Overview of Data Skew in Salesforce

Nikita M.
Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.
January 1, 2026

TL;DR

This article explores β€œdata skew,” a frequently used term in Salesforce circles. With this knowledge, you can proactively plan your data strategies and configurations in Salesforce to avoid common pitfalls.

Let’s get started! 

What is Data Skew in Salesforce?

The term β€œdata skew” describes when one Salesforce record, such as an Account, is related to multiple other records in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. This data skew could create performance issues or β€œlocking” errors in your CRM platform when there are software updates.

If you are interested, check out our Duplicate Data Checks article to learn about other ways of reducing errors in your CRM platform. 

But for now, let’s examine three types of data skew in Salesforce to better understand this concept. 

1. Account Data Skew in Salesforce 

When one account is related to a large number of Salesforce child records, we are presented with account data skew. Some of the Salesforce child records could include:

If your CRM platform has an account data skew, you could experience performance issues when Salesforce is updating. Your business could also expect issues from account data skew when performing bulk operations. 

In reality, these instances lock Salesforce records and slow down processing time. We suggest constantly checking for account data skews in your org as it can be a challenge when implementing large-scale projects. 

2. Lookup Data Skew in Salesforce

Data skew can also occur in lookup fields within Salesforce. This happens when multiple Salesforce records are connected to one record via a lookup field.

A common example would be one custom Salesforce object that references hundreds or thousands of contacts. This setup can cause performance to slow down and Salesforce to stall during updates. If you have set up bulk operations for your business make sure to monitor your lookup data skew to maintain your system’s efficiency. 

3. Ownership Data Skew in Salesforce 

The next type of data skew occurs when one user owns many Salesforce records. Once again, this type of data skew leads to performance issues during updates. Your business can also experience problems when sharing recalculations or changing the hierarchy of user roles. These difficulties come about as Salesforce has to process high volumes of related data. 

We suggest managing your Salesforce ownership data skew by distributing record ownership among many users. Another way to deal with ownership data skew in Salesforce is to use queues instead of users. 

Reduce Data Skew in Salesforce 

Now that we have covered what data skew is in Salesforce and the different types that can occur, let’s dive into some ways we can reduce it to maintain data integrity. 

Final Thoughts on Salesforce Data Skew 

As we learned, having data skew can affect your Salesforce Data Cloud’s system performance. Moreover, data skew also impacts the integrity of your company data. At Titan, we always want you to excel in Salesforce and so provided an explanation of data skew in this article, along with three types that can occur. 

Remember to follow the best practices we have supplied to help reduce data skews in Salesforce, and you should be able to keep your CRM environment healthy. 

If you are interested in signing up for Data Cloud to extend Salesforce capabilities, make sure to check out our Salesforce Data Cloud Pricing article. It will offer information to help you choose the most cost-effective software for your data needs, whether you run a startup or a large enterprise. 

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Titan for Flawless Salesforce Data Management 

We understand that you want an easy way to automatically gather data for Salesforce and efficiently organize it without supervision. Why not try Titan?

Our no-code platform integrates natively into Salesforce allowing admins to create powerful workflows that push and pull real-time data directly to and from your CRM platform. You get to automate every stage of your business processes while making Salesforce your single source of truth. 

Moreover, we also have additional Salesforce-integrated solutions that give you the power to build robust data-collecting tools, like portals, forms, surveys, documents, and more, with no code. 

If you liked this post and are looking for more data-related content, check out our Snowflake Lake article. And to find out more about Titan for Salesforce, contact us through one of our social media channels below. 

See you soon!

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