In 2016, Salesforce had a suite of mobile apps and mobile development tools that customers used to transform their business and improve employee productivity. And many Salesforce customers were interested in harnessing the power of mobile, but they had no idea how to get started.
Because of my extensive experience with mobile development at Salesforce, the Salesforce Content Experience Team hired me as a contract writer to develop a set of self-paced training modules to help Salesforce customers take advantage of the mobile apps and tools available on the Salesforce platform.
The new training modules would be published to Trailhead, which is Salesforce’s free online learning platform with over 3 million subscribers.
For this project, I was responsible for the following:
The target audience was Salesforce administrators who wanted to build and deploy mobile apps to their employees, partners, or customers. These admins generally weren’t new to Salesforce, but they were likely new to mobile.
By talking to product managers and conducting research with Salesforce customers, I gathered some important insights:
I developed a complete set of mobile training modules for Salesforce called Transform Your Business with Mobile. The learning path on Trailhead consisted of these five modules:
To kick off the content development process, I met with Salesforce Mobile product managers to understand the business need for the training modules, establish requirements and scope, and find out what PMs hear from customers about the process of implementing mobile.
I also planned and conducted a research study to learn more about the needs and goals of Salesforce customers who want to get started with mobile, as well as understand best practices for developing and deploying mobile apps. I interviewed internal subject matter experts, Salesforce customers, and Salesforce consultants who implement mobile.
After analyzing the needs of the audience, I planned a series of five mobile training modules. I defined the learning objectives for each module, created lesson outlines, and developed learning assessments (quiz questions and interactive challenges).
After completing the planning process, I started writing the content for each of the modules. Writing for Trailhead is unique because it blends instructional design, technical writing, and copywriting. You have to be able to create learning scenarios and storylines while also explaining highly technical subjects in a fun, conversational way.
Check out examples of my writing using these links:
I designed the graphics and illustrations for two of the Trailhead modules: Mobile Strategy Development and Branded Mobile Apps for Mobile Publisher. Below are a few examples of the graphics I created.
One of the training modules—Mobile Device Security and Management—required a video tutorial to demonstrate how an administrator can manage their employees’ mobile devices. I researched and planned the video with PM and engineering, wrote the script, and recorded the demo.
Unfortunately the training module was deprecated due to technology changes, so it’s not possible to view the video anymore. To check out another video I produced, see the Salesforce Customer 360 Explainer Video project.
When the modules were complete, I solicited feedback from stakeholders and subject matter experts, and then the modules were reviewed by a Trailhead editor and copy editor. After incorporating feedback and making final changes, the modules were published to Trailhead.
