In this SF Ben Deep Dive, I’m joined by LilliAnne Yarlott (Salesforce Consultant at Operatus) to unpack Flow design patterns the way developers think about code patterns—repeatable structures that make complex automation easier to build, debug, and change later. What really clicked for me is how she bridges the “admin bubble” and the dev mindset: there’s no secret ingredient, just solid structure, consistency, and a plan for how data moves through a Flow. We start with a pattern I see people get wrong all the time: normalizing variables. The big takeaway is simple—no matter which branch your logic takes (screen, transform, subflow, etc.), you should resolve back to the same normalized record/collection variable. That’s how you make flows modular, removable, and future-proof (and how you avoid the nightmare of deleting one branch and breaking references downstream). Then we get into a genuinely practical screen flow navigation pattern using the UnofficialSF Button Bar concept: using button selections + decision logic to let users jump between screens, backtrack, and handle non-linear conversations (think call centers). We also cover a “validate at the end” approach—letting users move naturally through screens, then running a final master validation to flag what’s missing and route them back cleanly.