Template Requirements Gathering

What are templates?

Templates are documents that streamline your business practices within the context of your Salesforce data, without compromising on customization. You can add dynamic fields with mail merge syntax or Salesforce Template Data Mentions that auto-fill based on the Salesforce record. Tell Me More

Why use a template?

Templates can be customized to specific company processes and use cases, and they can help guide your users through common workflows. Without a template, Account Plans can vary considerably by rep and can lead to confusion, disorganization, and even lost deals. To streamline your business practices and make sure that your reps are aligned, use Account Plan templates that auto-fill with Salesforce data. Your reps save time writing their Account Plans and spend more time selling.

Note Looking for Sales Account Plans or Trade Promotion Management (TPM) account plans? See Sales Account Plans or Review Your Sales Targets with TPM Account Plans.

How do you create a template?

You can mark any document as a template. A Salesforce admin then embeds the template in an object’s page layout and choose how they want their users to be able to create documents from it: manually, through Flow Builder, or both.

Where do documents created from a template go?

By default, documents created from an embedded template are added to the user’s Private folder in Quip. A Salesforce admin can also use actions in Process Builder or Flow Builder to automatically add created documents to assigned folders and grant access to the right users at the right time.

How do dynamic fields added to a template work?

To auto-fill your embedded templates with data from the Salesforce record, you can use Salesforce Template Data Mentions or mail merge syntax. Both options support the embedded object’s custom and standard fields and lookup fields up to one level. Tell Me More

What dynamic Salesforce data can you add to a template?

The Salesforce Record live app, Salesforce List live app, CRM Analytics live app, Salesforce Report, and Salesforce Data Mentions have template options. After you set up your templated fields, they auto-fill based on the Salesforce record.

Define Your Use Case

Identify a high impact use case for a template.

• What existing process could be improved by using templates in Salesforce?
• Who are the key players that would benefit from process change?
• What goals are you hoping to achieve through this process change?
• What strategic initiative does this process change map to?

Gather Your Template Requirements

Identify what data must be in your template.

• What data lives in Salesforce that you want pulled into your template?
• How is that data structured today (standard field, custom field, custom view, list, related list, report, and so on)?
• What data lives outside of Salesforce that you want pulled into your template?
• Where is that data updated today (emails, notebooks, note apps, and so on)?
• Create a list of all Requirements and Business Impact for each requirement. Here’s an example:

  Use Case	What It Looks Like Today	Requirement Name	Business Impact	Report Required?	Salesforce Data Required?	Where It Lives Today	Salesforce Automation Required?
  Account Planning	Folders are organized in Sharepoint with the appropriate access designated per user.	Document access restrictions	Documents must not be accessible by anyone outside of the project team.				Every Account Plan should be added to an Account folder and the Account team members should be @mentioned when the document is created.
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Customer Overview			Name Location Spend	Account record
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Account Team			Name	must create fields in Salesforce
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Open Opportunities	As a business executive, I want to see each opportunity and related milestones.		Opportunity Name Amount Owner Close Date Health Score Milestones	Opportunity record
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Customer's Goals				Should be free-form text
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	SWOT				Should be free-form text
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Growth Strategies				Should be free-form text
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Action Plan				Should be free-form text
  Account Planning	Account Planning PowerPoint	Relationship Mapping			Contact Name Title	Contact record

Identify Your Current Process

• What is the process today?
• What tools are used for the process?
• Who manages the process?
• Who are the key stakeholders?
• How often does the process get updated?
• What works well for this process?
• How do you document how users experience the process today?

Define Your Ideal Process

• What are the pain points of your current process?
• What could be better about this process?
• What information could be added to Salesforce that isn’t currently there?
• What information do your users must update on an ongoing basis?
• What can be removed from the current process?
• What reporting do you need?
  

  Note If reporting is required, it must be through Salesforce’s reports and dashboards. Quip doesn’t have a way to report on free-form text.
• Optional. What validations or rules are required for your data?

Identify Your End Users

• Who is your target audience?
• What tools do they use on a daily basis?
• How do they feel about their current process?
• How do they feel about Salesforce today?
• Have you rolled out any new processes in the last three months? If so, how did it go and what would you do differently?
• Have you rolled out any new tools in the last three months? If so, how did it go and what would you do differently?
• Who are your pilot users and how can they provide feedback?

What Salesforce data should you use?