10 Minutes with a Salesforce CPQ Architect: Wai San Chee
If you’re familiar with Salesforce CPQ, you know that it’s a very powerful solution for our customers. But mastering CPQ is a tough battle. For those of you already working with Salesforce CPQ, or those that are just starting out with the product, we thought we’d talk to our experts to share some tips!
For the first installment of our 3-part series, “10 Minutes with a Salesforce CPQ Architect”, we caught up with Wai San Chee, a CPQ Architect at Salesforce.
About San
San started as a Senior Consultant on the Salesforce CPQ team in December 2017. Her career started as an Admin Implementation Engineer from a mid-sized company which later got acquired by Oracle, and she became an Implementation Consultant.
She’s passionate about new technology, innovation, and keeping our Earth green. Her hobbies include gaming, reading, hiking, traveling, and trying out new food!
You’ve done a lot of projects — in your experience, what are some key things that make a CPQ project successful?
San: Not trying to accomplish everything at once — break the project up into phases. Follow the flow of CPQ features and don’t try to fit everything into the first phase. This is extremely foundational, more so than customers realize.
Also, understanding that CPQ is unique and can’t be implemented on an ‘estimates’ basis. Customers need to have their data ahead of time, and have it locked down! Horror story time: one of my customers didn’t understand how critical having an exact product catalog was in the beginning. Their product team didn’t deliver catalog on time, so Sprint 1 didn’t have the right data. Sprint 2, pricing, was based on this inaccurate data. This all built up over time, like a rolling carpet that just kept getting bigger, full of change requests, more money spent, and delayed go-live dates.
One more key to a successful project is continuous transparency. Don’t shy away from letting customers know that transformation is the key to a successful project. Identify showstoppers and communicate them early with customers — continuous expectation setting is key.
On a related note, what are some red flags in a CPQ project, that you may notice early on, and want to bring up early?
San: Not locking down what needs to be locked down. Updates to data and processes are natural, but if the customer is going back and forth to the point where fundamental changes are being made, your go-live will never happen.
Another potential concern is the customer not having dedicated owners/champions for the product- CPQ requires specific data to be implemented. So, if the customer doesn’t have exact owners, getting started is going to be a challenge.
What are some trends you’ve seen in your projects in the past year, in relation to customers and their needs?
San: Something I’ve noticed is that enterprise customers have multiple concurrent internal projects, with only a couple of Salesforce orgs. This parallel work can compromise another team’s work. Whilst this is common in big companies, these environments should be stabilized, otherwise, production will be corrupted. I recommend to these customers that they have a ‘gatekeeper’ to the UAT org, so that hard work isn’t lost.
What’s the most challenging part of this role?
San: Being patient. Clients have demands, CPQ is esoteric, demos and explanations will have to be repeated.
Also, balancing transparency with tact. No one likes bad news, but bring a solution with the bad news to mitigate, and be prepared to lift them up when you give the bad news!
Any message or wise words you’d like to pass on to an aspiring Salesforce Architect?
San: Trust your team! Find other teams who can help; people do want to help you. Be mindful of your time if you’re stuck. Don’t spend too much time spinning your wheels. Also, be resourceful! Googling is a big part of the job ;)
Just for fun: what’s a hidden talent/hobby of yours?
San: I’m a big gamer! Gaming wasn’t big when I was growing up, but don’t let anything hold you back if you’re interested in it! Must be where my creative/resourceful side comes from :)
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