Workfront Expert Insights - Evolution of an Instance with Jen Desmond

Transcript

Welcome everybody to the latest expert insights and this is a like a get that I’ve been trying to get for a really long time. So you’re welcome for the record. This is the powerhouse, the great and wise and amazing Jen Desmond. We are going to be talking about the evolution of an instance but also some super cool work front nerdy thing. So excited to have you here. Jen, thanks so much for joining me on expert insights. How are you doing? I’m glad to be here. It’s been a while. We’ve been trying to get this together for a little bit of time. But here we are. We made it. We have and it’s you know, work sometimes get in the way. But this is so much more fun. It’s a great chance to connect and share some great ideas with customers. So first of all, no one wants to hear from me. I want to hear about you. So first of all, just like tell us about yourself. I’m Jen. Hi. I’m been a technical success advisor with Adobe for four years now. I live north of Boston. We’re in this quiet, adorable little coastal town. But it’s actually the same amount of miles for me to get to Maine, as it is to Boston. Maine is much, much quicker. So it’s kind of bizarre thing. But I have to explain it that way that I’m like, north of Boston, because if I say I’m close to Maine, it just it confuses people. So we don’t go there. It does.

Definitely Texans that have a very long drive that would definitely be confusing to them. So yeah, but love yes.

I live here with my husband and my now six year old son. And we have a horse and a dog and it’s very busy and it’s very dirty and there’s just a lot going on here where we live. So that’s that. Love that. And so you’ve been with Adobe Workfront for four years. So where and I know a little bit about this, but I don’t think people that are listening would know about this. So tell us about your Workfront journey, because you’ve been Workfront for a long time. Yeah, and this is kind of a fun story. So I had never heard of Workfront when I took a job where my core function was to implement it. So I googled it and I was like, Oh, that looks cool. When do I start? I really had to start everything from absolutely nothing. I didn’t know what success looked like. And I’m not even going to tell you how long it took me to realize that, like all tasks and issues like live inside of a project. So we want to figure that out. I had no one to tell me. So I have a very real understanding of what it’s like to be a customer. And you have to get your job done and you have to figure it out. And so that’s why I love being in the role where I’m at because I get to help customers do just that. It’s so funny, we’re gonna talk a little bit about just your mindset, at least from my point of view in terms of like helping customers and helping all of us get to that point. But like before we head to that topic, I do want to just like double down about how grateful I am that you mentioned, like your journey, because I don’t think we talked about that enough is like, I also, I didn’t understand the hierarchy. I want to say it was more than a year that I tried to, you know, so I think this is a normal thing for sysadmins. And I just love that you share and have that mindset. But okay, so let’s talk about this idea of evolution of an instance. And we know what does that mean to you? And why does that feel so heavy? Okay, so I am standing right next to it. I have a lot of thoughts. Yeah, I am standing next to everyone complaining about the change. I dig my feet in the mud. I whine, I complain. And that’s why I have so much empathy on this topic, because I am truly the worst. It’s like, we’ve got everything working. And now we have to do something different. And then we have to get everyone to do it. Great. Yeah, I don’t want to do any of that. But I think it’s important to try and find the positivity in the change. So what’s the why? Like, what’s the value? Change is annoying, but what are we going to be able to do or, like do better because of it? Um, but I do think it’s difficult or impossible to find the positivity in some changes, like reorgs. They happen to us too, everybody. And you can’t always find something positive in that. But you can try to kind of like, wedge a positive change into what has to change because you need to. So you have to move things around because of a reorg, but maybe add like some changes to project templates that your users have been whining about and asking for, or some reporting to solve a particular use case or anything to kind of help your users along the change journey. Even if it isn’t a positive change, try to try to slide something in there that they’re gonna like. It’s really smart. And it feels heavy because it is heavy. Getting Workfront to a comfortable place for business as usual is hard enough. And then you need to change. It’s like, yeah, no thanks. Because there’s so many moving parts inside of that change that you might miss. So let’s talk through like a request queue. As an example, you’ve got a new process that requires a new request queue. Well, that means you need to build it, you need to make sure you have all the settings right for the routing and the queue topics and the whatnot, and build new custom forms, and figure out what needs to happen to the request once they’re entered. Are they converted? What templates do you have? Do you need new templates? Oh, great, we need new templates. And so then you’re going to need new reporting. Okay. And then updates to the report. And then you’re like, Oh, I’m good. It’s fine. We’re good now. But what about the people? Okay. So do they have access? Oh, yes, they do. But not all the things that you just build. And maybe you forgot a couple of those. And then layout templates. And that was a lot of blah, blah, blah. But the point is that it’s heavy, because it is heavy. And it’s hard. Full stop.

So one of the things that I wanted to, like share with everybody that would be watching this is something that I feel from you. And I think everyone feels from you, whether you know it. So this is great, it’s gonna be on a recording, like this idea that you particularly you’re so driven and passionate about helping other people. And it’s not just customers, right? Like any customers would be watching this, but like, Cynthia Boone benefits from your generosity and your kindness, you’re always looking for, hey, could, could we do this a little bit easier? Could we do this a little bit faster, like a little more efficient? And so just in terms of the evolution of an instance, like how, like, what is your advice? What are your recommendations? And I know you were like, put some positive in to the change. But how maybe the question, and I didn’t prep you for this, but it just occurred to me is like, how do you maintain your momentum? Because you do. I’m gonna say that right now, like whether you feel like you do or not, like you really do always, like arrive with a mindset of, hey, we’re just gonna, we’re gonna do the best we can. And we’re gonna make those changes. How do you do that? I think the best way of explaining it is, there are situations in life where you don’t have a choice. And I hate to have to say this, but it really is. It’s like, it’s acceptance. It’s going, you know, like life is hard. And, and I just said, I’m the one that’s stuck in the mud. And I’m the one that’s complaining. And I’m the one that doesn’t want to change, because it’s hard. But then it’s like getting to the acceptance part of it, then you can start to have the changes and make the changes, find the positivity in it. Because if you stay in that stuck mindset, what good does that do anybody, you know, and as a system admin, you’re responsible for a lot of people in your system. And accepting that you really just, in a lot of cases, don’t have a choice. And when you don’t have a choice, make it positive, find a way to make it positive. I guess that’s all I can say. No, I love that. Like, because I think we all like, this is this is such great advice. So again, I’m gonna pause like, you come to that moment that crossroads of like, oh, I have to communicate something, I’m going to do something. And you’re saying, all right, just, we’re going to take that positive, like road. And again, I did not prep you for this. But what I’m thinking about is I know that you ride horses. And is that I feel like because you have you guide your guide, you guide and you’re, and you’re seeing what’s coming. And like, do you think just like personally, that feels like that plays into sort of your mindset to have, hey, we got to do this, like we’re right.

I think it does. It’s a relationship with a horse. This is gonna get so weird. But it’s gonna be great horse is is a lot like a relationship you have with anybody you work with. You kind of you’re working and we’re verbal because we’re human beings. But when you’re riding a horse, there’s more than that you I can’t just be like, hey, um, can you go jump over that or like, I need you to trot over there. It doesn’t work that way. So you have to find, you just have to find a way to get things done. And you get do it with with a horse. This is what’s in it for you. Yeah, I love this. Yeah. So it’s not weird at all. I just it’s because it’s to me, it’s like an actually great example of I have to use the strengths and then like build this relationship with something that’s bigger and stronger. Like, I love that. And it just occurred to me. So you’re probably like, hey, thanks for mentioning horses. But I just love that about you. That’s one of the things that I love about you as well. Yeah. And it’s like living in the perspective of everybody that you’re servicing as a system admin, you know, and that’s kind of the same as riding a horse. You’re living in the perspective of the horse. It’s like, what can I do to help this horse do its job? It’s no different than being a system admin, honestly. I love it. And I, I’m going to use this, I’m stealing this, and I’ll be using this in the future. Okay, so we talked about the evolution, we talked about like, sort of, you know, how are you managing and lightening the load? Now, one of the things in your role, you work, you work with so many customers, obviously, you were a customer. What are you asked all the time? Like, by customers? Yeah. Okay. What am I asked all the time? And this one is actually, it’s kind of a funny one, because it’s the way that I would like to live, but it’s not always possible how to make things easier. Customers are like, Oh, I need to make this easier. This is so hard, you know, is there a way to do it easier? Truth is, sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t. But that’s, I mean, that’s part of my job, too, is to kind of guide customers to do things in the easiest way possible and still meet their needs. So the answer is, I would love to, let’s try to make it easier. But again, let’s go back to acceptance. Sometimes you have to accept that it just isn’t going to get any easier. And that’s that. Make a plan.

With that, what do you wish you were asked all the time? I think I kind of wish more customers were active and kind of bringing their users along through the change instead of making them feel like they’re just receiving the change. Like, I wish they were asking me how to bring users into the change management process earlier. So yeah, as a system admin, you can and you should be controlling your instance and making decisions on what users should be doing. But you’re gonna have users who are super interested in anything new. And you should really foster that. So like, let them into preview, let them test new features, bounce ideas off of them when you have a process change. And you’ve got to kind of do that with users that like Workfront and those that don’t. Yeah, we’re we’re kind of all in this together, like get those opinions, the good and the bad, take it all into your decision making. Because it is like going back to what you said about lightning the load, like part of it, if you just take that effort on completely yourself, it is heavy. But yeah, you’ve got all these people with opinions. You should take advantage.

Exactly. Yeah. So everything that you’ve been talking about is about like, having a change mindset. So what other advice do you have in terms of having a change mindset? I think this is a really interesting one, because the change mindset is sort of like, and I keep saying that it’s acceptance and it is acceptance. But it’s kind of like, it’s acceptance to the level of like, control what you can control, right? So it’s like, I’m accepting that I don’t have a choice here. But I’m going to get in there, I’m going to spend the time I’m going to learn these new features, and just kind of owning it, just just own it, you know, because there, you’re not going to use any technology that’s not going to change on you. Full stop. I had an experience with my calendar a couple of weeks ago, where I was like, I was looking at it and going, when did this change? Right? And so I was like, I was a little I got a little mad. And I was like, you know what, I’m not loving this right now. But like, I, what am I going to do? Like, who am I going to complain to? And what good is that really going to do? Right? So it’s like, I’m going to spend a few minutes, I’m going to feel bad for myself, I’m going to get over it. And then I’m going to figure out like, how I’m going to play in the next couple of weeks based off of this super weird change. So again, it’s it’s back to that acceptance, and just kind of just rolling with it, having an attitude of rolling with it. Definitely. And just like what you said, and I’m going to take this one to heart, that you said take the time, I think I’m really bad at that sometimes, like, I just want to like, I need to do the thing. And the next thing and the next thing. So you’re right, like part of acceptance is, let me just take a breath. Take the time. What is this? What is this? Oh, okay, got it, got it, got it. And then move on. I think that’s such great advice. And I think a lot of us don’t do that. So stealing that one too. So speaking of stealing things, what’s your favorite resource? Like, you know, so much. She’s my fusion guru for the record, like, just like gonna tell y’all she teaches me things. She’s way smarter than me. So I need to know what her favorite resources are.

You’re way smarter than me and other things. So take the credit for that, too. But yeah, I’m gonna go with fusion. And I know it’s not a resource and you have to pay for it. I’m sorry. But I’m constantly saying fusion can help with that. And I get really annoying sometimes in repeating that. But it can automate things that your users don’t want to do. And then it makes sure processes are adhered to moves data does all these fun things for you. helps with compliance helps you clean up your data. I could just go on like forever about fusion, but I’m not going to. Let’s talk free resources, because we’re here for that too. Yeah. Blueprints. Our team creates blueprints of reports. They’re gorgeous. We love them. Lots of customers have gotten value out of those. We love those. Let’s see. Scale webinars. Do you see her sitting here with me? I mean, Cynthia. But go watch the recordings. Go sit with them live, ask them questions. And I think we tend to forget about the power of community. I think work front is really unique in the sense that there is a very strong community of people who want to talk. They want to talk about work front, but they also want to help each other. The fact that like other system admins want to help other system admins is it’s just wild. It’s unreal. Go take advantage of all of that love that’s over there. It’s so real. You’re right. It’s absolutely real. And it can’t be described unless you’re in this community. So totally agree. Okay, here’s the it’s the question. The time has come Jen. How do you know when you’re ready for change? Okay, if it’s not a forced change, like, I’m looking to switch things up when the level of effort outweighs the value.

Okay, so like, that’s when I’m starting to look around to change something. Because it’s too much effort to change otherwise, like, you need you need something to kind of push you towards that change. If it’s not a force change, like a reorg or something like that. But it’s like, I’ll say it again, when the level of effort outweighs the value. And I’m okay, let’s go back to the request queue example. It’s like, we’ve got this request queue, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we’ve got these custom forms and the custom you have, I don’t know, 500 fields across all these custom forms. Like, is that really beneficial? Like, are you really going to use all of like, are you are you in some customers are it’s okay. I’m not singling anybody out here. I did it too, for the record. Yes. I know, I know. Level of effort outweighs the value. There it is. Yeah, that’s a that’s a really good answer. And I feel that like, you find yourself in a corner of why am I working so hard? And I love that. So this idea of like, when you start asking yourself those questions, it’s definitely time for change.

Yeah, just get fusion. There you go. Just get fusion. So that way, the end, just get fusion. Full circle. Um, thank you so much for this. Like I, I love working with you. And I think, like, well, I don’t think I know because again, from scale sessions, if your name comes up, the chat goes wild. I know Jen, I’ve worked with Jen, Jen’s amazing. And they’re all right. And I am so grateful that you did this with me today. And I can’t wait to post it and get to work with you even more. So thank you so much for being amazing. We’re gonna do it again. Yeah, definitely. I feel like we should do a series and more horse talk because I need to, I need we need to do some metaphors. I think there’s some stuff in there we can do for real. Yeah. Okay, let’s do it. All right, part one of we don’t know how many yet. But thanks for stopping by for expert insights, everybody, and we’ll see you next time. Bye, everybody. Bye. Hi.