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Designing on Salesforce: An Architect’s Guide to Making Good Decisions
You may think that a Salesforce Architect is responsible for the technical integrity of the systems they deliver, and you would be right. But there’s something else that they look after that is just as important: making the right business decisions.
In most cases, making the right decision can be considered an objective choice rather than a subjective choice. However, in architecture, a good decision abides by the Well-Architected framework, demonstrates viability, feasibility, and desirability, and is both documented and defensible.
So, how do you make a good decision?
- Clarify the requirement. Once you’ve got a high-quality requirement, you can start brainstorming potential solutions.
- Evaluate potential solutions. Think of this as your design quality control.
- Consider the pros, cons, and challenges. Share this with any involved stakeholders.
Biggest TrailblazerDX ’25 Announcements: Everything in a Nutshell
Looking back at this year’s TrailblazerDX, it’s clear that we were once again spoiled by a whole host of exciting new announcements.
Here are the ones you need to know about:
- Agentforce Developer Edition: Officially announced at TDX, Agentforce Developer Edition allows Salesforce professionals to now have hands-on access to Agentforce and Data Cloud without eating up precious sandbox credits. Also, this org won’t expire as long as you log in periodically.
- Agentforce 2dx: Another big announcement for Agentforce! Agentforce 2dx builds on the foundations of Einstein Copilot to deliver multi-agent capabilities tailored for specific business roles.
- LWC Optimization and ApexGuru Insights: ApexGuru and LWC Optimization are designed to help developers create better, faster, and more accessible solutions.
- Lightning Out 2.0: Previously stuck in beta, Lightning Out 2.0 is set to become generally available later this year, bringing enhanced security with iframes and better performance with asynchronous resource loading.
- Heroku AppLink: A surprise but welcome feature; this one enables elastic scaling without the limitations that plagued Salesforce Functions.
5 Implementation Tips to Get the Most Out of Agentforce
So, you might be getting to the stage where you’re getting curious enough about Agentforce that you’re finally ready to give it a go. But, before you jump in head-first, how do you actually get the most out of such a powerful tool?
Agentforce has undeniably had its fair share of both praise and criticism, but this has ultimately made professionals think hard about how to best utilize it. For one, consider rethinking your outputs – it’s always more effective to be specific. How is Agentforce going to deliver the best results if the input isn’t clear?
Also, build effective boundaries. Even with great input, we need some guidelines to keep the tool’s responses consistent.
Alongside this, it’s also vital to have a well-organized knowledge base. No matter how great our inputs or how solid our guidelines are, Agentforce relies on data. The data it has access to is key to its performance.
How to Create a Salesforce Screen Flow
Sometimes, going back to the basics can create a whole new perspective to your workflows and processes. And what better basic to come back than creating a Screen Flow?
In case you don’t know, Salesforce Flow is an automation tool that can support most required business processes. A Screen Flow guides users through a business process, providing instructions or call scripts, prompting users to complete certain fields, and performing actions behind the scenes such as Record Create or Record Update.
Here’s how to create one:
- Create the Flow. Create your flow in Flow Builder, making sure to consider any existing validation rules.
- Prepare for Potential Errors with Fault Paths. Sometimes, things do not go smoothly; changes will keep happening in your organization after this flow is created. While you can’t foresee the future, you can account for unexpected changes such as these or unexpected errors by adding a Fault Path to your Create Records component.
- Test Your Screen Flow. Once the flow is ready and saved, it should be thoroughly tested before reaching your user base in production. The easiest way to test the Screen Flow is through the Debug button, or you could opt to use it in the interface in a Sandbox and see if it works as expected.
- Make the Flow Available in the Interface. Your users need to be able to well, use it!
- Take Einstein for Flow For a Spin. Once you’re comfortable with the elements and overall Screen Flows yourself, why not give Einstein for Flow a try?
Salesforce Has Halted Its Diversity Targets: What Does This Mean?
Last week, it was reported that Salesforce had dropped diversity hiring targets from its most recent annual financial disclosures. But why?
This comes as a result of executive orders surrounding the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as issued by the current Trump administration.
Quite understandably, a proportion of the ecosystem has already voiced their concerns on this news, with some even stating that this move shows Salesforce’s true colors. However, it must be noted that Salesforce contracts for the US government, so they are mandated to follow the executive order.
Salesforce themselves have been eager to set the record straight on the matter, insisting that they “remain committed to [their] core value of equality.” This is simply a legal and regulatory change that members of the federal government and their contracted companies have to abide by.
