Elevating Salesforce for a Big 4 Consultancy
Type
Enterprise Software
Format
Desktop; Mobile
Area
UX Design; UI Design
Employer
Salesforce
Tools
Figma, Miro, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace
Team
Solution Architect, Front End Devs, Business Analyst, UX Lead
Elevating Salesforce for a Big 4 Consultancy
Elevating Salesforce for a Big 4 Consultancy
Elevating Salesforce for a Big 4 Consultancy
Type
Type
Type
Enterprise Software
Enterprise Software
Enterprise Software
Format
Format
Format
Desktop; Mobile
Desktop; Mobile
Desktop; Mobile
Area
Area
Area
UX Design; UI Design
UX Design; UI Design
UX Design; UI Design
Employer
Employer
Employer
Salesforce
Salesforce
Salesforce
Tools
Tools
Tools
Figma, Miro, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Slack
Figma, Miro, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Slack
Figma, Miro, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Slack
Team
Team
Team
Solution Architect, Front End Devs, Business Analyst, UX Lead
Solution Architect, Front End Devs, Business Analyst, UX Lead
Solution Architect, Front End Devs, Business Analyst, UX Lead
A Custom Solution for Executive Leaders
One of our clients, a ‘Big 4’ consultancy, sought to take their Salesforce implementation to the next level by developing a custom app tailored specifically for its executive leaders. This app was designed to make relationship-building easier by enabling users to search for contacts, view profiles, and identify colleagues with existing connections. It also provided a quick look at upcoming meetings, complete with attendee details, helping executives stay informed and make meaningful connections in their busy schedules.
Translating Vision into Reality
Our role was to bring these concepts to life in a way that was compatible with Salesforce. We provided guidance on the capabilities and limitations of Salesforce, and how these limitations would shape the design. While some aspects of the design needed validation, we often provided user interface (UI) recommendations that leveraged native Salesforce functionality or easily configurable components.
A Custom Solution for Executive Leaders
One of our clients, a ‘Big 4’ consultancy, sought to take their Salesforce implementation to the next level by developing a custom app tailored specifically for its executive leaders. This app was designed to make relationship-building easier by enabling users to search for contacts, view profiles, and identify colleagues with existing connections. It also provided a quick look at upcoming meetings, complete with attendee details, helping executives stay informed and make meaningful connections in their busy schedules.
Translating Vision into Reality
Our role was to bring these concepts to life in a way that was compatible with Salesforce. We provided guidance on the capabilities and limitations of Salesforce, and how these limitations would shape the design. While some aspects of the design needed validation, we often provided user interface (UI) recommendations that leveraged native Salesforce functionality or easily configurable components.
Role
I worked in a small project team with a business analyst, development operations lead, two developers, and a lead UX designer. I was responsible for gathering design feedback from the customer's product owner and innovation group. After gathering the feedback I would prioritize the complete the design revisions and begin brainstorming solutions for UI components that needed to be designed from the ground up.
My role also entailed creating and managing the design system for the project. The customer had their own branding and style guidelines, and I translated it to Figma components and a library that our team used. It was also shared with other teams working on the project as there were two other work streams besides ours.
Process
A previous team had done user research before our project started. We were provided the research along with personas and a scenario outlining the primary use cases of the app. We began by prioritizing the use cases into epics and features to be developed using the Agile methodology.
We also utilized the Jobs To Be Done framework to ensure the use cases were covering all the jobs our personas needed to perform. This also benefited us by focusing on the minimum features needed for a successful first release. We had a short timeline, so the focus kept us from squandering valuable design and development time.
Delivering a Mobile-First Experience
We spent the bulk of our time on the mobile app, which was designed to help executives build relationships more effectively. We offered a series of design recommendations categorized by effort—Low, Medium, and High—based on the development work required. Low-effort suggestions involved restyling the custom design with Lightning components, Medium-effort suggestions required minor modifications while using standard Salesforce features, and High-effort suggestions closely mirrored the custom designs with clear timelines for implementation.
One standout feature we designed was a custom search experience. This allowed executives to search for contacts who held different roles across multiple companies, tracking individuals throughout their career journeys. This feature enabled them to collaborate with colleagues who had prior interactions with these contacts, facilitating more informed and strategic engagements.
We also implemented a card-based design pattern that brought data from other systems directly into the app, so users didn’t have to leave the app to get the information they needed.
Behind-the-Scenes Efficiency with a Design Library
Behind the scenes, we created a design library in Figma, our design tool of choice. This library allowed our design team to share components seamlessly, speeding up the design process whenever revisions were needed. By keeping the library updated, we ensured that any changes were automatically reflected throughout the large design file, saving time and maintaining consistency.
Enhancing the Desktop Experience
We also focused on revamping the desktop experience, addressing a few accessibility issues by bringing the design up to WCAG 2.1 compliance standards.
Just like with the mobile experience, we provided Low/Medium/High effort estimates for the proposed designs, and we also explored new edge cases that hadn’t been previously considered.
This approach allowed the client to weigh the pros and cons of custom versus out-of-the-box Salesforce solutions. To give an example, we focused effort on improving the highlight panel, a crucial feature that enables users to quickly access important contact information—a must for executives who are always on the go.
Challenges
Native vs. Mobile Publisher
The app originally was to be a separate, stand-along Salesforce org that used Salesforce Mobile Publisher (MP). However, we started to run into limitations quickly. Mobile Publisher did not allow us to make many UI changes. Branding, font choice, and other graphic elements weren’t going to be possible, as well as removing items that weren’t needed.
How We Mitigated Risk
The topic was addressed by creating a menu of low, medium, or high-effort solutions solutions. Basic design and development estimates were given for each bucket. Low effort was designed with only Mobile Publisher development. Medium had some minor code adjustments for UI tweaks, but still relied on Mobile Publisher to push the app to Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. High effort was a fully custom app with the desired changes, but built either natively or with Salesforce’s mobile software development kit (SDK).
By giving the stakeholders the options with a break down of what they would receive with estimated development times was valuable in many ways. It allowed them to make trade-offs by knowing exactly how difficult some customizations would be. It also enabled us to push back on scope creep by showing exactly how much longer certain changes would take. This was very helpful in working with the tight deadline.
Conclusion
Through our collaborative efforts, we helped our client streamline development, reduce time and effort, and significantly enhance the user experience of their Salesforce implementation. By offering multiple design options with clear development estimates, we empowered them to make informed decisions about what should be custom-built and what could stay as standard functionality. This approach not only reduced immediate development work but also minimized technical debt, ensuring their Salesforce implementation remains adaptable and efficient for future updates.
Delivering a Mobile-First Experience
We spent the bulk of our time on the mobile app, which was designed to help executives build relationships more effectively. We offered a series of design recommendations categorized by effort—Low, Medium, and High—based on the development work required. Low-effort suggestions involved restyling the custom design with Lightning components, Medium-effort suggestions required minor modifications while using standard Salesforce features, and High-effort suggestions closely mirrored the custom designs with clear timelines for implementation.
One standout feature we designed was a custom search experience. This allowed executives to search for contacts who held different roles across multiple companies, tracking individuals throughout their career journeys. This feature enabled them to collaborate with colleagues who had prior interactions with these contacts, facilitating more informed and strategic engagements.
We also implemented a card-based design pattern that brought data from other systems directly into the app, so users didn’t have to leave the app to get the information they needed.
Next, we introduced cards, small squares of information that appeared like fragments of a larger, shattered whole. These cards drew data from other systems, other places, bringing it into the app without ever revealing the complex machinery behind it. The executives would never know how it worked, only that it did, and that was enough. The surface was all that mattered, the underlying structure hidden away, unexamined, like the roots of a tree that would not stop growing.
Behind-the-Scenes Efficiency with a Design Library
Behind the scenes, we created a design library in Figma, our design tool of choice. This library allowed our design team to share components seamlessly, speeding up the design process whenever revisions were needed. By keeping the library updated, we ensured that any changes were automatically reflected throughout the large design file, saving time and maintaining consistency.
Challenges
Native vs. Mobile Publisher
The app originally was to be a separate, stand-along Salesforce org that used Salesforce Mobile Publisher (MP). However, we started to run into limitations quickly. Mobile Publisher did not allow us to make many UI changes. Branding, font choice, and other graphic elements weren’t going to be possible, as well as removing items that weren’t needed.
How We Mitigated Risk
The topic was addressed by creating a menu of low, medium, or high-effort solutions solutions. Basic design and development estimates were given for each bucket. Low effort was designed with only Mobile Publisher development. Medium had some minor code adjustments for UI tweaks, but still relied on Mobile Publisher to push the app to Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. High effort was a fully custom app with the desired changes, but built either natively or with Salesforce’s mobile software development kit (SDK).
By giving the stakeholders the options with a break down of what they would receive with estimated development times was valuable in many ways. It allowed them to make trade-offs by knowing exactly how difficult some customizations would be. It also enabled us to push back on scope creep by showing exactly how much longer certain changes would take. This was very helpful in working with the tight deadline.
Enhancing the Desktop Experience
We also focused on revamping the desktop experience, addressing a few accessibility issues by bringing the design up to WCAG 2.1 compliance standards.
Just like with the mobile experience, we provided Low/Medium/High effort estimates for the proposed designs, and we also explored new edge cases that hadn’t been previously considered.
This approach allowed the client to weigh the pros and cons of custom versus out-of-the-box Salesforce solutions. To give an example, we focused effort on improving the highlight panel, a crucial feature that enables users to quickly access important contact information—a must for executives who are always on the go.
Conclusion
Through our collaborative efforts, we helped our client streamline development, reduce time and effort, and significantly enhance the user experience of their Salesforce implementation. By offering multiple design options with clear development estimates, we empowered them to make informed decisions about what should be custom-built and what could stay as standard functionality. This approach not only reduced immediate development work but also minimized technical debt, ensuring their Salesforce implementation remains adaptable and efficient for future updates.