TrailheaDX 2020 — Virtual TDX for Designers

Virtual TrailheaDX 2020 for Designers

Adam Doti
Salesforce Designer
7 min readJun 25, 2020

--

TrailheaDX is a one-of-a-kind virtual experience that connects makers, builders, doers, and dreamers looking to improve their Salesforce skillset. This year’s event includes exciting new demos, customer testimonials, content episodes featuring the latest technology, Q&As with product experts, valuable networking opportunities, special announcements from Salesforce executives, and talks from an array of luminaries.

A good chunk of TrailheaDX content speaks to what’s important to Trailblazing designers — from UX and accessibility to digital transformation and business process design. Design-focused content can be easy to miss at TDX if you don’t know where to look but never fear — the Salesforce design team has sifted through the schedule and laid out two paths, User Experience Design and Design Strategy.

Before we dive in, it’s worth mentioning that this is the first year TrailheaDX is all-virtual. With a focus on the silver lining, Salesforce has taken this opportunity to redesign the event from the ground up, embracing all that is digital. Instead of a keynote, we’ll have a Main Show. Instead of tracks, we’ve got channels. And instead of sessions, we have episodes. See what we did there?

Now, without further ado, on to our programming for the design mind.

Our Salesforce Characters: Codey, Cloudy, Ruth, and Appy

Administrator, Architect, Developer, and Community & Ecosystem Channels

TDX will feature FOUR broadcast channels. We encourage you to check them all out:

  • The Admin Channel features your favorite product managers, sharing the latest platform innovations. Together, we’re going to design and build apps — fast. If you’re a designing admin who designs with clicks not code, this is the place for you.
  • The Architect Channel is all about what you need to know to guide teams and customers through change. If you’re an architect who recognizes the value of design thinking and strategy, this is the place for you.
  • In the Developer Channel, you’ll learn about low-code and pro-code resources and tools you can use to design and develop industry-leading enterprise apps, get the latest guidance on how to innovate through change, and see what’s possible with the Customer 360 Platform. Get the goods straight from Salesforce product managers and engineers.
  • Tune in to the Community & Ecosystem Channel to learn how to drive your company’s digital transformation, develop faster than ever with the Customer 360 Platform, leverage best-in-class apps, and solutions from AppExchange, discover new marketable skills, and earn résumé-worthy Salesforce credentials with Trailhead.
Astro playing Trailmix

Learn the design skills that will prepare you for #TDX20. The same skills, methods, and best practices our own design teams use every day by completing the Get Ready for TrailheaDX ’20 #TDX20 for Designers Trailmix.

Your Design Guide to Episode Content

To plan your perfect day of design at TrailheaDX, check out the curated schedule below and bookmark your favorite sessions. All episode times are Pacific Time (PT) and subject to change. View and configure your session guide here.

Snapshot of the TDX Agenda Builder
TrailheaDX Schedule

User Experience Design

Design Strategy

  • Trailhead Breakout: New Skills for the Future of Work
    Reskilling has never been more important for your career and your company — and it can change your life. Join us to find out how you can learn new skills, and transform your career for the New Normal, with Trailhead.
  • Delivering Value in a Crisis
    Architects in the field will share stories of how they’ve guided their teams and customers through change and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Résumé of the Future
    Join us for a session on building your résumé of the future. Find out how to use Superbadges and Certifications to prove your Salesforce experience and get a competitive edge that leads to new opportunities.
  • Business Continuity Plans: Why & How to Build One
    Join this episode to learn what a BCP is, and how to build one for your own teams or customers.
  • Ask the Experts: Admin Edition
    Get your questions answered live in this special episode featuring product experts Purvi Desai (Service Cloud), John Whelan (Security), and Joshua Schneyer (Mobile), hosted by Salesforce admin evangelist Mike Gerholdt.
  • Ask the Experts: Business Continuity
    Get your questions answered live in this special episode featuring Salesforce director of architect relations Zayne Turner and friends.
  • Transform the Consumer Experience with Your Customer 360 Guide
    Customer 360 Guides are a brand-new set of trusted blueprints, architectures, and best practices, built on the successes of other Trailblazers, designed to guide you every step of the way.

Your Design Guide for TrailheaDX Demos

On-Demand Demos are quick videos covering new Salesforce features, tools, and initiatives. Unlike episode content, these demos are available throughout TDX via the Virtual Expo space. Make time in your schedule to check them out. Visit the Watch Guide here.

User Experience Design

Are you an admin doing design tasks or a developer who sometimes identifies as a designer? These design features and tool demos are for you:

  • Lightning Design System Sketch Plugin: Create Salesforce UIs Faster with Sketch
  • Accessibility and Web Components: Build Apps for Every User
  • Flow Builder: Automate Business Processes Fast with Open Source Flow Components
  • In-App Guidance Walk-Throughs: Embed Learning Directly into Apps with Multi-Step Guidance
  • Dynamic Forms & Dynamic Actions: Customize Layouts and Actions in App Builder
  • Einstein for Admins: Embed Predictions and Recommendations into Any App, with Clicks
  • Tableau Viz Lightning Web Component: Embed Tableau’s Rich and Interactive Visualizations in Your Salesforce Apps

Looking for product-specific demos?

  • In-App Guidance Ready-Made Prompts: Start Faster with Ready-Made Productivity Prompts for Sales
  • B2B Commerce: Customize Your B2B Storefront on Lightning Experience
  • Work.com Workplace Command Center: Build Apps that Integrate with the Workplace Command Center

Design Strategists

Are you a big-picture thinker — a fan of design thinking and strategy? Are you an architect looking to design solutions to complicated business challenges at scale? Check out what’s on the horizon with this business-related content:

Products

  • AppExchange: Build Your App Business with Leading-Edge Technology
  • Customer 360 Audiences: Target Customers with Salesforce’s New Hyper-Scale Customer Data Platform
  • Salesforce Anywhere: Discover Insights, Collaborate, and Take Action in the World’s #1 CRM
  • Small Business Essentials: Adapt Your Small Business to Change and Build Resilience

Sustainability

  • Sustainability Cloud: Become an Agent of Change with Carbon Accounting
  • The Sustainable Development Goals: Help Us Solve the World’s Most Pressing Challenges

Learning

  • Certification: Prepare for Your Salesforce Certification
  • myTrailhead: Skill Up Employees for the New World
  • Trailhead and Trailhead GO: Learn New Skills for the Future of Work

True to the Core

Got a question for Salesforce president and COO Bret Taylor; cofounder and CTO Parker Harris; or EVP and GM for Platform, Trailhead, and AppExchange Sarah Franklin? Round out your TrailheaDX with this opportunity to virtually engage with our execs, plus a bonus lineup of superstar Salesforce product managers.

Do you have a UX idea or design topic you’d like addressed during the live True to the Core session? Head to http://sforce.co/TDX20ASK to submit your questions! Be sure to use the hashtag #tdx20design to get our attention.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Register for TrailheaDX here. It’s free!
  2. Design your agenda. See above for guidance.
  3. Take the Salesforce Designers: Get Ready for TrailheaDX ’20 #TDX20 Trailmix.
  4. Submit your design/UX questions for Ask the Experts and True to the Core! Use #tdx20design to get our attention!
  5. Take this Design Evangelism survey! Help us build the new Design Evangelism program — and help Trailblazers be better designers!
Salesforce Design

What's Next?

Got tips on how we can bring more design and user experience content to future TrailheaDX and Dreamforce events? We want to hear from you! Share your ideas in the comments below.

Follow us at @SalesforceUX.
Want to work with us? Contact
uxcareers@salesforce.com

Special thanks to Laine Riley and Denise Burchell for co-authoring this guide with me, and Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet for editing. Extra special thanks to our admin, developer, and architect partners for their support, encouragement, and content excerpts.

--

--

Adam Doti
Salesforce Designer

VP / Principal Design Architect & Product Owner, Salesforce. Design community advocate. Painter/Sculptor/Maker/Adventurer. The mountains recharge me.