We built Trailhead to help change gender and race ratios in the tech workforce, and to bring people to jobs. But it took off because of a little bit of magic and a lot of community. Over a million people have learned new skills on Trailhead, working their way through 500 badges. We “gamified” Trailhead with quizzes, badges, and little bursts of confetti to celebrate progress. This brought a fun consumer side to workplace development training, which traditionally has been boring, sometimes even drudgery. 

That sense of fun created an emotional connection with the people interacting with us. Our animated characters – Astro, Codey the Bear, Cloudy the Goat and the rest – bring learning to a fun, imaginative level, like when you were a child. You can relate to a character, like Sesame Street’s Muppets, in a different way than you do a person, especially a person in charge of training, who may be telling you that your answer is wrong. We didn’t want authority figures or company officials to loom over Trailhead. We wanted the stars to be the Trailblazers– our ambitious customers striving to excel – not Salesforce. Our brand is not the important thing. And Trailblazers have found new ways to connect and help each other every day. 

What they do when they learn is remarkable. 

Take Sandi Zellner for example. When a neurological condition effectively ended her career teaching music, Sandi sank into depression. But she rewrote her professional story and built a new career on Trailhead, becoming a Salesforce admin and ConnectOne bank vice president. Today Sandi is a joyous person who lights a path for others to follow. 

You can’t make a story like that up – and we couldn’t make it happen. It happened because of our Trailblazers, each of whom is unique and all of whom are awesomely powerful together. 

In Trailhead we have found a revolutionary way of rallying people’s enthusiasm and interest toward a future of tech learning. We want to share that. So we’re breaking off a little piece of that magic, so other companies can build their own learning communities the Trailhead way. 

We believe you always have to be learning, growing, exploring – as a company, and as people. The future of tech is dark without that human accomplishment and the joy that it brings. It would simply be irresponsible to invoke new waves of technology on the world, and not patiently and conscientiously show people how to use it, how to build their jobs of the future. 

It all comes down to one person at a time wanting to learn and grow. I’m an executive vice president at a big tech company, but that doesn’t mean I know what blockchain is. I want to understand that, to be able to talk intelligently about it. I know just where to go to learn about that. With Trailhead I can always stay fresh and current. 

So that’s Trailhead, and why we are introducing myTrailhead. We want to give companies a way to create a culture of learning, community, and engagement. 

On the one hand, that’s just common sense. On the other hand, it’s a little bit of magic. 

To learn how myTrailhead can empower your company's customized learning visit: trailhead.salesforce.com/mytrailhead 

Read more about the myTrailhead release in the Salesforce Newsroom.