Design with the Exit in Mind: Documentation, Handoff, and Admin Legacy

Design with the Exit in Mind: Documentation, Handoff, and Admin Legacy

No one talks enough about this: Someday, you won’t be the admin here.

Whether it’s growth, promotion, or moving on, the real sign of a great admin/dev isn’t just what you build—it’s what you leave behind. That’s why I document everything like I’m onboarding my replacement next week.

Architecting for Reuse: Why I Build with Modularity in Mind

Architecting for Reuse: Why I Build with Modularity in Mind

At this point in my Salesforce career, I don’t just build solutions—I design systems. And the systems that age well all have one thing in common: modularity.

Whether it’s Flows, Apex classes, or Lightning Components, I follow a core principle:

Build once, use often.

Metadata Strategy: How I Future-Proof the Org’s Structure

Metadata Strategy: How I Future-Proof the Org’s Structure

Most admins react to requests. I prefer to design systems with a long-term metadata strategy in mind.

That means:

  • Naming conventions for all fields, flows, and objects (FieldPurpose__c, not Custom1__c)

  • Avoiding unnecessary custom objects when record types or junction objects will do

  • Grouping flows by lifecycle (create/update, scheduled, utility) and using consistent labels

Component-Level Security: Not Just a Developer Concern

Component-Level Security: Not Just a Developer Concern

Component visibility in Lightning pages isn't just about page layout—it’s about security and context-aware experiences.

This year I’ve been refining:

  • Field-Level Security enforcement in custom LWCs

  • Record Type and Profile-based visibility on Lightning pages

  • Using custom permissions to show/hide entire page components

Designing for Scale: Why I Default to Declarative Before Code

Designing for Scale: Why I Default to Declarative Before Code

I can write Apex. I often do. But when I design systems, my first question is always: Can this be built declaratively and maintained by a future admin?

Why?

  • Declarative tools like Flow and Custom Metadata are faster to deploy

  • They’re easier to maintain, especially in smaller teams

  • They keep the business logic closer to the surface, not buried in code

Permission Audits Aren’t Just for Security Reviews

Permission Audits Aren’t Just for Security Reviews

Most teams only think about permissions when something breaks or there’s an audit. I treat permission reviews as part of ongoing system hygiene.

Every quarter, I:

  • Run Permission Set and Profile audits using custom report types

  • Compare assignments to actual job roles

  • Remove “temporary” permissions that were never revoked

Optimizing Lightning App Performance Without Sacrificing UX

Optimizing Lightning App Performance Without Sacrificing UX

When Lightning pages get cluttered, user adoption drops—and performance tanks. This year I focused heavily on page performance optimization while keeping layouts intuitive.

What worked:

  • Replacing overused Related Lists with curated Dynamic Related List – Single components

  • Hiding low-priority fields and sections behind Dynamic Forms rules

  • Moving resource-heavy components (like reports or LWCs) to secondary tabs