If you’re a Trailblazer, you’ll have been excited by the announcements about new certifications at the Trailblazer DX event in April. Having Salesforce certifications can boost your CV and allow you to get hands-on experience in the Salesforce pathways, opening a wider range of job opportunities. Even if you don’t have the funding for exams and certifications, earning points and badges on Trailhead can be great evidence of your Salesforce learning and current competency level.
So, what’s new in 2022? Strategy Designer and Business Analyst (finally!) credentials are on the cards this year.
Salesforce Certified Strategy Designer
Available: Released 23rd May 2022
The Salesforce UX Designer credential is no longer the only certification available under the Designer pathway. According to Trailhead, “The Salesforce Certified Strategy Designer should have knowledge of how to use design methods to create compelling experience strategies that drive business outcomes using the Salesforce Platform”.
This credential will allow you to demonstrate your competency in guiding discovery, research, and design efforts for a product, creating customer journeys, aligning business needs with end-user experience, and applying design thinking methodology, among others.
The Trailmix, worth 19,500 points, for this exam contains ‘Value Design’, ‘Tools and Artifacts’, ‘Intangible Deliverables’, and ‘Leveraging Adjacent Roles/Skills’ tasks, as well as modules such as Challenge Framing and Scoping, Research for Strategy Design, Idea Generation, Strategic Vision Creation, Design Strategy Prototyping and Go-to-Market Planning.
Salesforce report that this credential has come about because nearly three quarters of global workers do not feel equipped to learn the digital skills needed by businesses now. This certification will arm Designers with ‘skills spanning business, innovation, design, and delivery’. In short, Designers will learn how to bridge the gap between design and business goals and outcomes.
You’ll need to follow the usual maintenance schedule. As a reminder, here are your deadlines for completing your maintenance modules:
Summer ’21 – modules available 25 Aug 2021, deadline for completion 19 Aug 2022
Winter ’22 – modules available 8 Dec 2021, deadline for completion 2 Dec 2022
Spring ’22 – modules available 13 Apr 2022, deadline for completion APR 2022 (date TBC)
Salesforce Certified Business Analyst
Available: 11th July 2022
The Architect pathway is gaining a new gem. It’s been long-awaited, and finally confirmed to be coming soon. You’ll be able to gain the Salesforce Business Analyst Certification in July 2022.
Business Analysts are evidence-based problem solvers, helping shape business strategy through data and analytics. There are already many resources for BAs on Trailhead, so the certification will come as a strong, and welcome addition.
Although there were already many resources on Trailhead for Business Analysts, Salesforce have now released the official Salesforce Credential exam guide and Trailmix. The exam guide describes a successful BA candidate as someone who “understands business needs, captures requirements, and collaborates with stakeholders to support the development of Salesforce solutions which drive business improvements”. Salesforce recommends having 2 years of BA and Salesforce Platform experience prior to taking the exam. The exam will test your knowledge in ‘Customer Discovery’, ‘Collaboration with Stakeholders’, ‘Business Process Mapping’, ‘Requirements’, ‘User Stories’ and ‘User Acceptance’.
The Trailmix, ‘Prepare for Your Salesforce Business Analyst Credential’, is worth 13,600 points, and includes tasks on the features mentioned above, plus modules such as ‘Drucker School – Business Performance Basics’, ‘Journey Mapping’, ‘Essential Business Analyst Skills’ and ‘Scrum and Kanban at Salesforce’, among many others.
You’ll also need to maintain your certification, on the same schedule mentioned above.
Bring on July!
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