I was pleasantly surprised on Monday when I checked Twitter after a day of work and saw Trailhead activity. Salesforce had released 7 new modules of Trailhead yumminess, making it a total of 88(!) active modules for the avid Trailhead learner. There are modules for the business user, beginner administrator, beginner developer and the intermediate developer. #MOARBADGERS!

Continuing on with teaching Salesforcers soft skills and showing others how to Manage the Salesforce Way (trail), Salesforce introduces two Trailhead modules Culture of Feedback and Organizational Alignment (V2MOM).

In the Culture of Feedback module, managers learn why it’s important to give just in time feedback. Managers who provide feedback are 30x more like to manage actively engaged employees, regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative! It’s important to cultivate an environment where feedback is open, honest and courageous; feedback is timely and ongoing not just quarterly or annually; an environment where feedback is sought actively sought after and given. The feedback is most impactful when it is specific and behavior focused using SBI (Situation, Behavior and Impact).  Feedback needs to be delivered and received with good intention, the recipient is continuously improving and will get better with the feedback, otherwise the feedback isn’t helpful. Feedback can be given at all levels – lateral, up and down. Remember, when giving feedback, keep your bias in check. Lastly, for managers, set the tone by leading by example. Ask employees to provide feedback on your performance.

In the Organizational Alignment (V2MOM) module, Salesforce talks about the importance of company wide alignment, all buildings towards the same vision using what Salesforce called V2MOM. This stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles and Measures. V2MOM is an iterative, transparent, and feedback-driven process.and each employee creates one that is unique to him/her, not just a mere copy and paste of their manager’s V2MOM. V2MOM is created collaboratively and is a living document that is continually reviewed and monitored.

ISV Business Planning module is the newest addition to the Build Apps as an ISV Partner Trail.

This module talks through how an ISV partner can identify your customer – identify your total addressable market, available market and target market. Next, develop a business plan, your go-to market plan, your value proposition, channel strategy and marketing plan. Lastly, you need to make sure you have a team in place and critical roles are filled.

Added to the Keep Your Customers Happy with Service Cloud Trail are the Service Console Customization, Case Feed and Entitlement Management modules. Service Cloud users rejoice!

I have to admit, we have the service console and are using its features minimally, so this Trailhead module is awesome in providing a tutorial on how to configure the service console to increase a service rep’s productivity.

Service Console Customization module talks through the importance of talking to your service reps about what they need/their requirements to make them more productive. There is no point in introducing features that would hinder their performance or features they would never use. This module covers setting up pinned lists, various push notifications (visual indicators that show service reps when something that they’re working on has been changed by another user) and lastly, configuring keyboard shortcuts.

The Case Feed module shows how to use the feed based layout to resolve cases (collaborate with other reps, track important case information, integrate knowledge and resolve the customer’s issues). Service reps can send professional looking emails or quick texts to the customer in the case feed. Lastly, service reps can use feed filters to better manage the case feed and filter up information important to the service rep.

The Entitlement Management module stepped through what entitlements are and how to enable the use of entitlements in your org. Entitlements tell your support team what service level each customer is entitled to based on their SLA. This module provides step-by-step on how to set up an entitlement template, creating milestones and an entitlement process, and  creating milestone actions and how to use entitlements in Cases.

Okay, I saved the best new module for last…I even finished this module last to make this my #109 Badge.

Custom Metadata Types is the newest module added to the Intermediate Developer trail.

For those who work with me, I absolutely LOVE, LOVE custom metadata type. Think of it as an upgraded version of custom settings. It has the same capabilities as a custom settings list but it has an added bonus — no more data loading of the custom settings data records. Custom metadata type data records are META! This means that they are deployable in change sets and will be available in the org after a refresh. I’ve definitely added custom metadata types to my admin tool set. Can you feel the love now?!

Custom metadata types are the BOMB!

If you know how to create custom objects, you know how to create a custom metadata type.

This module also explains how to protect the custom metadata types for those who are packaging the custom metadata types and records up for deployment. A protected record is only accessible to code in the same namespace as the record or its associated custom metadata type. When a custom metadata type is public, the subscriber org or extension package can update the fields or add new records.

It also steps through how to package custom metadata types for deployment as well as convert your existing custom settings to custom metadata types.

Thank you, Trailhead module writer @jheritagesfdc and Custom Metadata Types Product Manager @slettehaugh.

Have you completed the 7 new modules yet? Whatcha waiting for? Go and get ’em today!

Go to: trailhead.salesforce.com

Enjoy!

Jen

————————————————————————–

Are you a Trailhead junkie like me and many others in the community? Is your name on the Unofficial Trailhead Leaderboard, managed by Adam Olshansky? If not, you need to get added and track your progress against your fellow community members.