretty simple solution which can be super powerful to your interaction with customers. I hate those „are you still there“ emails but I understand the need for clean mailing list as well;

Edith’s path to modern JavaScript – maybe I can give it a try and learn something new;
Doria, Fabrice and Tooling API – great tool but I’m still not convinced how much we need it with all the tools in our hands which provide additional capabilities;
Evan’s deluxe report type for each object, where you don’t start from top but from bottom and include all the fields from „parent“ objects;
Jakub and Content Builder Blocks in Marketing Cloud made me realise there might be a market for these „small“ blocks with extra functionalities or integrations;
other Jakub and talk about PDOs – that looks like a dream work, you are being recommended by Salesforce to develop apps which will be available from the AppExchange. There aren’t that many partners at the moment, the right niche to be in?
Alex and his keynote about next generation app development – „Don’t try to do it all in a single component. Take advantage of the fact that builders can chain components together“;
Matteo and his talk about Heroku which should open eyes especially to architects and developers. With the Functions which are here as well we should probably look outside SF capabilities and utilize the whole infrastructure even better;
speaking about architects Melissa did a great job as well, even without her presentation as the electricity died. „Architects understand what is available out-of-the-box or as add-ons that may easily solve problems – low risk, faster time to market. Learn about the capabilities of each of the clouds and how you might be able to incorporate them“;
Narender, flows and speed – the async approach looks promising and I agree there might be a future, plenty of things the user doesn’t need to happen in real time and we can speed up their user experience;
Pawel spoke about flows as well, how to structure them, naming conventions, subflows and many others. While Process Builder asked us to put everything into one process per object with flow we have free hands which goes hand in hand with being a good citizen and name them correctly. Still recall the implementation with 300+ flows and without naming convention you would be lost;
Svatopluk and some SFDX gotchas. The gotchas – even though they change over the time – are the most important to me, because I don’t have to make the same mistakes;
Tomas spoke about certifications and why to get them – because you will ultimately gain additional knowledge which will help you with a better implementation;
on top of that Katka spoke how certified people are 90 % more productive and 35 % more impactful, how Salesforce plans to increase the number of credentials individuals in CEE by 50 % till next year (sounds crazy) and that there is a market of 437 000 new jobs by 2026;
other Tomas and risks on Salesforce projects. You might be surprised about how many of them you didn’t think;
Dorian, Julio, admins and tests and why they should even care. Because as an admin you can easily break yours developers code;
Jiri spoke about Vlocity and how great knowledge of products, rules, well designed OmniScript and Integration Procedures will make your implementation successful.

I didn’t cover everything in this summary at all, but you probably got the feeling for the amount of knowledge you could get. Not to mention all the contacts and networking, some swags, great amount of positive energy and great food.

We will be back next year and hope to meet you as well. Stay tuned.

The best community, knowledge and networking in the SF environment in the Czech Republic 🙂

And of course – we do have a lot of photos, heaps of fantastic and constructive feedback and a brochure with the summary.

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The importance of user experience: nextbike study

25.7.202225.7.2022 • Salesforce • 0

When I passed the User Experience Designer certification I didn’t foresee how I can really use it in my real life. Till the moment I’ve been to Berlin.

I spent there some time and felt in love with bike riding. After some quick check, the nextbike was a clear choice with their 10€/month subscription (not officially on the web at that time, available in the app only).

All was good till the moment I started to ride across the city to do some sightseeing, when after a few rides I’ve got the following message:

Hello, you have returned bike XXX in the flexzone. The next time you return a bike flexibly a surcharge of 1,00EUR will apply. https://www.nextbike.de/xx/berlin/surcharge

So I checked the web. Lets skip the fact that – at that time – the web stated it is 0,5EUR, focus more on the user experience.

Seems pretty clear. But then you open the app and see something a bit different. There are no clearly marked blue streets. When you have time to focus and are not on a direct sun, you might notice that some parts of the map are more orange (read pink marked zone above) while others are more purple (blue marked streets as I tested).

I never noticed this small difference during first a few weeks and I had to focus hard, check multiple parts of the city to notice that there is a small color difference on the map and this color difference doesn’t represent the buildings, but different zones.

And that is why the UX is so important, why your app should be synced with wording on your web or in help and why contrast is so important. It is a small detail, but potentially very confusing to your users.

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Salesforce Certified Business Analyst

18.7.202216.7.2022 • Salesforce • 0

Salesforce is on a roll with „more generic“ certifications. After UX Designer, which was clearly about user interface and experience, and Strategy Designer, which was a bit like project manager to me, they brought the Business Analyst credential.

And it makes sense as these people are at the absolute beginning of the project, their work is the foundation of success for the whole project and they don’t really need to be Salesforce specialist. Actually, the Administrator certification is still a prerequisite, which again makes sense as you can ask better questions when you know the platform.

The exam has its obvious content and some surprising outcomes, I didn’t really realize before. Obviously there is an associated track on Trailhead to prepare you.

The obvious

you need to know when to use the proper tools such as Journey Map, Process Design, Process Map, waterfall and agile, user stories, release notes, product roadmap, application lifecycle management;
what well defined requirement means and what it needs to contain;
what all sign-offs they need to get;
how to communicate with stakeholders.

What I didn’t realize

What is always tricky – at least to me – is what each person on the project should be doing, where their work finish and other people carry on. To me it is different on every project as every client is different and as every project has different size and needs.

Reading the questions and answers I’ve been surprised with some tasks as I would, as a BA, delegate them to project manager or maybe even more senior people. Things like extra requirements coming in very last minute and the dev team being forced to put them in the release.

Surprisingly BAs are also heavily involved in testing, not just writing the requirements and acceptance criterias, but also writing test scripts, leading the UAT and plenty of other things I would not expect from them.

Here I go

With that I’m happy to announce that I’m Salesforce Certified Business Analyst as well. And you should go for it as well.

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Certified Technical Architect

29.6.202229.6.2022 • Salesforce • 0

It is over. Finally. And I already kind of regret it as it was such a great ride.

Six years ago, during my job interview, I said I don’t want the title, because it takes so much energy and time to get it. Two years ago I attended the 601 training as a first step to become a CTA. And almost nine months later I failed for the first time. I still remember how grateful I was for the failure, because it was so easy to solve the scenario, to do the presentation, to answer the questions. If it is that easy why people fail, right?

I also remember the question I got after – how do you plan to prepare for retake? I had no clue. Had the feeling I know all the technical stuff (and it is called technical architect, right?) and I just need to work on the presentation part. But with no set date for the retake I wasn’t willing to invest the time.

So 2021 went by and I didn’t do much. I was surprised how much I remember, I just was a bit rusty with my presentation A lot of delays everywhere, no one convinced I’m ready for retake, summer period, you name it.

After all I cleared the 602 and expected to sit the board in three months time, so time for some studies. But for some weird reason it took time again. Finally I’ve been told about February date, which was quickly taken away from me (oh sorry, mistake on our side) to get it back two weeks later (sorry to see you go Martin).

How to learn for retake

So I had less than two months for final preparation. Routine I needed – solve scenario, present either to myself, to judges (internal or external) or watch recording of someone else presenting and answering the same scenario. Along the way learn the things I’ve been missing.

I saw a few great presentations, still have no clue how Melissa is able to put so many details in her presentation and still be on time. I observed how people got way better – the jump in James‘ performance when he watch his presentation over a few months is astonishing.

And I semi-failed second time. The scenario was absolutely crazy, never saw anything like that. But also – mainly based on QA – I realised that some points we probably shouldn’t take literaly. I had the „hide and seek“ feeling after we wrap-up as you have no clue where the questions lead and what the judges want to hear. It was so obvious to me that I failed and I wasn’t sure I want to repeat the experience.

Why they call it Technical Architect while the technical knowledge is just small part of the exam? You can learn it in a few months (and Johann confirm it as well), but to pass you need to be strong in the „softer“ areas as well – how to present, how to handle questions and objections, project management, governance and all these kind of things. Melissa covered it perfectly. And when we spoke with Martins‘ and Svata (in Czech only) Martin said it clearly to me – as a CTA you will speak with C-level people and you need to be able to handle it. That’s what CTA is about.

But then results came and I had two sections retake – Security and Development Lifecycle. That’s a must to do it, no way I’ll not sit the board again. And I had to wait, the CTA Summit had priority, delays and delays, which was great, because I had time for the CzechDreamin and not much else.

Two section retake

Middle of June and I sit the board for the third time, but this time it was completely different. Normally you have three hours (+ 30 minutes for non-native speaker) for preparation, with two section retake you have just 90 minutes (+ 5 minutes extra) for the same scenario, where you focus just on sections you retake. But when you need to retake security it means you need to cover licences, data model, you need to have a vision how you will technically solve every requirement. And Development Lifecycle (plus governance) is the same – where are all the risks we need to cover?

For normal board you have 45 minutes for presentation, where you need to present everything, for section retake you have 30 minutes where you cover just what you need to cover. Plenty of time, you can slow done, but you still need to hit the time as precisely as possible. Tricky, completely different preparation, completely different presentation style.

After the board I’ve been wasted. I feel I handled the QA better, I asked what they want to hear, I asked whether I cover their question.

A lot of oAuth flows questions and I realised how important consistency is. Till that moment whenever I thought about CI/CD I usually thought about Azure DevOps, as I have the most real life experience with that. This time it looks better to go with Copado for a few reasons. And it kicked back when we got to the question of oAuth flow the CI/CD will use as I didn’t realised I use a different tool this time, which uses different flow and I got lost. Not the perfect final question for my board.

Waiting, again. Do I have enough? Did I pass? Will I do it again? No way! I have enough.

The end

The results came in and it was relief. I passed.

It was sad as well, I won’t have the opportunity to be challenged in this way anymore. It is so great experience, on a project you spent weeks with discovery, then plenty of sessions where you present your solution. Rarely challenging questions because you are the expert. During the board you have everything served, you have quiet time to solve it, present and answer questions, you are challenged and have a feeling you achieved something even though you fail.

But than I got an email that my board is scheduled, again. Hi, what’s going on was my question, the answer was sorry, just some cleaning on our side, but you can always take the board just for fun. And I’m like – ok, I’m in, how much do you charge? It is exhilirating and I would do it any time again. But I don’t have to. Such a great feeling.

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Cirkadiánní kód, Satchin Panda

21.6.202220.6.2022 • Nezařaditelné • 0

Ta kniha je tak jednoduchá až se jí nechce věřit. Opravdu vše závisí jenom na správném čase a dostatečně dlouhých pauzách a všechny neduhy odejdou?

Pokud se ale tyto denní rytmy naruší, byť i jen na den či dva dny, naše hodiny nemohou těmto genům posílat ty správné zprávy. … Trvá-li takové narušení několik dní, týdnů či měsíců, může se u nás projevit celá řada infekcí a chorob, od nespavosti po poruchu pozornosti s hyperaktivitou (ADHD), depresi, úzkost, migrény, cukrovku, obezitu, kardiovaskulární choroby, demenci či dokonce rakovinu.

Tak tomu říkám motivace to zkusit na vlastní kůži i když nemám pocit, že bych něčím z toho trpěl. Nebo netrpím, protože tak nějak přirozeně jsem v tom správném cyklu v podstatě zajetý?

cirkadiánní hodiny interagují s časem světla a potravy, vytvářejí denní rytmy;
když strávíme většinu dne uvnitř budovy, tlumené světlo v interiéru nedokáže dostatečně aktivovat melanopsin, takže se hodiny nenaladí, jsme ospalí a méně bdělí;
nejsou žádné sovy nebo raní ptáčata;
pokud se snažíte dítě udržet vzhůru po deváté či desáté hodině večerní zaděláváte mu na ADHD nebo PAS;
cirkadiánním hodinám trvá téměř celý den než se přizpůsobí jedné hodině časové změny při cestování;
probdělá noc dokáže ovlivnit kognitivní funkce na celý týden;
staří lidé nesmí méně, protože víc spát nepotřebují, ale protože se snadněji probudí a už neusnou. Kdyby spali déle, byli by na tom zdravotně lépe.

Mazec, člověk skoro přemýšlí, zda se mu chce cestovat. Do toho přemýšlení co je vlastně správně – ložnice se zatemňovacími závěsy eliminují ranní světelné signály k probuzení versus doporučení pořádně zatáhnout závěsy, aby nás v noci nerušilo světlo. Mám nějak automatizovat jejich roztahování?

Do toho se prý můžeme vyprdnout na všechny diety, paleo stravu a další věci, abychom zhubnuli, a můžeme jít skoro co chceme, jenom dávat pozor aby od prvního do poslední sousta uplynulo maximálně 12 hodin, když to stáhneme po osm tak se prý těm pozitivním účinkům nebudeme stíhat divit. Zdravotní přínosy tohoto režimu jsou prý významnější než účinky léků.

No jo, ale mě ta sklenka vína večer celkem vyhovuje, mám si nalít už k odpolednímu vyřizování emailů?

Slunce, slunce, slunce. Denně na něm být minimálně hodinu, doma ať svítíte jak svítíte nikdy to není dost. Lepší pracovat u velkého okna než někde uvnitř místnosti. Sluneční brýle vám množství světla opět omezí – sundejte je. A UV zářením se netrapte.

Nechte se operovat raději odpoledne než ráno. Respektive ráno j doktor čilejší, což je podle všeho lepší na výsledek, odpolední operace se zase lépe hojí. Tak ho přesvědčete ať si přispí a operuje až odpoledne. Nebo věřte robotům a nechejte se operovat z jiné časové zóny. Po operaci spěte, JIPka je to nejhorší místo na přežití, protože tam je hluk a pořád se svítí – špunty, maska na oči a doufejte, že přežijete. To vlastně nezní moc optimisticky.

Tak knížka je doslova a do písmene překvapující. Opravdu stačí zkrátit dobu mezi prvním a posledním soustem (což pro mě není takový problém), být víc na denním světle (což bych rád) a jsem chráněn proti většině chorob? Bylo by to zlaté. A když o tom tak přemýšlím, tak většina z těch věcí není těžká na zavedení, tak proč to nezkusit.

Díky Jan Melvil za myšlenky, jdu do toho. A ty kup knížku a zkus to také.

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