Updated May 10th, 2018.
You’ve decided to build an app on the Salesforce platform. Excellent idea! Why not take advantage of the momentum of Dreamforce ’18 to really make an impact in your market? With almost 200,000 attendees searching for SaaS solutions, a whopping 20,000+ leads for partners, and millions of dollars generated for pipelines, DF’18 is the perfect trigger event.
Here’s advice from lessons we’ve learned from launching 250+ products on the AppExchange. Don’t over-invest in the first version. Instead, use it as a way to learn more about your customers:
- What will customers use the most?
- What features sell your app or best demonstrate the value?
Gaining this information leads you to repeatable sales and informs where you can invest further in the future. Even better, it saves you time and money from investing in incorrect functionality.
Four Factors to Get to Market Faster
When you build your MVP, keep these factors in mind to accelerate your efforts:
1. Clicks over code. Salesforce is an incredibly powerful platform and can do many things with the native functionality. Leverage the platform over code as much as you can, for example:
- Use standard pages to enter data
- Show key data in a chart instead of a custom UI
2. Remember the Admins! Admins can make or break adoption rates, as they experience your app first.
- Make their life easy so that they can quickly install and setup your app.
- We believe in this so much that we built an installation wizard called InstallScience to give a rich experience with minimal development time and cost.
3. Only invest in custom UIs for the top user. Here are two examples:
- If your app helps the workflow by adding information — let’s say it does lead assignment for complex territories — consider investing further in the admin interfaces so that it’s easy to maintain and test.
- Let’s say your company has key insights into the contacts for a company. Show them on the Lead and Opportunity so the rep can use those names in their deals.
4. Budget time for Security Review. Salesforce takes security very seriously! For Dreamforce ’18, the deadline to submit your app to Security Review is July 13th.
- Submitting an app by July 13th, 2018 means you’ll receive one test by DF’18. Retests before DF’18 are not guaranteed. It is a best practice to submit your complete offering as early as possible to ensure that there is time for any unexpected delays.
- Expect a few homework items for your team to fix before submission.
- CodeScience will scan your platform proactively so that we identify any issues that need to be addressed to meet those standards.
Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve built your product, it’s time to listen to your beta users and initial customers. This includes surveys, interviews, and actual in-person visits. Don’t underestimate the importance of initial feedback! (Get in the Van should be required reading.) Continue learning about what success means to your customers and iterating on your product!
Need help building your MVP before DF’18? As a Salesforce PDO Master, we’ve got your back with our 360° view of the Salesforce ecosystem. We’ll help you navigate to the finish line, fast. Contact us today for a consultation.
