The 2024 Salesforce Development Survey Is Now Open!

We’re excited to announce that the 2024 State of Salesforce Development Survey is now live! In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of developer feedback and how you can participate in our annual survey. We’ll also share some insights from last year’s survey to give you a sense of what we’ve learned from our community.

What is the State of Salesforce Development Survey?

The State of Salesforce Development Survey is conducted every year to help us understand the evolving landscape of the development experience on the Salesforce Platform and all our products. Respondents come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, representing the vast Salesforce community. The survey dives into various aspects, ranging from challenges with Salesforce development to the emerging trends shaping the Salesforce ecosystem. We repeat some survey questions every year to track trends over time, and we also replace some questions to keep up with the changes in Salesforce and the industry more broadly.

Share your voice in 2024!

At Salesforce Research & Insights, we deliver insights to help our product teams drive exceptional customer and product experiences, built inclusively and ethically, across the entire Salesforce Customer 360 portfolio. Getting feedback and learning directly from those who use our features and tools is important to improving our products and setting priorities.

We understand that Salesforce development is continually evolving, which is why we want to hear from you each year. The industry moves quickly, and learnings from last year may not be entirely applicable to this year.

Why should you participate?

Help us shape the future of Salesforce development, as your feedback will help our teams figure out how best to make your development experience better
As a thank you for your time, you will receive a $10 USD (or equivalent) gift card honorarium for a valid survey completion

This 30-question survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete and is open to anyone who develops in the Salesforce ecosystem regardless of job title. Take the survey now!

Don’t wait — the survey closes on March 12, 2024, and it may close early if we reach the maximum number of respondents.

Thank you for your time and feedback!

2023 survey insights

A diverse ecosystem of developers, admins, and more

From previous research we’ve conducted, we know that there are a variety of roles that build on the Salesforce Platform. We wanted to better understand the prevalence of each role in our ecosystem, so we asked you to describe your current role, allowing you to select multiple choices to represent the breadth of your work.

We learned that Salesforce development is a field that boasts a diverse community, encompassing individuals from various backgrounds and professional roles. While developers are the most represented group (51%), it is important to recognize the presence of other roles that develop on the platform, including admins, architects, and others. We know that this diversity not only enriches the community, but also contributes to the overall growth and innovation within the Salesforce ecosystem.

We also learned that many of you wear multiple hats, and selected multiple roles that describe your current set of responsibilities. In addition to development work, many respondents shared that they have responsibilities that would typically fall under an admin, analyst, designer, or other role’s work. This is insightful for us as we continue to improve collaboration on Salesforce and make it easier for you to complete all the different tasks that you need to do.

Of the 2023 survey results, Salesforce Developers were the most represented group, followed by admins, architects, and more.

Spectrum of usage across no/low-code and pro-code tools

Another one of our most important topics was about no/low-code and pro-code development tools. We wanted to ask which type of tools you use to better understand current usage and preferences. Often, these tools are discussed as one versus the other, sparking debates about which type is “better.” But we found that it’s not as much of a competition between the types of tools, but rather that they complement each other.

The most popular response (42%) to the types of tools used was an equal mix of no/low-code and pro-code tools. And even if some of you leaned more toward one or the other, overall the majority (82%) use some sort of mix between the tool types. This supports other research that we’ve conducted showing us that folks choose the tool that they think best suits the task that they need to complete, regardless of tool type. For example, it’s sometimes easier to use a low-code tool if you need to implement something that comes out-of-the-box, but it might be better to take a pro-code approach if you need to make a lot of customizations.

We also want to acknowledge the handful of you who exclusively use one type of tool — that’s not a problem for us! Regardless of which tools you prefer, we want you to choose what works best for you and enables you to be successful in developing on Salesforce. We believe that Salesforce development tools should be inclusive across the spectrum of tool preferences, and it is what we’re striving to facilitate through our developer experience tooling. This is why we’re proud to see a diversity of skills and tools being used!

Of the 2023 survey results, 82% of respondents use a mix of no-code, low-code, and pro-code tools for their development.

Highest interest in acquiring more Salesforce certifications and skilling up in AI/ML & technical architecture

Beyond direct questions about our products and tools, we wanted to understand your careers more holistically and how we might be able to support you in your professional journeys. We were curious to understand how you want to skill up, so it can inform areas for us to prioritize.

Respondents expressed the most interest in acquiring more Salesforce certifications. This is something we’ve continued to offer and evolve over the years, and it’s a good indication to us that respondents want to continue to advance their careers with Salesforce and gain expertise with the platform.

With the rise of AI last year, it’s no surprise that AI/ML was also a top area of interest. This interest has influenced Salesforce to focus more on AI, including tools for Salesforce development like Einstein for Developers and Prompt Builder. We’ve created more resources to help you learn, including new Trailhead modules, documentation and videos for Salesforce AI features/tools, and Salesforce’s Trusted AI Principles.

We also saw interest in improving technical architecture skills. This is something that we’ve been continually exploring. We’ve heard that it can be challenging to architect solutions that are complex and may integrate different systems while maintaining quality, efficiency, and scalability. We already have some related learning resources, like on Trailhead, and we want to continue to expand on these to help you grow these skills. We also want to improve Salesforce tooling, so that it’s easier for you to design high-quality and performant solutions.

Of the 2023 survey results, developers were most interested in acquiring more Salesforce certifications, and skilling up on artificial intelligence and machine learning topics.

Take the 2024 survey!

As you saw in the highlights from the 2023 survey results, we value your feedback. We’d like to continue learning from you, so please share your feedback in the 2024 survey! The survey closes on March 12, 2024, and it may close early if we reach the maximum number of respondents.

Further Resources

About the author

Nathan Khuu is a Researcher on the Salesforce Research & Insights team, where he works on improving the developer experience.