myTrailhead experience

As a Salesforce partner, I had a chance to attend the 1-day myTrailhead Partner workshop by Mike Mulcare and this is a quick summary.
p.s : If you are thinking of an LMS and need some guidance reach out to deepak.bhaskaran@slalom.com

Learning Objectives

Key items that will be covered in this analysis:

• what is myTrailhead ?
• Things to consider
• Potential use-cases
• Verdict and Resources

What is myTrailhead?

Anyone in the Salesforce Ohana has definitely used Trails/ Trailhead. And now salesforce has enabled the option for companies to customize this great tool for rolling out their own learning journeys leveraging the gamifications platform

What is the difference between Trailhead and myTrailhead ?
Trailhead is in the public domain; while myTrailhead allows organizations to customize and publish their own Learning journeys for their employees.
Note : Customization essentially translates to light modifications such as Brand logo, Color scheme and custom domain

Is myTrailhead a Learning Managment System ?
Well not exactly, Salesforce calls it a Learning Experience System to differentiate it from the other tools like Cornerstone (LMS) or Walkme (Digital adoption platform)

At a high-level, they way to differentiate various Learning tools

• myTrailhead : Learning platform that incentivizes employees to learn more
• degreed : Learning content aggregator
• Drupal : Content Management System
• Walkme : Overlays new Tools/ applications providing guidance and tips
• Linkedin Learning : Content Library

What is the licensing option?
Currently myTrailhead is an add-on to your existing salesforce licenses (Note : not applicable to chatter-free/ community licenses) and you need to purchase licenses for both the content creator and end-user

Things to consider :

• Version control (need additional like GITHub or PERFORCE),
• No content authoring workflow (manual export, review and editor options)
• The Unit editor is pretty functional (much akin a linkedin or medium editor) and ideal for most use-cases
• Works best with Chrome & Firefox with some challenges in edge
• It is not a robust assessment tool (cannot randomize Qs and As order)
• Customizing Ranks is not yet available. But you can use the salesforce model (i.e Ranger, et all)
• Inserting Videos is a bit cumbersome (manually edit the content.html) but not a deal breaker. You can host your videos in Brightcove or other platforms and display them here

Licenses : Additional licenses (add-on) for both creator and users. Note : This does not work on Chatter-FREE & Community licenses

Use-Cases you should think about

You should think of reviewing myTrailhead if your organization is looking for

• Employee on-boarding : Think of lets say Account Executives, who need to know organization specific selling processes
• Company Culture : If your organization has custom leadership/ executive training
• Integrated Training within salesforce process : Lets assume, when an sales lead moves from stage 1 to 2 — you can push a “how to better write SOWs” training to the sales exec

Some use-cases where myTrailhead will not be

• Compliance Training : Certain features such as making sections within the training mandatory are not strictly implemented in myTrailhead making it not ideal for Compliance/Security Trainings
• Integrating with an existing LMS content : The data model behind myTrailhead is different and hence not compatible with consolidating existing content — you will need to consider a migration effort

Verdict

If you are already excited about Trailhead (Gamification, mobile,etc) and have a core-salesforce license and are looking to create custom training content — myTrailhead is a great choice.

While the current framework is functional, I am really excited on the possibilities integrating with Einstein’s NBA (next-best-action), process builders and overall within your salesforce environment

Cons : The budget (pricing is an add-on) , you need an existing salesforce implementation and the fact that the product is still evolving and going through some growing pains.

Overall, If your organization has not yet made an investment in an LMS — then myTrailhead is definitely a tool to consider

Resource :

• Complete the Writing for myTrailhead module on Trailhead.
• Complete the Create New Learning Experiences trail on Trailhead.
• Complete the Trail Writing Source Content Worksheet.
• Youtube : LINK1 , LINK2

Let me know your opinion at deepak.bhaskaran@slalom.com