The user is the goal

We were sitting in a training room at one of those long office-blue-grey (what is that colour?) laminate desks when Thea* shared how she felt about Salesforce.

She’d never used it. 

But the idea of it, the idea of a “roll-out”, had her feeling exhausted.

I had been brought in to manage the change for a service cloud implementation, and as usual I started with getting to know the team.

Thea was blunt:

"I'm sick of being told about the next roll-out. We get promised all these things. I just want to do my job and every time you guys push something it gets harder and harder. You can show me Salesforce if you want, but to be honest I'm tired." 

You guys. 

I knew who she meant - The platform guys. The tech guys. The IT people. The shadowy project team.

Thea is a brilliant Customer Service Rep. I’ve watched her de-escalate conflict quickly, find answers for customers efficiently, remember customer names and family history. 

But every time a new tool was given to her, she felt like her focus and her ability to serve her customers was made more difficult. 

Not only that, she felt as though the people who were ‘implementing’ or ‘rolling-out’ had no real understanding of what made her so good at her job.

To them, she was a user.

I don’t love the word ‘user’. It feels like it is a way of talking about people from a platform-first perspective. Their identity becomes connected to how much they use a platform.

I don’t have a quick alternative. When it comes to counting licenses or planning hardware changes you need to list users. But when it comes to Thea’s day, she’s not a Salesforce-user, she’s a customer-server, and Salesforce is there to help her do that.

This gets to the heart of why Thea was so tired. She was tired of being treated as a user. 

She needed to be included. Communicated with. Taken on the journey.

Thea is a human. 

A human who should be treated with dignity.

Dignity is permission to play if our interface is humans.

The project isn’t ultimately about Salesforce.

We want to enhance Thea. We want Thea to be even better at serving customers. 

Thea is the goal.

Look at your current implementation plan.

Listen to how the project team talk.

Or the support desk.

Or the steerco.

In all our language and our planning and our solutioning, is it obvious that the people are the goal? Or do they sound more like the obstacle?

Too often, the user sounds like the problem.

The user is the goal.

*Thea is her real name. She’s a real person. I have her permission. I use her story lots and people don’t believe she exists. She does. And she thinks it’s hilarious that we’re even talking about her. 

She absolutely loves how Salesforce has made her life easier by the way.

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I’m talking more about Thea at True Blue Blazing in Melbourne on October 20. If you are connected to Salesforce at all, and are around Melbourne, you should get along. It’s a true community event, run by volunteers, and the day is always excellent.