The Foundations: What to Check Before You Build

You can't build quality on a broken foundation

Last week we talked about everyone thinking architecturally - asking questions about dependencies, scale, and security. You can find it here, but if you want a copy of 🍩 goodness in your inbox weekly, please make sure you subscribe 😁

Anyway, the thing is... you can ask all the right questions, but if you're building on a broken foundation, the project will still fail. Bit like house of cards (not the icky Kevin Spacey edition tho 🤨)

It's like installing a sophisticated security system in a house where the doors don't close properly.

The technology works. The foundation doesn't. 😬

What foundations actually matter

Before you implement anything - Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Agentforce, whatever - you need to assess four foundational elements:

1. Organisational Maturity
2. Data Hygiene
3. Technical Debt

Miss any of these, and you're building on quicksand.

Let's get into it.

Foundation 1: Organisational Maturity

The Question: "Can the organisation sustain what we're building?"

This isn't just about processes and tools. It's about whether the organisation - from leadership down - has the capability to support ongoing success.

What to assess:

➡️Leadership Readiness

• Does the leadership team understand how to lead through change?
• Do they know how to set teams up for success?
• Are they willing to make difficult decisions when needed?

➡️Change Management Capability

• How do they typically handle change?
• Is there buy-in from stakeholders?
• Do they communicate change effectively?

➡️Processes & Governance

• How do changes get approved and deployed?
• Is there governance, or is it chaos?
• Are there documented standards?

➡️Resources & Capacity

• Who's responsible for maintaining Salesforce?
• What's their capacity? (Are they drowning already?)
• Do they have budget for ongoing costs?

Why this matters:

I've seen beautifully designed and delivered solutions fail because leadership didn't prepare the organisation for change. 😭 All that hard work for nothing. Puuf.

They announced the new system on Monday, expected everyone to use it by Wednesday, and wondered why nobody wants to use the system.

I've also seen organisations where leadership understood that successful change requires:

• Clear communication about why we're changing
• Training and support for users
• Time for people to adapt
• Addressing concerns and resistance

Like that one time we went live during the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony at that telco centre - lots of balloons and cake and Olympic themed decorations 🥳🎂

Everyone loved it and embraced the exciting new system!

The difference? Leadership readiness.

The maturity spectrum:

Low maturity:

• Ad hoc processes
• Firefighting culture
• No change management
• Leadership delegates without supporting

High maturity:

• Clear processes and governance
• Adequate resources and capacity
• Leadership actively supports change
• Change management is planned and executed

Most organisations are somewhere in the middle.

Why it matters for your solution:

A highly mature organisation can handle sophisticated automation, complex integrations, and ongoing optimisation. Leadership knows how to implement it properly.

A less mature organisation needs simple, well-documented solutions that won't fall apart when people struggle with change or the one person who understands it leaves.

The solution isn't bad or good in isolation. It's right or wrong for their maturity level.

Foundation 2: Data Hygiene

The Question: "Can I trust the data I'm building on?"

Garbage in, garbage out.
#GIGO 💩😷 
Always has been, always will be.

What to assess:

• Are there duplicates?
• Are fields used consistently?
• Is naming convention standardised?
• Are critical fields populated?
• Do users trust the data?

This matters because you can't:

• Secure data you don't understand
• Build effective automation on inconsistent data
• Scale if data quality varies
• Report accurately if the source is unreliable

And here's the Agentforce (and AI) reality: An agent will serve bad data to customers at scale, 24/7.

If your product catalogue has outdated pricing, a human might catch it.
An agent will confidently share the wrong information hundreds of times before anyone notices. 🤖🙅🏻‍♀️

Foundation 3: Technical Debt

The Question: "What existing problems will constrain what I can do?"

Technical debt is all the shortcuts, band-aids, and "temporary" solutions that became permanent.

What to look for:

• Customisations and code nobody understands or dares to touch 😬 (been there!!)
• Integrations that break regularly
• Workflows with multiple decision points that do... something
• Solutions built by someone who left three years ago with zero documentation

The thing about technical debt is that it:

• Constrains what you can add (because it might break existing stuff)
• Slows down development (because you're working around problems)
• Increases risk (because you don't understand all the dependencies)
• Costs money (in maintenance, workarounds, and firefighting)

Here's the million dollar question:
"What bit of the system are you afraid to touch?"

If there's a long list, you've got significant technical debt.

For Agentforce: Agents often rely on data models, workflows, and integrations. If those are brittle, your agent will be too.

Agentforce amplifies foundation problems

Traditional and normal project implementations expose foundation problems slowly:

• Dirty data? Users catch it gradually.
• Low maturity? Problems emerge over months.
• Technical debt? You work around it.
• Wrong edition? You discover it in UAT.

Agentforce exposes them immediately and at scale:

• Dirty data? Agent serves it to hundreds of customers instantly.
• Low maturity? No governance means agent knowledge goes stale fast.
• Technical debt? Brittle integrations break agent functionality.
• Wrong platform? Agent doesn't work at all.

There's this scene in Homer Simpson where he changes his name to 'Max Power' --> The Max Power Way is like the Wrong Way, but Faster. 😬

Agentforce-ing your platform will 'Max Power' your environment. 🤭

But that's not a reason to avoid Agentforce.

It's actually an excellent reason to assess your foundations first and fix those foundational problems before you start anything.

The fix-first conversation

Sometimes the hardest thing a consultant does is tell a client: "We need to fix the foundation before we build anything new." 

Saying 'No' is probably the most difficult skill to learn. (But we practice it in the #ZenClub regularly! 😁)

The reason is that people don't like hearing they can't have something.
They're excited about the shiny new feature.
They want to move fast.

But here's how I frame it:

"I could build what you're asking for. But there's a chance it could fail soon because [foundation problem]. I care too much about your success to set you up for failure. Let's address [foundation issue] first, then build something that lasts."

That's not selling more work. That's professional integrity.

What experienced consultants do differently

Experienced consultants with an architect's mindset will always assess the foundation first.

That's why Piyusha and myself decided to build the ADC (Agent Deployment Consultant) Foundations Course.

The reason is that when foundation is skipped, bad things are more likely to happen - and we want to focus on helping tech professionals cultivate a consultant and architecture mindset to deliver solutions that work.

The technical training is important. But the consulting methodology - knowing what to assess before building, as well as the human skills to develop relationships with stakeholders - will help set up implementations for success.

If this is something that piques your interest - we are launching in March.
Join the waitlist for early-bird pricing £100 discount locked in (you'll pay £299 instead of £399)

Last week at #ZenClub

We dug into the fictional mess that is the MedTech and HealthFirst merger and tried to suss out the players in this incredibly political situation to figure out the Stakeholder map and discuss what each individual's agenda might be so that we can plan how to engage them.

This week we'll continue this task and try and figure out what internal motivation might be at play so we can put together a stakeholder engagement plan. 

Curious?

#ZenClub works because our members show up curious, empathetic, and ready to help each other get better. We practice on real scenarios, give honest feedback kindly, and lift each other up - even when the feedback is tough to hear.

So if you genuinely want to elevate your skills AND help others do the same? We'd love to have you.

>>Join Zen Club - £169/month<<

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See you in the next issue!
x Pei 💜

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