DevPod helps Salesforce partners reduce risk and unlock new opportunities.
Where does risk live in a project?
To ensure project success for your Salesforce practice, it is critical to avoid common pitfalls that cause red accounts and risk project failure. Our research spanning decades and 10,000+ projects highlights three major contributing factors:
1. Poor Requirements Definition
Clearly defining and documenting the project’s needs and scope is crucial. Failure to do so often leads to misaligned expectations, missed deadlines, and budget overruns. For instance, the e-Borders project suffered from insufficiently detailed requirements, resulting in post-contract disputes and a significant reduction in projected profit. To mitigate this, engage stakeholders early and thoroughly to gather comprehensive requirements, ensuring everyone understands and agrees upon the project’s objectives.
2. Inadequate Risk Management
Identifying and mitigating potential risks from the outset is paramount. Failing to proactively address risks can lead to project delays, budget overruns, and even complete failure. The FoxMeyer case exemplifies this, where inadequate risk assessment concerning warehouse automation and integration complexities contributed to the company’s downfall. To improve risk management, establish a robust process for identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks throughout the project lifecycle.
3. Poor Scope Management
A clearly defined project scope sets boundaries and expectations. Without it, projects are susceptible to scope creep, where uncontrolled additions and changes derail progress and budgets. For example, the LAUSD project failed partly due to a lack of focus and a strategy for managing stakeholder needs. Establish a well-defined scope from the start and enforce a rigorous change management process to control any modifications. Focusing on these three areas will significantly enhance your practice’s project success rate, ultimately leading to greater client satisfaction and profitability.
How DevPod can help your practice.
We turn red accounts around and create success by developing non-technical skills, empowering Salesforce partners to thrive in these often neglected areas by emphasizing the human-centered skills needed to drive projects forward, build client trust, adapt to change, and land for the long term.
Research Sources
- 64 Adam Alami / Procedia Computer Science 100 ( 2016 ) 62 – 71
- 1. The e-Borders project
- 2. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Instructional Technology Initiative
- This study utilized secondary sources that we initially validated before being engaged in the data analysis.
- Meriam8 distinguishes that materials of all types are helpful to the researcher as they aid understanding, bringing out the meaning and enabling discovery of perceptions related to the research problem. Data collection was mainly conducted by use of secondary sources bearing previous studies on the research topic, such as public records, news articles, published reports, and official statements.
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DevPod’s Value Proposition
DevPod offers a mindset that prioritizes the non-technical, human aspects of Salesforce projects – its goal: Reduce risk and drive successful projects. Technical expertise is foundational, and our method focuses on understanding and aligning the needs, goals, and dynamics of the people involved in projects—clients, stakeholders, and teams. You’ll find that our method is a proven approach that minimizes red accounts, puts value in the spotlight, and gets clients coming back for more.
We advocate for a framework for building up intangible skills and leveraging practical tools which create value in Salesforce professional services. 95% of technical projects fail for non-technical reasons. We want to bring YOU into the 5% that not only succeed but flourish. After thousands of projects, 15+ years of leading 30+ private cohorts of Salesforce professionals, People First Method has proven itself to lead to higher levels of value, prosperity and success.
Devpod Project Features
DevPod Solution Design
DevPod’s Solution Design shapes solution design in Salesforce projects by prioritizing the needs and experiences of the people who will use and manage the system. We emphasize collaboration to ensure that stakeholder goals are fully understood and aligned, while tools like our Process Mapping diagrams and User Experience Workbook guide thoughtful, user-centric design decisions. By addressing adoption and usability from the start, DevPod ensures that solutions are not just technically sound but also intuitive and impactful, reducing risk and maximizing long-term value. This approach ensures every design decision enhances engagement, efficiency, and satisfaction for all stakeholders.
DevPod Business Analysis
At DevPod , we conduct Business Analysis by focusing on clear communication, stakeholder alignment, and a deep understanding of user needs via thorough discovery. Through tools like the Project Workbook, the User Story Workbook, we ensure every requirement is documented with precision and transparency, creating a shared vision from the outset. DP BA emphasizes collaboration to surface hidden pain points, address potential conflicts, and align solutions with both business objectives and user adoption. By keeping people at the center of the process, DevPod’s business analysis translates complex needs into actionable insights, ensuring that every Salesforce project delivers meaningful, user-driven outcomes.
DevPod Project Management
DevPod leverages the People First Method (PFM) to elevate Project Management in Salesforce projects by fostering transparency, alignment, and proactive collaboration. Tools like the Weekly Status Report provide stakeholders with clear visibility into project health, budget, and milestones, ensuring consistent communication and shared accountability. PFM emphasizes addressing challenges early and collaboratively, turning potential risks into opportunities for stronger alignment. By focusing on the needs and dynamics of the people involved, DevPod’s project management approach creates smoother workflows, stronger partnerships, and successful, on-time project delivery.
Our Culture and Values
At DevPod, our culture is built on these values: Simple, Predictable, and Irresistible. We believe in delivering solutions that are clear and easy to understand, processes that are consistent and reliable, and experiences that clients and teams are drawn to, because the adoptable solution is superior to the technical utopia. We align our work with these values. We build trust and good will with our clients and partners so that the solutions we deliver not only meet expectations but exceed them, making every interaction with DevPod seamless and impactful.
Why Choose On-Demand Talent
Flexibility
Access a diverse pool of skilled professionals ready to tackle your Salesforce challenges with precision and agility at any time. Our professionals are all over the US and India (and sometimes the UK or South Korea).
Scalability
Adapt quickly to project needs with flexible talent solutions that grow with your business demands, whether it’s 3rd party integrations, standard Salesforce stand ups, or custom dev work.
Expertise
Our Salesforce Professionals are certified in a myriad of topics. Everything From the first Admin Cert to the last Dev cert. Our Salesforce experts have the certs to prove they know what they’re talking about.
The History of DevPod: A People First Journey
Seeing the World Differently
DevPod’s story began with a simple observation: technology isn’t about systems; it’s about the people using them. Even in our founder’s earliest tech job, helping people navigate computers and software, Jon Cline was driven to listen, empathize, and solve their frustrations. This mindset, focusing on the individual’s experience, became the foundation of everything that followed.
Developing a Mindset
Over time, Jon began to articulate what he had always believed: a “People-First” approach. In every project, every conversation, the priority wasn’t just the technology—it was the people interacting with it and the value they derived from it.
Along a Meandering Path
This mindset evolved over a winding career path, shaped by challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned along the way. Each experience deepened his understanding of what it means to put people first in technology.
Gaining Experience
In 1999, he founded a CMS (Content management system) startup, where he experienced firsthand the consequences of poor user experience in a web browser. By 2004, as a Salesforce customer, he learned the rewards—and struggles—of working with Salesforce Classic.
Learning and Teaching
Jon Cline was fortunate to learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry, including Brett Crosby (Founder of Google Analytics) and Kraig Swensrud (Founder of GetFeedback and Qualified). In 2008, he shared his own insights as a Dreamforce presenter, speaking about serving various groups of users—from executives to online surfers—emphasizing the importance of connecting people through technology.
Becoming a Pro
After selling his CMS business, he turned his focus to Salesforce full-time. In 2009, he became a certified Salesforce Consultant and spent several years working with nonprofits and consultancies. In 2010, he took the next step, founding his own firm and teaching a small private cohort of students.
This journey—filled with intense learning, and a commitment to putting people first—became the foundation for DevPod. Today, our People-First Method continues to inform everything we do, helping clients achieve results through solutions that work for the people they serve.
Unique Client Considerations
Time Entries & Hours Logging Management
Our solutions streamline time entry processes, ensuring accurate tracking and reporting for your projects.
Confidentiality & Data Security
We prioritize the protection of your sensitive data with robust security measures and compliance with industry standards.
Global Time Zone Adaptability
Our team is equipped to work across various time zones, providing seamless support and collaboration regardless of location.
Internal Systems
Our playbook, resources, and people-first strategies are shared openly with your team, allowing you to adapt and utilize them as needed.
Additional Benefits
What other benefits can we add to your team?
Experience
Almost 100 years of combined experience in bespoke aspects of Salesforce including UX, LWCs, VisualForce, Integrations, Packaging, Web Services, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
Certified Geniuses
30+ Salesforce certs including AI and more certs in Scrum, UX, DocGen, Public Speaking.
Additional Solutions
Access to Data Science, Packaged Solutions, and a Recruiting Pipeline.
Get In Touch
Serving great partners from Los Angeles, Fresno, Chicago, Nashville, and Pune, India.
+1 (626) 400-6281
partnersuccess@devpod.co
Contact Us
partnersuccess@devpod.co
Office Hours
Mon-Fri: 9am – 5pm
Sat-Sun: Closed