Monday, December 19, 2011

Mike the Customer



The other day we got together with Marketing, remodeling magazines, some scissors, and some colorful markers and created our customer. It was a fun way to end the week.

The goal of the project was to create who we thought our customer was.
  • What are his interests?
  • What is important to him in business?
  • What is important to him in his personal life?
"Mike" is now apart of the improveit! 360 team. When we are developing new products or features we will turn to "Mike" to see if it is something he would be interested in.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Dreamforce for Dummies

I realize this is a technical blog, but I have special talents when it comes to reviewing (imagine an analyst being good at writing reviews.... shocker!!). So, here's my recap / review of Dreamforce for any of you fellow techies who are considering attending in the future.

This year was my first year attending Dreamforce. I'd heard a lot about it from co-workers and acquaintances who had attended in years past. I expected a large conference where, everyone attends sessions during the day, has a few hours of downtime in the evening, then possibly a dinner party or networking event. Reality did not meet my expectations. This was not a bad thing.

Transportation from the Airport: There are several ways to get from the airport to your hotel (and vice versa). One is to take a shuttle / taxi (I recommend this). The other option is to take the BART. Bart is a rickety (very loud) old train that takes you back into the 1970's through creepy tunnels and bad looking neighborhoods. If your hotel is near market street, it does have a stop that is relatively close. It is not worth a dollar more that the $7.50 it costs to take it one way.

Hotels: Book early and try to stay around 4th and Market. There are several hotels in this area, and it is in very close proximity to the Moscone center. We stayed at the Mosser. This is a very unique hotel, that offers some standard hotel rooms, and other hostel type rooms with shared restrooms. Economical, not fancy, got the job done. Keep in mind you will literally only be at the hotel to sleep.

The Conference: While "cult-ish", with uniformed Salesforce people and their Harry Potter scarves swarming the streets and conference buildings with walkie talkies and clip boards, this is to be expected at any conference. Clouds are taken to a new extreme. A generation that has no idea what a bean bag chair is will soon be educated upon attending a Dreamforce conference.

The keynotes were lots of marketing, but definitely worth attending. There were announcements galore on new features, live demos, and lots of 'people getting excited getting you excited' type stuff. I attended about 3 sessions that I would call great. Otherwise, the sessions were not overly impressive. Some are poorly named and described, so it's not until half way through the session you realize it has nothing to do with your job or function. There are ad hoc sessions that are put together as new features are announced. I highly recommend attending these, as the SME's are doing the presentations and all the information is new. In addition, stay after the sessions and ask questions - you will assuredly get more out of the sessions if you do this.

Also, there is a huge developer zone, where you can basically take any development questions and ask a Salesforce developer how to solve it. This is hugely beneficial. They also have a plethora of valuable development resources, so pack a light bag. You will be bringing lots of valuable freebies home. Some of them are heavy (force.com fundamentals book, etc).

Food: If you require more food that a 5 year old child, bring snacks. There were no snacks or beverages available between sessions. I ended up going to a Walgreens and stocking up on Diet Coke, Tea, and Honey Roasted peanuts.

Nightlife: Be prepared to not sleep. We had partner events galore, and when not attending those, we were meeting our Salesforce reps out. The relationship building and networking aspect of the conference is phenomenal - your biggest benefit from the conference will be to take advantage of this.

In conclusion, Dreamforce for me was sort of like the technical version of the social event of the year. The most I got out of the conference was from talking to people - speaking with presenters after the sessions, asking questions, networking, and meeting the individuals we do business with from a distance the other 361 days of the year.

The one thing I will most definitely do differently when attending Dreamforce next year is to wear comfortable shoes.