The best Salesforce teams include a balanced, cross-disciplinary structure covering all of the essential roles:

• Product Leadership
• Architects
• Product Managers
• Business Analyst
• Administrators
• Engineers
• Dev Ops
• Release Managers
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Block has all the bases covered within their 70-person, powerhouse Salesforce team.

And the layer that jumps out to us the most is their Product Managers.

At FoundHQ, we often talk about the importance of good Salesforce PMs, an essential bridge between Business & Technology teams.

Your Product Managers should serve as Strategic Advisors to the business, operating as part Advisor, part Architect, part Business Analyst, part Ops Specialist. But it's important to acknowledge that stakeholder needs vary depending on the workstream they oversee.

• Some stakeholders will require a someone that indexes more toward a Technical PM.
• Others need a Functional/Process PM capable or working more at the process re-engineering level.
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Background of Block's 12 Salesforce Product Managers

The structure in place at Block highlights this need perfectly.

Previous Role of Each PM:

1. Manager, Sales Systems at Salesforce
2. Salesforce Product Owner in Financial Services
3. Sr. Manager, Business Technology at LinkedIn
4. Salesforce Architect at Slalom
5. Sr. Product Manager at AgentSync (a Salesforce ISV)
6. Manager, Business Process Optimization at Salesforce
7. Sr. Manager, Business Systems at Namely
8. Delivery Lead at Salesforce Consulting Firm
9. Technical Business Analyst at Zendesk
10. Change Program Manager at Twitter
11. Business Operations Analyst at Block
12. Business Systems Analyst at Block

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There is no on-size-fits-all Product Manager. Each role needs to be scoped according to the unique needs of the business unit they serve.

This is the only way to proactively drive Salesforce product strategy into the business, instead of operating like a reactive Service Desk responding to inbound requests and ideas.