30-Minute Salesforce Apps
Dreamforce 2019 marked my first time speaking slot at the annual conference. Earlier in the year, Salesforce put out a call to Lightning Champions asking for submissions for apps users can build in 30 minutes. I submitted my idea to download and install Twilio to Salesforce, make a flow to launch from an app page, and use Twilio to send a text message to campaign members.
Salesforce selected my application idea for its “Learn how-to: Build Apps in 30 minutes or less on the Customer 360 Platform” series. Its team also chose a ping pong app (used to predict the winner of upcoming office ping pong matches), an equipment calibration app, and a race car sponsor tracking app. Salesforce flew us to LA and hired a production company to shoot a video for each of our apps.
I’ve never been in a video before, and it was an interesting experience. I’m glad I went down the Salesforce career path and not acting. The production company did their thing, and a few months later, our app videos were released on YouTube and Twitter.
Check out the video of how to build the app below.
Dreamforce ’19
Salesforce asked the four of us to present our apps at Dreamforce. New to Dreamforce this year were sessions in the expo area. (I think, I don’t recall sessions in the expo in years past at least.) The expo had a very nice setup with a giant tree in the middle, and our sessions took place off to the side. I had 20 minutes to talk about my app. I talked a little bit about what the 30-minute app project was and then got into Salesforce to show how the flow as constructed. Then, I shared how to set up the flow with screens, decisions, and loops.
Flow is a powerful yet underutilized tool in Salesforce. And Salesforce just keeps adding to flow features to make it even more powerful. When I created my app, I used a text input and record lookup to present results to the user, and by the time Dreamforce came around, actual lookups are now available in Flow. Last thing to show, the app in action. I ran through the steps and created a text for my teammates to receive in the audience.
Presenting at Dreamforce was a good experience, and lucky for me, I didn’t have to present at the same time as President Obama. Logistics-wise everything, worked perfectly, and I hope someone got some useful tips from my presentation.
If you have any questions, you can comment below.
