Chronicles of Setting up NPSP from Scratch: Days 1 and 2

Hello readers,

Happy January / “end of ze world” week!

Wanted to share what I’m working on, outside of feeling existential dread.

My nonprofit org is using Salesforce but we are not on NPSP or Lightning. It is not ideal.

We are currently looking for a partner to do a needs assessment of our org. In order to deepen my understanding of NPSP and also “sell” this project internally, I have decided to make an attempt at setting up NPSP with minimal sample data. I have never used NPSP before so my only points of reference are Trailhead, Salesforce documentation, and being part of the NPSP Videography project.

Day 1 – Setup

Yesterday (January 6, 2021), I created a dev org and installed NPSP. Taking it slooooow.

Day 2 – The Basics

Today I created some record types that weren’t available in the installation. I also created a new user with a new profile that I can use for testing.

Then I noticed that there is a whole guide on configuration steps that I can draw from. I’m curious as to why this guide includes creation of buttons instead of actions but I assume that there’s a reason for that.

Challenges So Far

Now some observations on challenges so far…

Since I know the core Salesforce product and nonprofit terminology, NPSP is quite intuitive. However, I am having trouble staying focused, especially as I try to write out everything I do.

I started to think about why this type of task – reading instructions, making configurations, and documenting – is so daunting for me. I like printouts of instructions, but that’s not eco-friendly or space-friendly. I like pen and paper, but my handwriting is so bad and the output is something I would have to type later anyway. I have two screens, but that doesn’t feel like enough.

As someone who is (self-diagnosed) neurodivergent, I need some simpler ways of working. Perhaps I can display the documentation on my iPad. Perhaps I need to learn more Mac keyboard shortcuts in order to move from one screen to another.

I think what I’m learning about reducing clicks and being able to seamlessly switch between tasks (reading, writing, configuring) is going to help me in system design in the future.