How did you get started with Salesforce?

I was at a software company in a marketing operations role. One day, I arrived at work and learned that my team was now in charge of this thing called Salesforce. The org we inherited was a mess — too many fields that no one remembered, very loose permissions because the previous admin thought that was too hard to figure out, etc.

Over the next few years we were able to clean that up, introduce major user experience improvements and drive consistent adoption among the sales teams. We also expanded beyond Sales Cloud to introduce Service Cloud, CPQ, Pardot and Experience Cloud. The company became a committed Salesforce shop and saw major improvements in productivity, reporting and visibility.

What’s your favorite thing about building solutions with Salesforce?

Technically, I’m on the pre-sales side so it’s been quite some time since I’ve personally built things in Salesforce. I identify needs, scope out resources needed, then pass it to our brilliant delivery teams to make good on all my promises. That said, the balance of flexibility and structure is what makes Salesforce so special. I often tell new-to-Salesforce prospects that they’re buying a set of Legos. Yes, they can build the pirate ship, but Salesforce can be used for so much more.

What energizes you at work?

Name a work achievement you’re proud of.