Here’s the million dollar question: Who is a Solution Architect, anyway? 

Simply put, Salesforce Solution Architects deliver domain-specific, multi-cloud solutions on the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform to create frictionless customer experiences that maximize business value. And within that ethos, we look to Solution Architects to provide three key forms of leadership:

• Business Leadership: Demonstrate business leadership by guiding companies on a multi-cloud solution journey emphasizing differentiating customer experiences
• Delivery Leadership: Drive successful outcomes by advocating for multi-cloud implementation best practices based on use-case delivery knowledge which spans the Salesforce Customer 360 Vision and Platform
• Technical Leadership: Provide technical leadership by selecting the proper multi-cloud product features that best align with a company’s vision and business value goals

So why talk about leadership when it comes to Solution Architects? Or why even talk about Multi-Cloud in the context of leadership, in the first place?— Quite a bit of it involves having the ability to skill up on breadth versus depth. 

What is Breadth versus Depth?

Here’s the difference: Breadth involves going wide and depth involves going deep. Many face the challenge of evaluating where the role of the Solution Architect exists because quite often they exist right down the middle of breadth and depth. 

When someone exists in the middle of breadth and depth they are expected to, at a certain degree, have varying levels of knowledge at multiple levels of a solution. Because they are technical enough to drive the solution’s vision and have enough business savvy to keep the solution’s vision clear to stakeholders, they are quite often seen as the de facto leader of that solution. Within the context of a Solution Architect we are taking that “de facto” leadership role and making it a critical one. 

How Do Solution Architects Become Leaders?

The key for us is confidence and it’s with the following factors: 

• Confidence the Solution Architect provides to the business in regards to how the solution can meet the value they are looking to achieve
• Confidence the Solution Architect provides to the delivery team around the viability of the multi-cloud solution and how it can actually be achieved
• Confidence the Solution Architect provides in technical acumen by understanding which product features across multiple clouds can meet the business value needs and increase the chances of success with the delivery team

To achieve that confidence, it may take varying amounts of time, commitment, and experience. With multi-cloud, it can become even more challenging because different clouds will have different levels of expertise and enablement. This is why being in the middle of the breadth and depth scenario is critical because you as an individual may have differing levels of experience across different clouds. 

It's also important to understand not just your own experience, but also where your stakeholders live within this map of leadership as well. None of them will be aligned to the middle. The middle is where a Solution Architect lives because from that point they can see the entire vision and be able to address the vision holistically by necessary stakeholder groups. As you can see all of your stakeholders will live across varying ranges of breadth and depth. 

In the end, how does a Solution Architect prepare to provide leadership confidently to business, delivery, and technical stakeholders? It takes time, commitment, and experience. 

Where Can Solution Architects Go?

Partner Learning Camp has two world class Solution Architect curricula for you to choose from: The 24 course B2B Solution Architect Curriculum and 26 course B2C Solution Architect Curriculum. Both help learners build multi-cloud capabilities. By scaling these T-Ruth Mountains in PLC, learners can build multi-cloud implementation skills, and once they finish the curriculum, they can bring value to projects with a business and technical leadership mindset. Plus, the B2B curriculum has the added bonus of embarking on Learning Expeditions. They’re curated courses to navigate T-Ruth Mountain your way.

When Should I Start?

RIGHT NOW!! Everything you see above is COMPLETELY self service. If you are willing to commit the time you can take advantage of hundreds of hours of content spanning multiple multi-cloud solutions illuminating decades of tribal knowledge into easily digestable learning journeys.