20 million badges! How did we get here? A walk through Trailhead’s content history…
With 20 million badges earned by our incredible Trailblazer Community, let’s take a step back to see how we got from the launch of Trailhead to where we are now. We have new audiences, new ways to assess skills, new types of content, new ways to maintain your certifications, and more!
As I write this, I can’t quite believe the milestone we have reached. I know it was hard to imagine when we first launched Trailhead, but now there have been 20 million badges earned!
Yep, you read that right. (I had to double-check to make sure we hadn’t accidentally added an extra zero somewhere.) This led me to think about how we got from our first few badges to a number that’s hard for me to fathom.
Twenty million badges is a lot of learning! And it’s all because of you. Our Trailblazers. You’re learning, earning, connecting, and giving back to your communities, all while transforming your careers. Your #Trailheart and passion for skilling up can be felt across the entire ecosystem.
Now, let’s take a step back in time to see how we got here…
Our humble beginnings
Trailhead started as the fun way to learn Salesforce. Built by a small (yet mighty!) team of engineers, writers, marketers, and all-around innovators, it launched in October 2014 with 3 trails, 11 badges, and a bright vision to skill up developers at scale.
From the beginning, the magic of Trailhead has always been that it’s hands-on, with a free development environment that we call the Trailhead Playground (the real secret sauce!); that it’s gamified, with badges, points, ranks, and quests, to help you have fun while you’re learning; and that it’s written with our unique voice and tone, to demystify complex topics for our Trailblazers and make everyone feel celebrated and included.
But we didn’t stop there! The initial launch, our powerful vision — those were only the beginning.
Did you know, our first ever badge was Salesforce Platform Basics? If you earned this one, you’re one of our trailblazing pioneers!
Beyond developers
At first, Trailhead was built by developers, for developers. But as the team planned the roadmap for new content, there were opportunities for additional audiences. On Trailhead, we wanted to make content for admins, analysts, architects… and that was just for the letter A.
At the same time, we saw that while Salesforce skills were a great place to start, we would have to go beyond this to help our Trailblazers skill up for the jobs of the future.
This meant taking Trailhead from the fun way to learn Salesforce to the fun way to learn, well, everything! From blockchain to cultivating equality. From AI to fearless teaming. From cybersecurity to accessibility… and all that’s in between, we’ve got you covered.
Introducing quizzes and projects
About 6 months after launch, the team felt it was time to introduce other challenge types for even more learning. So in 2015, Trailhead introduced quizzes to help assess other features and soft skills.
And the team knew that not everyone learns the same way. Some people like to roll up their sleeves and start app building right away. So we introduced projects, which have step-by-step instructions that guide you on building a new app or other functionality.
Where our modules teach you “the why,” our projects teach you “the how.” Plus, projects often bring together multiple features you learned in separate modules.
Here come superbadges
When I joined the team working as the second editor for Trailhead, my first big project out of the gate was to edit a brand new content type… Trailhead Superbadges.
Superbadges are complex, real-world problems with heavy-duty hands-on challenges that build on each other. They are resume-worthy credentials and by far our most challenging content adventure.
In mid-2016, I helped our team launch four superbadges, including our two longest-standing: Apex Specialist and Security Specialist.
And now, thanks to Super Sets — role-specific collections of superbadges that further test your foundational knowledge of a specific role — you can take an even deeper dive into a domain, all while getting the invaluable practice you need to prep for certification and land a top job.
Beyond Salesforce
Around the same time we launched superbadges, we piloted our first partner-authored content, with the launch of the Learn Drucker School MBA Essentials trail on Trailhead.
Produced by educators at the Drucker School of Business, this trail endeavored to bring management practices to the masses, powered by Trailhead.
This set the stage for future partnerships with other institutions and companies, including Apple, AWS, Google, and more.
Our characters and stories
Inclusion is a core value for Trailhead. We want everyone to see themselves in our content — not just represented, but celebrated. So in 2017, we set out to create a gallery of characters and stories that could be used throughout our content.
The characters come from a variety of demographic groups and they help our Trailblazers feel included while they learn. We affectionately call them the Salesforcelandians.
New certification maintenance
Trailhead as a scaled learning platform offered us a way to serve Trailblazers not only with learning new skills but also with earning their credentials. In 2018, we piloted bringing certification maintenance to Trailhead.
And what a breakthrough this was!
This not only allowed Trailblazers to maintain their credentials on the same platform where they were building skills but also meant that certification maintenance was now free. (Who doesn’t love free?)
New hands-on interactivity
Also in 2018, we launched new hands-on learning experiences for additional products, including CPQ. And in 2019, we added new interactive components in our content, including flashcards for certification study, a simulation for marketing cloud email studio, and more!
We continue to add more interactivity to the content, to deepen engagement and give you new ways to learn.
Trailhead on-the-GO
Putting our Trailblazers at the center of an experience that enriches their lifelong learning journeys is what we do. Going mobile was a natural extension of that.
Unveiled at Dreamforce ’19, Trailhead GO is the mobile app you need to skill up anywhere for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Available to install for free on your iOS and iPadOS devices, it’s a game-changer for learners on-the-go.
As the perfect partner to mobile learning, we launched Quick Look microbadges — snackable pieces of content that are great for new learners and ideal for wherever you want to Trailhead GO.
Trailhead goes Live
We’ve also branched out into video, with the launch of Trailhead Live — a reinvented classroom experience for the digital world.
Trailhead Live provides learners with access to Salesforce experts, including Trailhead Academy instructors and experienced Trailblazer Community members, through live stream and on-demand videos covering today’s most in-demand skills for free.
Leveraging the power of live broadcast and community interaction through Q&As and discussions, Trailhead Live creates new levels of engagement.
Your resume, reinvented
The latest Trailhead innovation is Trailblazer.me — one unified profile that provides current and future employers with a complete view of all of your experience, accomplishments, and learning across Trailhead, the Trailblazer Community, AppExchange, Salesforce Events, IdeaExchange, and more.
You don’t earn badges purely for the fun of it (although there is a lot of fun to be had)… You’re building out your resume to showcase your skills, expertise, and experience — both on Trailhead and in the Trailblazer Community.
And now, your customized Trailblazer.me URL makes it easier than ever to network and connect with fellow Trailblazers, opening the door to massive opportunities regardless of where you live or who’s in your current network.
The future is bright
From the beginnings of Trailhead, with that bright vision and 11 badges, we’ve consistently worked to build new and better ways to help our Trailblazers learn.
With 20 million badges now earned (I still can’t get over that number!), I both reflect on our past and look forward to a bright future.
One where we continue to reduce the barriers to learning and make learning in-demand skills accessible for all. One where we empower every one of our Trailblazers to skill up for the future.
Quest on! Together, we’ll all journey down the path to 30 million badges and beyond.
