Trailhead is one of the best tools to help people in the Salesforce ecosystem upskill. However, though Badges and Trails help you to check your baseline knowledge about a feature or topic, the real-life experience will always trump theoretical learning. Because of this, Salesforce have tried to bridge the gap with performance-based credentials.
In this article, we’ll explore the Trailhead features which help with hands-on learning: Superbadges, Superbadge Units, Super Sets, and Journeys.
What Are Superbadges?
Superbadges were introduced to bridge the gap between Trailhead and getting a foot on the Salesforce career ladder:
“Trailhead is a lot of fun and it’s beneficial but without industry context, it’s hard to take it as far as you really can. I’m really excited about Superbadges, which give you a good idea of how Salesforce is used in real business scenarios, very similar to what you would encounter in the real world – so that’s helping people.“
– Selina Suarez, PepUp Tech Co-founder.
They are real-world problems designed to quantify what you have learned through the Trailhead modules, with all the relevant business context you would need to build a true Salesforce solution. It’s like a Salesforce internship – a way to show off your capabilities in a hands-on manner, and help you prove your requirements analysis abilities.
There are around 50 different Superbadges covering all elements of Salesforce available on Trailhead – and this is constantly growing, with new ones announced all the time.
What Are Superbadge Units?
Salesforce recently released Superbadge Units alongside Superbadges as another credential to showcase Trailblazers’ skills. They differ slightly from Superbadges as they:
- Assess sub-domain skills and focus on a single topic.
- Take ‘less time to earn’.
- Are more up to date with the content.
Superbadge Units have prerequisites in the form of Trailhead modules that must be completed before the credential will be unlocked. For example, the User Access Fundamentals Superbadge Unit:
Superbadge Units are used as prerequisites for specialist level Superbadges. In order to unlock the User Access Specialist Superbadge, you must first have completed the three Superbadge Units:
So, the Superbadge Unit order of progression is as follows:
Complete Trailhead Modules → Get Access to the Superbadge Unit → Complete Superbadge Unit → Get Access to the Superbadge → Complete the Superbadge
What Are Super Sets?
Super Sets are recognized groups of Superbadges and Superbadge Units, put together in Trailhead as a separate credential (like a super-Superbadge). They bring together skills that you would need for specific roles, and once all of those prerequisites are completed, you will unlock a capstone-level assessment to gain the Super Set.
Note: A capstone-level assessment is a multiple choice challenge associated with the content covered in the Superbadges.
The intention is to enable Trailblazers to go further – they test your knowledge in a specific area, diving deeper and giving you a more robust credential.
“They’re invaluable practice for certification seekers or anyone else looking to gain the skills employers look for in qualified candidates.”
– Julie Workman, Salesforce
Currently, there are five available:
- Admin Super Set
- App Builder Super Set
- Billing Specialist Super Set
- Developer Super Set
- CRM Analytics Super Set
And you receive a shiny new badge on your Trailblazer.me profile upon completion!
What Are Journeys?
Announced at Dreamforce ‘22, Salesforce released new Superbadges, which are components of these Performance-Based Credentials called Journeys.
Journeys are a guided path of Modules, Projects, Superbadges, and Superbadge Units to be completed in a particular order. They are extensive and show extreme expertise in the area they cover.
For now, there are only two “Journeys” available:
These are for the true Trailhead fanatic, with Process Automation stated as taking approx. 23 hrs 30 mins, and Security a whopping 32 hrs 55 mins.
Summary
Salesforce are showing their commitment to being inclusive with the constant innovations to Trailhead, which enable anyone to learn more about their technology with no barriers to entry. Performance-Based Credentials allow Trailblazers to gain some hands-on experience to help them become a well-rounded Salesforce professional.
You can always find ways to upskill with Salesforce providing so many ways to showcase your learning!
