*This article is the first of a three-part series. For an overview of People First Playbook please visit this article.*

When engaging in a Salesforce project, the importance of solution design and delivery cannot be overstated. Ensuring that the data is organized, accurate, and free from redundancy is crucial for maximizing the efficiency of your system and enhancing the overall user experience. One of the most fundamental aspects of organizing data is normalization, a process that ensures a well-structured and efficient database. But normalization doesn’t just stop at technical procedures—it should also be aligned with People First Method, combining technical expertise with the human-centered, soft skills that elevate Salesforce projects.

People First Method: Enhancing the Technical with the Human Element

In most technical projects, including those involving Salesforce, database designers and developers often focus exclusively on the technical aspects. While the technical is critical for ensuring the system works properly, there is another layer to consider—how the end-users interact with the system, and how the design of the database can better serve them.

People First Method emphasizes the importance of soft skills and human-centered thinking in technical projects. Decades of experience have shown that building systems with a focus on the people who use them leads to better outcomes. This approach is especially beneficial when working with Salesforce, as the platform’s complexity requires a combination of technical expertise and a deep understanding of the users’ needs and behaviors.

By incorporating People First Method, Salesforce pros can ensure that the database structure is not only efficient from a technical standpoint but also intuitive and user-friendly for those interacting with it. This holistic approach leads to smoother user adoption, improved engagement, and ultimately a more successful Salesforce implementation.

Good, Better, People First: Elevating Database Design in Salesforce Projects

To illustrate how People First Normalization works, over the course of three articles, we will explore the three stages: Good, Better, and People First. 

Sample Requirement: A customer has requested a bulk delete functionality for one of their custom objects, which manages supplies. They wish to delete records once a supply is consumed. However, due to the frequent usage of multiple supplies simultaneously, users have expressed frustration with the manual process of deleting individual records, which they find time-consuming and inefficient.

Overall Solution: While there are numerous ways to solve this, we will implement a list view, a flow, and a list view button. 

PF1 – Good Solution: At this stage, a combination of a list button that displays checkboxes (for Multi-Record Selection) and a Salesforce flow can be created to meet the minimum requirement. It may be well-organized in terms of technical structure but may not yet fully consider how users will interact with it. The focus here is on technical efficiency without taking into account the overall user experience. In contrast, from a People First perspective, we want to consider the life cycle impact of both end users on the front end UI and future admin users in the setup area.

Conclusion 

Success-ish! We have a technically proficient solution, however we still have two levels to go in order to reach our desired result. In the next article, we will add some People First dimensions to drive this solution toward People First Normalization!

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