Salesforce announced PDO (Product Development Outsourcer) Program more than 5 years ago. If you still have no idea what is it about, it’s the right time to change it! We’re going to start some historical background and speak about a dark time full of failed projects and tears. Then, we’re going to discuss seven specializations aligned with typical AppExchange Product LifeCycle phases and the three pillars which helped to ends these times of misery: Knowledge, Experience, and Quality.

1. Three pillars and Seven specializations –
PDO Program in a nutshell
Jakub Stefaniak, Salesforce CTA
Director of Engineering EU @ AquivaLabs

2. #CD22
“Internal, in-house software is rarely
important enough to justify hiring rock stars.
Nobody hires Dolly Parton to sing at wedding.
That’s why the most satisfying careers, if
you’re a software developer, are at actual
software companies, not doing IT for some
bank.”
Joel Spolsky,
“Smart & Get Things Done”
Hi, it’s me

3. #CD22
Big bang: 1999

4. #CD22
Long, long time ago

5. #CD22
Breaking point: 2005

6. #CD22
Publishing on AppExchange 101
QUESTIONS
● Business Model
● ISV/OEM
● Data model
● Dependencies

7. #CD22
Time is money aka Time to market
SECURITY REVIEW FUN FACTS
● A solution typically takes 4–8 weeks to get
through the review process
● (unofficially) 50%+ apps fail the security review
in the 1st attempt
● Security Review is not only about
vulnerabilities, bad practices can be an issue
too
● Salesforce doesn’t promise to send you all
vulnerabilities, only examples :)

8. #CD22
Awesome Times (today)

9. #CD22
“PDO”?
WHO
Product Development Outsourcers (PDOs)
represent a broad spectrum of consulting partners
and vendors with expertise in building commercial
apps, as well as other valuable services like training,
funding, marketing, or selling your app.
WHAT
These specialized partners can help architect &
design a commercial app, tackle specific areas of our
ISV Partner build (like third-party integrations), or
simply augment your ISV Partner development team.

10. #CD22
Why a PDO is different from an SI?
● An SI understands the commercial pricing of Salesforce for end customers while a PDO
understands the business models available for ISV partners.
● An SI builds a solution for a business process where management can enforce that users must
use it. A PDO is challenged to build an engaging solution that end users choose to pay for - these
are products!
● An SI has full visibility of the Org where they are building their solution while the solution a PDO is
building has to be able to install into any Org.
● An SI project generally has a distinct beginning and end of development. However, a PDO product
has a very definite beginning, but development can potentially continue for the entire lifetime of
the product.
● While an SI is familiar with all of the functionality that can be configured in Salesforce, a PDO has
the added expertise in what can actually be packaged and knowledgeable with ISV technology
(LMA, COA, FMA, etc).

11. #CD22
Does it sound familiar?
”For example, my team of product designers are
experts at mobile and desktop interaction design.
These are the skills that we hire and train for because
it’s the bulk of what we do. But in those instances when
a project calls for a polished marketing video or a
large number of illustrations, I usually turn to
another team.
“The Making of a Manager”
by Julie Zhuo
VP, Product Design @ Facebook

12. #CD22
Does it sound familiar?
”For example, my team of product designers are
experts at mobile and desktop interaction design.
These are the skills that we hire and train for because
it’s the bulk of what we do. But in those instances when
a project calls for a polished marketing video or a
large number of illustrations, I usually turn to
another team.
Sometimes, this confuses my engineering colleagues.
„But aren’t you designers?” they ask. „Designers
draw and animate, right?” I explain that while many
people on our team can, that doesn’t mean we should.
It’s not our core competency, and we’ll probably end
up spending double the time for 80 percent the
quality of what a specialized team could do”.
“The Making of a Manager”
by Julie Zhuo
VP, Product Design @ Facebook

13. #CD22
Successful AppExchange Partner reality
CHALLENGES
● Trial experience
● Implementation of the app for new customers
● 2nd/3rd tier Support
● Marketing
● Release Management
● Product Management
○ Adding features
○ Sunset
○ Adoption
● Analytics
● … and much, much more

14. #CD22
PDO Program - Requirements
SPECIALIZATIONS
There are 7 PDOs specializations aligned with typical
Product LifeCycle phases. Each specialization has 2
levels (Level I and Level II). To become a PDO Expert,
you need to reach 4 Level II specializations.
THREE ASPECTS:
● Knowledge
● Experience
● Quality
The Navigator program synthesizes three
aspects of a partner’s expertise in an area
into a measure of deployable expertise that
is easy to understand:

15. #CD22
Ideation/Business Model/Value Prop
● Product Discovery, Product Ideation, Design
workshop
● Business Model, Total Addressable Market (TAM),
and Product Market Fit Assessment
Level I Level II
Knowledge N/A N/A
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

16. #CD22
Architecture & UX Design
● Tech Review Assistance
● Mockups of how the app may look, PoC/Wireframes
as needed
● A Technical Design and Architecture Document
Level I Level II
Knowledge 1 AA or 1 SA 5 AA/SA
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

17. #CD22
Dev/QA/Release Management/Security Review
● Ongoing agile development, test automation,
release automation for the ISV product
● Interact with ISV DevOps team, and help set them
up on
● Salesforce CI/CD best practices
● Assist with Security Review testing, questionnaire
and issue resolution during the security review
process.
Level I Level II
Knowledge 1 PD1 & 1 PD2 5 PD1 & 5 PD2
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

18. #CD22
AppExchange Listing, Trials, and Demo
● Helping the ISV Sales Engineers setup demo orgs
that make use of trial technology (eg. LMA, TMO,
TestDrive) to set them up for turning leads into
closed deals
● Assisting in creating their AppExchange Listing via
the Partner Community
Level I Level II
Knowledge N/A N/A
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

19. #CD22
Product Support
● Helping ISVs to leverage the different ISV tools such
as the Partner Business Org (PBO) and AppExchange
Analytics.
● Providing technical marketing inputs as needed
that the ISV partner can then make customer facing
● Help define, prioritize or execute go-to-market
strategies
Level I Level II
Knowledge N/A N/A
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

20. #CD22
Marketing Support
● Helping ISVs to leverage the different ISV tools such
as the Partner Business Org (PBO) and AppExchange
Analytics.
● Providing technical marketing inputs as needed
that the ISV partner can then make customer facing
● Help define, prioritize or execute go-to-market
strategies
Level I Level II
Knowledge N/A N/A
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

21. #CD22
Package Review & Optimization
● Architecture, UX concerns for existing apps to
ensure scalability and usability
● Introducing new Salesforce release technology
where appropriate to ensure customer success and
satisfaction
● Testing & Release Management Optimization and
Guidance
Level I Level II
Knowledge 1AA or 1SA + 1
PD1 + 1 PD2
5AA/SA + 5 PD1
+ 5 PD2
Experience 3 Projects 10 Projects
Quality CSAT >4.2 CSAT >4.4

22. #CD22
The engineering aspect of Software Engineering
Source: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Poland

23. #CD22
State of 2022
Tier Number of PDOs
Expert PDO 9
Level II 8
Level I 15
Others 12
44
Each specialization has 2 levels (Level I and Level II). To
become a PDO Expert, you need to reach 4 Level II
specializations.

24. #CD22
Is software really about artistic high notes?
“Maybe some stuff is”, you say, “but I work on accounts
receivable user interfaces for the medical waste
industry.” Fair enough. My focus is on product
companies, where success or failure depends on the
quality of the product. If you’re only using software
internally to support your operations, you probably only
need software to be good enough.
“Smart & Get Things Done”
by Joel Spolsky

25. Thank you! #CD22
JAKUB STEFANIAK
jstefaniak@aquivalabs.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakub-stefaniak-cta/