How Super is Super
As I continue to rack up the points and badges in a completely pointless quest to move up the Superqbit leaderboard I’ve been on a bit of a Superbadge rip recently. I’ve not quite completed every available Superbadge on Trailhead yet but that is at least in sight. As I’ve been working my way through them I’ve noticed a few things
Modern Superbadges vs Original
You can easily and immediately tell the difference between the original style of Superbadge and the modern once. One glance at the number of points for completion of the badge and you’ll know. Old school Superbadges will be 8000+ points. Some of them range up as high as 16000 points. For one badge! Modern superbadges break this down into a series of smaller Superbadge units. Each of these will be 1500-2500 points and each counts as a Superbadge on its own.
This has somewhat devalued the Superbadge. In the past each Superbadge was a considerable investment of time and effort. Perhaps 10-20 hours. It really meant something to get one. For me this meant spending a weeks worth of evenings to get one. With the new ones I can generally bang out a Superbadge unit a night. On the third night I can probably also do the “capstone assessment” to get the overall Superbadge. As you can see this means that, at least for me, the total badge has got easier. As can be seen from the points when are now consistently down in the 9000-10000 range rather than the 16000.
However by making them a bit more bite sized (although 1-2 hours once you’ve completed all the prerequisites is still a bit of time) it makes them much more approachable. I am far more likely to take on a Superbadge that I can complete in one night that one of the old monsters that takes a bit more effort to build up to. A good example would be the Lightning Web Components Specialist Superbadge. This is one of the handful I have left to do. It’s one I can do (both technically and I’ve completed all the prerequisites), It’s in an area I am interested in, But it’s 16000 points. It’s massive. So it’s still yo be done. Were this 4 separate Superbadge units I’d have done them by now
Not all Badges are Equal
The Apex Specialist badge is 13000 points and takes some time. The Advanced Apex Specialist badge is 16000 points and even harder. The Selling with Sales Cloud Specialist is 7000 points and is 90% data entry. It can be completed in a couple of hours. This disparity in complexity is somewhat disheartening (but does make for some very cheap points if you are levelling up).
Supersets?
Why are there only 4 Super Sets? And why is one this a Billing Super Set? Is Billing really a quarter of Trailhead?
Where is the Flow Super Set? There are probably more Flow Superbadges than any other subject.
It feels like Super Sets are a concept that was launched and then somewhat abandoned.
What’s Missing
The most obvious Superbadge or badges that I’d like to see added are in the AI area. Maybe we’ll see these in 2024