The Picklist ?? Spring ‘25 Release Recap, Ecosystem Predictions, and Are Certs Still Relevant?

Happy New Year, everyone! The Picklist is back with our top headlines – highlights from the previous week for you to enjoy with a cup of coffee! ???

Are Salesforce Certifications Still Relevant? Top Voices Join the Great Cert Debate

What's the magic number when it comes to Salesforce certifications? We asked our community this question to find out what the ecosystem really thinks.

The overall sentiment? It depends. Inevitably, the value of certs is very much down to individual career paths, however, gaining a qualification in a relevant field is certainly no bad thing – especially for entry-level candidates who may even be required to have something like “Salesforce Admin” under their belt.?

On the flipside, there’s the worry that an endless list of completed certifications without evidence of related experience could in fact be seen as a red flag for employers, with further concerns about the potential devaluation of certs given the sheer volume now available.?

What’s clear is that hands-on experience isn't going anywhere. Ultimately, to succeed in a role you’re going to need to know how to apply your knowledge in a practical way. While certifications may help to consolidate and demonstrate this knowledge, they are no substitute for experience. In the same way, things like soft skills and cultural fit are likely to be deciding factors when it comes to hiring for a specific position, not certifications.?

Read More

Predictions for the Salesforce Ecosystem in 2025

The start of a new year can only mean one thing: goals and predictions for the year ahead. With an ecosystem as fruitful and everchanging as Salesforce’s, it can be hard to foresee the exciting new advancements and trends that will take shape, but here are our top five predictions so far:

• Big on M&A: A big contributor to Salesforce’s staggering growth is M&A acquisitions. It’s likely, due to innovation efforts, that we will continue to see Salesforce prioritize growth through M&A, especially as the cloud giant is sitting on around $10B in cash stockpiles.
• Agentforce as a slow burner: Agentforce is set to be a monumental product, but we are still in the early days and it will take time to become fully operational. However, the future looks promising.
• Growth to Increase on All Fronts: Growth has declined from a consistent 25% over the past 24-odd years, to just under 10% over the past few quarters. However, innovations like Agentforce are likely to contribute significantly to ongoing growth.
• Job market to remain steady: After the crash of 2021-2022, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a bounce back anytime soon, especially with the disparity between supply and demand. However, it’s unlikely to tank either, meaning that things are likely to remain steady.
• Salesforce ecosystem M&A activity: We predict that M&A activity isn’t going to be a trend for Salesforce only, but the rest of the ecosystem too.?

Read More

A message from?Salesforce

Unify your teams and data across marketing, sales, service, and commerce.

Activate Salesforce Foundations in your account to get access to Agentforce and key features in multiple Salesforce clouds for free.

Activate Now

Release, Release! Here’s Your Spring ‘25 Recap?

Here they are in all their glory: our comprehensive overviews of the Spring ‘25 release notes:?

• Hottest Salesforce Spring '25 Features for Admins
• New Salesforce Flow Features in Spring ‘25
• Salesforce Spring ‘25 Updates for Developers
• Spring ‘25 Updates Salesforce Marketers Need to Know
• Sales Cloud: Top Salesforce Spring '25 Features
• Service Cloud: Top Salesforce Spring '25 Features

Salesforce Releases Agentforce for Retail and Retail Cloud with Modern POS

The expansion of Agentforce is already in full swing this year with the release of Agentforce for Retail and Retail Cloud with Modern POS.?

The first, Agentforce for Retail, includes a library of pre-built agent skills to help retailers create agents that automate time-consuming tasks such as order management and scheduling appointments.?

The second, Retail Cloud with Modern POS, is a cloud-based system that unites online and offline shopping data in a single platform, giving associates a “single entry point to serve shoppers better and faster”, according to Salesforce.?

The release of both products shows Salesforce’s dedication to using artificial intelligence to increase productivity within the retail sector. Most of the services offered will be made generally available throughout February and March 2025.?

Read Now?

10 Steps to Developing Salesforce Solution Designs

Solution design is a crucial part of Salesforce projects. While crafting well-architected Salesforce solutions is no small task, it can be broken down into manageable steps. Structuring your solution design process can help you produce more thoughtful designs and streamline how your team collaborates throughout the discovery and design phases of work.

Here are 10 key steps to keep in mind to ensure that each aspect of your solution design is validated and leverages Salesforce best practices:

• Requirements elicitation?
• Requirements validation?
• Managing scope?
• Solution “matching”?
• Gap analysis?
• Consider third-party tools?
• High-level solution design
• Solution validation
• Implementation planning
• Low-level solution design

Read More?