MVP Profile

Dean OBrien

United Kingdom

MVP 2026

Technology

United Kingdom

MVP 2025

Technology

United Kingdom

MVP 2024

Technology

United Kingdom

MVP 2023

Technology

United Kingdom

I'm a Mentor

Happy to support anyone as a mentor on their journey to be coming an MVP.

I am willing to meet on a regular basis to offer advice and guidance about a mentees planned contributions, act as a general sounding board for ideas and hopefully guide them to make valuable contributions to the community.

I have created a number of custom modules for Sitecore XP in the past and would welcome the idea of working collaboratively with a mentee on a new project.

Timeline

2025

30/Nov

Sitecore Stack Exchange

Supported the Sitecore community with their issues on Sitecore Stack Exchange

Sitecore XP

2025

27/Nov

10 Real World examples of Using AI in Sitecore XP

In this blog post, I demonstrate 10 real world examples of how we have incorporated AI into our every day Sitecore workflows.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Image Classification

Demonstration of how you might incorporate image classification in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Use your own data

Demonstration of how you might use chatgpt to interogate your own data in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Smart Image Cropping

Demonstration of how you might incorporate smart image cropping in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Keyword Analysis

Demonstration of how you might incorporate keyword analysis in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Textual Analysis

Demonstration of how you might incorporate textual analysis in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Data Analysis

Demonstration of how you might incorporate data analysis in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Exception Analysis

Demonstration of how you might incorporate exception analysis in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

1/Nov

Exception Resolution

Demonstration of how you might incorporate exception analysis in Sitecore.

Sitecore XP

2025

30/Oct

Extended Alpha Review: Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Exam

I took part in an extended alpha review of the "Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Exam". As part of this, I reviewed the full set of questions for the exam and gave feedback on question suitability, technical detail and offered revisions where necessary. This was done in collaboration with Luke Allis (Sitecore Learning).

Sitecore XP

2025

15/Oct

Application Insights Module: AI + DevOps Integration Added

This article highlights some new featues that were added to the Application Insights Module for Sitecore. These include seamlessly integration with Azure DevOps repository. Ask AI to compare stack traces from application insights to code directly from your repository. Then submit suggested fixes either as Back Log Items or Pull Requests on a new Branch.

Sitecore XP

2025

15/Oct

Update to Application Insights Module Repository

This is the repository for the Application Insights Module - multiple AI features added.

Sitecore XP

2025

20/May

Overview: Sitecore Forms to Dynamics

A comprehensive look at all the stages and various customisatoins required to send data from Sitecore to Dynamics

Sitecore XP

2025

17/May

Sync Data From Sitecore To Dynamics

This article looks in detail at how to install and configure the necessary pipelines, to take data from a variety of xconnect facets (including custom facets) and submit them to Dynamics.

Sitecore XP

2025

10/May

Issues syncing contacts from Dynamics To XConnect

This article will highlights issues we came across when syncing contacts back and forth between Sitecore and Dynamics. Then shows the approach we used to overcome them.

Sitecore XP

2025

7/May

Retrieve Dynamics Optionset and Entity Reference data for use in Sitecore Forms

This article is going to look at how to create a custom dropdown lists, that have been populated with data directly from dynamics. The dropdown can then be added to any Sitecore Form, thus providing the user options and more importantly source values, that exactly match that which is expected when saving data to the Dynamics platform.

Sitecore XP

2025

7/May

Build a Custom Dropdown List to display data from Dynamics

This articles looks in detail at the steps required to create custom dropdown lists for output within Sitecore Forms.

2025

7/May

Code to support Sitecore to Dynamics Blogposts

This code repo has been created to house some of the custom code that supports the Sitecore to Dynamics blog posts.

Sitecore XP

2025

30/Apr

AI Overview for Sitecore Module

This Sitecore Module allows you to add a 'google' style AI Overview component to search pages. Returning a GenAI response to the search based solely on your own data.

Sitecore XP

2025

30/Apr

AI Overview For Sitecore Repository

This Sitecore Module allows you to add a 'google' style AI Overview component to search pages. Returning a GenAI response to the search based solely on your own data.

Sitecore XP

2025

9/Apr

How to call a genAI model using your own data

In this blog post, we will look at how to setup the resources required to programatically call a GenAI model (i.e. ChatGPT) and ask it questions about your own data. This knowledge unerpins the AI Overview for Sitecore module.

Sitecore XP

2025

6/Feb

A conversation with AI

A look at how AI has evolved over the last year and the power it offers when researching ideas. This post offers a case study, looking at the idea of 'Using AI Behind the scenes in Sitecore", then the interactions with ChatGPT and the realtime results it offered.

Sitecore XP

2024

12/Dec

MVP Application Reviewer

I supported the MVP Application Review process.

2024

27/Nov

Blog post summary page

This page contains a list of the blog posts that I would like to be considered for my MVP Application.

Sitecore XP

2024

24/Nov

Webinar: Using AI with Sitecore

I delivered a webinar to our IT department, where I explored various ways AI can enhance the user experience within the Sitecore platform. The focus was on demonstrating how even simple AI implementations can deliver substantial benefits.

Sitecore XP

2024

16/Oct

Language Assistant Module for Sitecore

This module allows you to ask an AI Assistant to review the content of your web pages and suggest changes.

Sitecore XP

2024

30/Jul

Service Listener for SOLR

I created a simple service monitor, which when used in conjunction with the Application Insights module can send alerts if the service is ever down. More details on the blog summary page.

Sitecore XP

2024

24/Jun

Consume Layout Service for Sitecore

This is one of two repositories that demonstrate how to consume the custom layout service using a NextJs Application. The app uses the latest version of NextJs (routing via App Router) and authorizes via Auth.js in combination with Sitecore Identity Server.

Sitecore XP

2024

10/Jun

Custom Layout Service Module for Sitecore

This module provides endpoints to expose layout information, item detail and rendering content for consumption by a headless web app. The purpose was to provide an alternative route to explore headless, for those without the JSS module.

Sitecore XP

2024

18/May

Barriers to XM Cloud

In this blog post I explored the pros and cons of moving to XM Cloud. Looking at it from the prospective of an existing XP customer on a perpetual license.

Sitecore XP

2024

25/Apr

Added Alerting and Entra Authentication to Application Insights Module

I added alerting functionality to my Application Insights module, allowing it to monitor any application (including each sitecore xconnect instance) and fire alerts if specific criteria are reached. I also updated the module to use Entra authentication, instead of the legacy API key approach. More details on the blogs summary page.

Sitecore XP

2024

9/Mar

Login hanging on Identity Server

In this blog post I talk about our experiences troubleshooting an issue with Identity Server timing out.

Sitecore XP

2023

28/Nov

Summary of MVP Application

On this page, I provide links to each of the blog posts I would like to be considered and also the top 20 contributions on Sitecore Stack Exchange.

Sitecore XP

2023

25/Nov

Search Analytics: Webinar

This is a recording of a presentation I gave to our Marketing department. The focus of the talk was to introduce the new analytics module. Showcasing how the module can be used to improve a users search experience on the site.

Sitecore XP

2023

14/Sep

Search Analytics for Sitecore Module

I developed an opensource module that tracks search engagement within a site. It registers the order in which different items rank for a given search term over time, and the amount of time spent on a page when arriving directly from a search result

Sitecore XP

2023

21/Jul

A Day with Sitecore Search

A look at my initial experiences with the Sitecore Search product (as a customer using it for first time).

Sitecore Search

2023

28/May

Device Detection service failing to initialise

Sharing my experience troubleshooting this issue.

Sitecore XP

2023

25/May

Personalisation Demo Site

A simple site that sets up and showcases some basic personalisation within sitecore. This was to be the base project, that would have been converted to XM cloud by my mentee.

Sitecore XP

2023

24/May

Moving from DXP To XM Cloud

This blog post was to be the start of a series on blog posts, sharing the experiences of both myself and mentee moving to XM Cloud. However, my mentee dropped out of communication after a time and we didnt manage to take this forward.

Sitecore XP

2023

5/May

Domain not mapping through to Sitecore site in Kubernetes cluster

Sharing my experience troubleshooting this issue.

Sitecore XP

2023

15/Apr

Items not being indexed after publish

Sharing my experience troubleshooting this issue.

Sitecore XP

2023

27/Mar

SUGCON 2023 – A composable future for Sitecore

Sharing my experience of attending SUGCON in Malaga. This article was also shared in the Sitecore developers newsletter.

Sitecore XP

2023

23/Jan

Issues Migrating Data from Sitecore 9.3 to 10.1

Sharing my experience troubleshooting this issue.

Sitecore XP

2022

30/Nov

Application Insights for Sitecore Module

This is a module that I have developed, to track the health of all sitecore/xconnect instances in one place.

Sitecore XP

2022

30/Nov

MVP Application 2023 Summary

This page provides further detail, where one of the contributions listed below covers multiple pages. If also lists some contributions from Sitecore Stack Exchange.

Sitecore XP

2022

29/Nov

Unit Tests for Sitecore

A demo project that showcases some approaches to unit testing for sitecore projects, written using both nSubstitute and Moq (for mocking dependencies) and uses both XUnit and MSTest (unit testing frameworks)

Sitecore XP

2022

7/Nov

Sitecore Page Recommender

A series of blog posts, looking at my experiences developing a Page Recommendation service. The code to accompany this can be found on "MVP Application 2023" summary page.

Sitecore XP

2022

21/Sep

How to confirm data is flowing into xconnect

Some information to help people trouble shoot if data is flowing into XConnect,

Sitecore XP

2022

10/Jul

Unresponsive CM Instance after deployment

At look at how our misconfiguration of our CDN led to major performance issues

Sitecore XP

2022

25/Jun

Upgrade identity server as part of main upgrade

Sharing my experience of an issue that we faced during an upgrade from 9.3 to 10.1.

Sitecore XP

2022

9/Jun

Sitecore: AlreadyExists, Contact. XdbContext Batch Execution Exception

A look at a major issue we faced with XConnect.

Sitecore XP

2022

30/May

Help! Loss of all content!

A look at the circumstances that led to all of our content being unpublished from sitecore website

Sitecore XP

2022

13/Apr

How to automate the building of SQL Snapshot images using scheduled tasks

Our approach to creating daily snapshot images of production databases

Sitecore XP

2022

21/Feb

Reducing the size of the master DB

A series of blog posts that looks at our journey reducing the master database from over 1TB to less than 2GB.

Sitecore XP

2021

14/Dec

Presentation on Docker and Kubernetes

This is a recording of a presentation I was asked to give to our IT Department. The focus of the talk was to introduce the concepts of Docker and Kubernetes and how it can be used to host our Sitecore Environment.

Sitecore XP