Welcome to the Road to Ranger! Skill up and rise through the ranks with Trailhead.

There’s no better feeling than when you earn that final badge and your Trailhead profile ticks over to Ranger rank (cue the digital confetti)! You need 100 badges and 50,000 points to become a Trailhead Ranger, so it’s not something you can do in a day or a week. You need to make time for learning and plan your path. Don’t know where to start? Never fear, #RangerMegan is here.

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As one of the Trailhead Ranger pioneers, I love to see all the social posts from Trailblazers sharing their elation at having earned their #TrailheadRanger rank. I remember the sense of satisfaction from learning loads AND having a ton of fun doing it. It gives me warm fuzzies… Here, I share my journey to Ranger and my #RoadToRanger plan to help you join me.

I first discovered Trailhead when I presented the Admin Keynote with Gillian Bruce for a Salesforce event in Sydney, and Trailhead was part of the presentation. When I went to Trailhead.Salesforce.com to check it out, it was love at first sight! I had a major crush on Trailhead and remember I literally laughed out loud during some units because of the puns, fun tone, and quirky examples. The hands-on challenges were so cool and something I’d never seen before. I was totally hooked.

As part of the Customer Success Group at the time, I was keen to know more about anything that could help our customers learn Salesforce easily. I had worked at Salesforce for around nine years at this point and had never been so engaged.

My first Trailhead badge (aah, Lightning Experience Basics, I remember it well… ) was immortalized on my Trailhead profile in January 2016. I was so excited when I made it to Ranger rank by July of that same year. I was one of the first Rangers in the APAC region at Salesforce, which made me feel so proud. I mean, check out that smile!

My Ranger journey happened at a time when Trailhead had really taken off. In the space of a year, Trailhead went from having 70 badges to 180 and introduced new types of learning with projects and superbadges. I might not have made it to Ranger rank if it were not for the abundance of new content. I kept learning and earning badges because I felt it was the best way to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest in the Salesforce world.

Early on, the most impressive thing was how the content was regularly maintained. There was a multitude of Salesforce content available in various places, but I knew that if I was on Trailhead, I would learn the most current information. It was simply the best source of truth for me. Even after completing my first 20 badges, I knew this would be the best way for my customers to learn a new concept, a new product, or how to use the Salesforce platform in a different way.

“It was a no-brainer for me to work Trailhead into every conversation I had with absolutely everyone (sorry mum and dad)!”

Being a Ranger and early Trailblazer even earned me the opportunity to present at Dreamforce, together with the wonderful Nancy Kamerer, on how we use Trailhead at Salesforce. What became clear to me was that I was so passionate and dedicated to Trailhead that I needed to make it my job. After being politely persistent for about a year, I made my dream come true and joined the Trailhead team.

These days, I still spend a lot of time with the Salesforce Ohana talking about Trailhead. And the questions I hear over and over are, “I want to be a Ranger but I’m not sure where to start?” and, “How much time do I need to dedicate to reaching Ranger rank?” I’ve mentored a number of individuals and Salesforce leaders on their journey to Ranger. In doing so, I’ve started to develop a plan on how anyone can get to Ranger rank no matter their level.

When curated learning paths called trailmixes launched in 2017, I was given an easy framework to collect and share content, which was so much better than hyperlinking modules in emails! Now, I’ve created a program called the #RoadToRanger. It consists of four trailmixes with the perfect blend of badges and points to take the guesswork out of how to achieve your Ranger rank:

• Road to Ranger Trailmix 1: Let’s start with the basics
• Road to Ranger Trailmix 2: Let’s take a look at our technology
• Road to Ranger Trailmix 3: Time to earn points
• Road to Ranger Trailmix 4: Check out some of the newest content

I must stress that achieving Ranger rank should never be a race. Let’s face it, Trailhead is fun with gamified learning, but it is, at its Trailheart, designed to help you learn new information and skill up. That’s why the points earned through the hands-on challenges are so important.

In all of my conversations about Trailhead, I always emphasize the importance of not only focusing on achieving badges but also on completing some of the points-heavy challenges. This way, you’ll prove that you’ve truly spent the time reading and retaining the information and can apply what you’ve learned.

I recommend doing the Road to Ranger trailmixes in order. I know everyone is at different stages in their Trailhead journey and you may have already earned some of the badges within these trailmixes (just call it having a head start!), but that’s the beauty of this program — it can help someone who doesn’t have any badges just as well as someone who is on the cusp of achieving Ranger rank.

Often, the hardest thing is finding the time to dedicate to Trailhead. That’s where #TrailheadTuesday comes in. #TrailheadTuesday is an informal way for you to meet up (in person or virtually) with fellow members of the Salesforce Ohana and dedicate the time to work on Trailhead together.

If you get stuck on a harder unit or hands-on challenge, you can work through it with your peers. Also, it’s fun to learn with friends. Why not sign up for your local session? Simply search #TrailheadTuesday on the Trailblazer Community for details. Or, if you don’t see one in your area, you can start your own!

Make it your goal to hit Ranger rank this year (if you’re not there already)! Who’s with me? Shout out your #RoadToRanger plans on social. And be sure to let us know when you get there so we can help you celebrate, too.

Let’s blaze a trail to Ranger together!

*T&Cs apply. See the Trailhead Quests page for full details and the official rules.