Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Sharon Klardie, Senior Director of AppExchange Labs & Innovation at Salesforce.

Join us as we chat about how Labs empowers Salesforce employees to build and share solutions on the AppExchange, and what that means for admins navigating the new world of AI.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Sharon Klardie.

What is Salesforce Labs?

Next year, Salesforce Labs will celebrate its twentieth birthday. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s an innovation program for Salesforce employees to create solutions, package them, and share them with customers like you.

That’s why I was so excited to sit down with Sharon Klardie. She’s the Senior Director of AppExchange Labs & Innovation, and as she puts it, her team’s job is to “showcase the art of the possible.”

If you’ve ever stared at a new feature and felt some blank canvas anxiety when it comes to how to actually implement it in your org, browsing through Salesforce Labs solutions could be a great starting point. Even if you don’t end up using something, you can see what’s possible and even look at how they did it on GitHub.

The key to AI implementation

If you’re like most of the admins I talk to, you’re probably looking for new ways to use Agentforce. As Sharon puts it, “How do you have meaningful and mindful implementations of AI at your organization?”

You can get a lot of ideas looking through Labs apps that incorporate Agentforce. However, as Sharon points out, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. You need to get your data in a good place and build a solid foundation for scalable AI, and there are several Salesforce Labs solutions that can help you get started.

Best practices for AppExchange

Finally, we talk through some AppExchange best practices that will help you get the most out of any Labs solutions you want to try out.

First and foremost, never install an app you haven’t used directly into production. Spin up a dev org or sandbox so you can test without breaking anything. But more importantly, make sure you have a solid rollout and change management plan for any new functionality you’re adding to your org. You need to tell users what’s new, teach them how to use it, and be ready to handle any edge cases that will inevitably pop up.

Be sure to catch Sharon’s presentations at Dreamforce, and say hi if you see her! And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode.

Podcast swag

• Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Learn more

• Trailhead Module: Salesforce Labs Basics


• Trailhead Module: AppExchange Basics


• AppExchange: Trending on Salesforce Labs


• AppExchange: Salesforce Labs App Guide


• YouTube channel: AppExchangeTV


• GitHub: Salesforce Labs


• Help Article: How To Get Support for Salesforce Labs Created Applications


• Dreamforce session: 7 Free Solutions to drive Your AI Strategy Forward

Admin Trailblazers Group

• Admin Trailblazers Community Group

Social

• Sharon on LinkedIn


• Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn


• Salesforce Admins on X


• Mike on Bluesky social


• Mike on Threads


• Mike on X

Full show transcript

Mike:

This week on the Salesforce Admin Podcast, I sit down with Sharon Klardie, who’s the senior director of Salesforce Labs, to talk about, well, what else? Free innovation. Sharon shares how labs empower Salesforce employees to build and share solutions on the AppExchange and what that means for Salesforce admins navigating the new world of AI and why, this is important, you should never install a new app straight into production. Now, whether you’re Dreamforce-bound or catching up after Dreamforce, this one’s packed with a lot of great tips from Sharon and a lot of AI strategy gold. So tune in, take notes, and let’s get Sharon on the podcast.

So, Sharon, welcome to the podcast.

Sharon Klardie:

Thank you for having me, Mike.

Mike:

I find it hard to believe, but you are one of the few people in the world that hasn’t been on the Salesforce Admin podcast despite you and me being in the ecosystem for like a thousand years.

Sharon Klardie:

I know. I was thinking about this morning and I was like, “I can’t believe I haven’t been on here yet.” So I’m super excited to share with the listeners here today.

Mike:

Well, let’s talk about that. So how did you get started in Salesforce and in the ecosystem, and what do you do at Salesforce?

Sharon Klardie:

Oh, I love a Salesforce origin story. So picture, it’s 2010, and I’m working at a software company that gets bought by an equity partner, and that equity partner implements Salesforce at every company they buy. And that was my first introduction of Salesforce back when it was just Sales and Service Cloud. And I absolutely felt in love with the platform. I felt empowered. There was community behind it. And ever since then, so from 2010 till today, I’ve been all Salesforce all the time.

Mike:

Wow. And you joined Salesforce. What part of Salesforce did you join?

Sharon Klardie:

So when I joined Salesforce in 2018, I joined leading the Salesforce Labs program. That was exclusively my focus. It’s been part of my remit my entire time, almost eight years here at Salesforce. And I’ve added some other things to what I do on the daily basis, but the Salesforce Labs program, community innovation, it’s my passion area. It’s what brings me joy. I just actually love being part of it, seeing the creativity of the employee community, creating labs, and seeing the creativity of our trailblazers who are using Labs solutions.

Mike:

So for anybody that hasn’t heard about Labs, when you say Salesforce Labs, what do you mean?

Sharon Klardie:

So Salesforce Labs is a program that’s actually turning 20 next year, if you can believe it. It’s an inn