Idea Details

It's official - Wednesday, July 29 from 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. PT we'll hold the first True to the Core Live monthly session on Trailhead Live! https://trailhead.salesforce.com/live/ Details about the first session, focused on Platform, available in this post.

To allow us to go deeper into your questions with product managers, we'll focus each session on a different product area. Join the True to the Core Chatter group on the Trailblazer Community to learn about future sessions as they are posted and to pre-submit questions that may be on your mind.

Moving this idea to "In Development" because we're bringing True to the Core to TrailheaDX '20. Join Parker Harris, Bret Taylor, Sarah Franklin, your TTTC host Jenny Sacks, and several of our product managers on June 25 from 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. PT for the first True to the Core outside of Dreamforce. TDX '20 info: https://www.salesforce.com/trailheadx/

We'll be taking questions live through the broadcast chat window, but given the limited time we'll have at TDX, I highly suggest pre-submitting some questions at https://sforce.co/TDX20ASK. If you see a question you want asked, "like" it, as ahead of the event, we'll be collecting the questions with the most likes.

More True to the Core info to come at TDX '20 - and if you can't make it, monitor this idea, where I'll post additional info.

Great idea and love the response from Scott.  I would suggest maybe a bit of a hybrid format.  Maybe once per month/quarter, 2 or 3 PMs sit down with 3 or 4 highly engaged people from the community and do a 30-40 min conversational session (after a small bit of prep).  Then have a more open Q&A from the broader community after?

I think there needs to be ability for dialogue. So often text is misunderstood and there often needs to be some amount of clarity when discussing these types of topics. I think it'd be okay to have groups of topics, but would also like some realm of open forum for part of the session. For example - a place where I can share frustration about all of the half-baked products we've been delivered in the few years :0
By groups of topics, I mean, maybe it's good to have 6 different PMs available for a session and then it rotates, I don't know but please make 90% of the time Q&A. I am also good with a presubmition of questions, but those need to be public so that we can all see them and maybe even expand on them. That way it can be organized and constructive.
I can see for example, let's take a session and focus on reports and dashboards. Pull a bunch of the ideas around this topic and then ask for users to submit their questions and their core issues with this product. And then deep dive into that topic.

The #LowCodeLove AMA after the main presentations was done in a format that would be a great place to start.  You had the screen full of Product Managers and were taking questions just like at a True to the Core session.  This specific example seemed a little scripted but the concept is definitely there.

First PMs that need to be up are:

Emails

Setup

Report Types

And whoever is the PM who can answer the first question of the session "Why don't we have Filtered Related Lists yet?"

 

The way the release readiness format works is really good, so I think have it in a forum like that but only focusing on a) current platform pain points that have been identified b) what you are doing about them c) forthcoming roadmap that they are working on - next release, and d) blue sky thinking - up to 2 years away. 

So Q&A with more pre-fielded questions from the socials, and the ability for the PMs to talk about their roadmap. 

Not necesarily twice for each event, but MIX IT UP. Not every single event that Salesforce runs needs to be a 9AM PT. Do one month 9AM and the next 4PM. No need to dial-in. 

And this is ONLY CORE. Nothing other than Platform / Mobile / Lightning / Sales Cloud / Service Coud (without FSL, Chat etc). 

AND the Developers need some love too! Too much of TTTC over the past few years has been Admin focused. But the Developers did get a day previously with ALL the PMs in the room and that seemed to work well. 

We want to see the PMs for all the nitty gritty areas, not the shiny features - eg we want focus on Email, Reports, Report Types, Dashboards, Approvals, Setup, Data Import, Permissions, Setup, Quick Text, Macros, Utility Bar, Console, App Builder, did I mention Setup?? And ALL the areas that currently don't have a PM. Get the person who is the overall in charge of the platform to talk about these and WHY they don't have a PM when Flow has so many (not that we don't like Flow getting some new features). 

And the big rule is NO SLIDES, unless its a mock up of a new feature. Just talk to us, and show us a demo. OK, you can have the Safe Harbor slide. 

Excellent idea, Cheryl!

I like the idea of having product/topic specific sessions so that we can tune in to the ones that we really care about but how about making 1 out of every 4 sessions a more general open-ended ask me anything to catch all the questions that might not fit under a specific topic?

@Cheryl - completely agree, if there was any upfront information sharing to do, that would be minimal, but the spirit of these would be more of an "ask-me-anything" session. However, given the breadth of our product portfolio, it might be beneficial to feature a few product areas / clouds per session so we can ensure proper PM representation and also allow attendees to tune into sessions that cover products they're interested in.

@Scott, one thing I want to be sure of is that these are not scripted and anyone can ask anything.  I don't like the ideas of topics because it makes people prepare answers too much.  Just talk to us.  We're not scary, we're your customers and your partners. 

I am a fan on the idea and feel it should be here on the community vs. Twitter.

Also +1 to Natalie's comment - there's a lot of powerpoint "here's what we've done" but more spaces to hear what's important to the community so you can understand our context is important.

Fantastic idea. 100% agree.

Thanks Cheryl for initiating the concept on Twitter and then creating an idea about this. Given that we can't join many of you in person at community events this year, we have been looking at new ways to digitally connect with you live. We're looking at options on format, technology, etc. - but it'd be great to hear from you all. So far, I've seen on Twitter that less prepared content and more discussion/Q&A monthly sessions would be good. What about thoughts on the following: