⚡ What’s New for Strategy Designers in Winter ’26?
More scenarios where you define how AI, Agentforce agents, and Einstein features fit into an overall platform roadmap and governance model.
Increased focus on how Data Cloud, integrations, and unified profiles drive experience strategy across Sales, Service, Marketing, and custom apps.
More questions about translating discovery insights into measurable business outcomes, KPIs, and phased roadmaps aligned with stakeholder priorities.
Salesforce Platform Strategy Designer Exam Guide
Design Experience & Platform Strategies that Deliver Business Outcomes
The Salesforce Certified Platform Strategy Designer credential validates your ability to use design methods, research, and systems thinking to create multi-cloud experience strategies that align with business goals, technical constraints, and human-centered design principles on the Salesforce Platform.
📊 Exam at a Glance
Exam Domains & Weightage (High-Level View)
1. Discovery & Research
~23%This domain focuses on how you understand the problem space, stakeholders, and context before suggesting Salesforce solutions.
- Planning and conducting stakeholder interviews and workshops.
- Identifying personas, jobs-to-be-done, and pain points across journeys.
- Mapping current-state processes, systems, and data flows.
- Framing the right problem statements and opportunity areas.
- Prioritizing use cases using impact vs. effort and value frameworks.
Tip: Expect scenario questions where the “right” next step is more discovery, not a rush into solutioning.
2. Experience & Platform Strategy
~32%Here the exam evaluates your ability to design end-to-end experience strategies and make recommendations about how Salesforce products fit together.
- Aligning platform capabilities (Sales, Service, Experience Cloud, Data Cloud, AI, Slack, etc.) with business goals.
- Defining north-star experience visions and principles.
- Choosing when to use out-of-the-box features vs. custom build.
- Evaluating trade-offs: scalability, complexity, license impacts, and maintainability.
- Creating platform roadmaps and release waves that balance quick wins and long-term value.
Tip: Your answer should usually reflect multi-cloud thinking, not just a single org or app.
3. Innovation, Prototyping & Concept Testing
~20%This domain covers how you explore and validate possible solutions before committing the organization to a particular approach.
- Using design methods (ideation, co-creation, sketching) to generate options.
- Choosing fidelity: when to use journey maps, wireframes, or interactive prototypes.
- Testing concepts with users and stakeholders, and capturing feedback.
- Ensuring accessibility, equity, and ethical considerations are included.
- Incorporating AI/automation ideas while respecting trust and guardrails.
4. Operationalization & Change Enablement
~15%Strategy is only valuable if it can be executed. This domain focuses on how your strategy becomes real in an organization.
- Partnering with Admins, Architects, and PMs on implementation plans.
- Defining governance models, decision-making forums, and design standards.
- Planning adoption tactics: training, communication, champions, feedback loops.
- Considering support, scalability, and technical debt management in your recommendations.
5. Measurement, Value & Continuous Improvement
~10%Finally, the exam checks your ability to define success metrics and ensure the strategy can adapt over time.
- Defining KPIs that align with business outcomes and user experience goals.
- Designing measurement plans using Salesforce analytics and telemetry.
- Setting up feedback mechanisms for ongoing improvement.
- Communicating impact back to executives and sponsors.
Percentages above are grouped at a high level based on the public exam outline; Salesforce may adjust them in future releases.
📝 Sample Platform Strategy Designer Questions
💡 Practice with Scenario-Based Questions
These questions are not from the actual exam but mirror the style and reasoning required. Focus on why an option is best aligned with strategy, governance, and human-centered design.
Question 1 – Discovery & Research
A global sales organization wants “a single 360° view of the customer” and believes implementing Salesforce will automatically provide it. During discovery, you notice data is scattered across legacy CRMs, spreadsheets, and separate support tools. What should you do first as a Strategy Designer?
✓ Correct Answer: C) Facilitate a workshop to map current-state data sources, ownership, and usage.
Before proposing a platform strategy, you must understand the current data landscape, who owns which systems, and how data is used. A structured workshop helps align stakeholders on reality, uncover constraints, and inform a realistic roadmap toward a 360° view.
Question 2 – Experience & Platform Strategy
A customer wants to launch a partner program quickly and asks if they should build a custom portal on Heroku. Their requirements include authenticated partner access, opportunity collaboration, and sharing a curated library of enablement content. What strategic recommendation best aligns with the Salesforce Platform?
✓ Correct Answer: A) Recommend Experience Cloud with a Partner Central template as the primary solution.
Experience Cloud with a partner template is purpose-designed for authenticated partner collaboration, opportunity visibility, and content sharing while leveraging the core data model and security of Salesforce. It aligns with the platform strategy and reduces custom technical debt.
Question 3 – Operationalization & Change
You’ve co-created a future-state experience blueprint with business leaders, but the organization has a history of low adoption on previous Salesforce projects. Which approach best supports successful operationalization of your strategy?
✓ Correct Answer: B) Embed change management into the roadmap, including champions, training, and feedback loops.
A Platform Strategy Designer takes a holistic view and ensures change enablement is part of the strategy: champions, training plans, communications, and continuous feedback. This increases the chances that your carefully designed experiences will actually be adopted and sustained.
🎯 4–6 Week Study Plan for Platform Strategy Designer
Read the official exam guide and Trailhead modules on Salesforce Designer / Strategy Designer. Practice stakeholder mapping, journey mapping, and current-state process diagrams using a real or sample organization.
Pick 1–2 end-to-end journeys (for example, lead-to-cash or case lifecycle) and design a north-star vision, future-state blueprint, and phased roadmap. Explicitly decide where each Salesforce product fits and why.
Work through scenario questions, summarize 2–3 strategy case studies in slide form, and practice explaining your recommendations in business language. Focus on trade-offs, not just features.
💡 Exam & Real-World Success Tips
On every question, ask: What is the real outcome we’re trying to achieve? and Which option best balances value, feasibility, and risk?
Strategy design is about people as much as platforms. Answers that demonstrate empathy for users and stakeholders are usually closer to what the exam expects.
Get used to tying designs to KPIs: faster resolution times, higher NPS, increased win rate, etc. The exam loves value-centric language.
Salesforce Platform Strategy Designer – FAQ
Who is the Platform Strategy Designer exam for?
This exam is aimed at professionals who lead experience and platform strategy on Salesforce: solution owners, senior consultants, product managers, business architects, and designers who work across multiple clouds and teams.
Do I need UX or Architect certifications first?
They’re not mandatory, but having experience as an Admin, Consultant, Architect, or UX Designer makes this exam significantly easier. You should already be comfortable with core Salesforce concepts and collaboration with technical teams.
How is this different from the UX Designer certification?
UX Designer goes deep on user research, IA, and interface-level design. Platform Strategy Designer zooms out to business outcomes, multi-cloud strategy, roadmaps, and governance. Many people choose to earn both credentials to cover “zoomed-in” and “zoomed-out” design perspectives.
How much hands-on Salesforce experience do I need?
While there is no strict requirement, most successful candidates have at least 2–3 years of Salesforce implementation experience, including workshops, roadmap work, and cross-cloud solution design conversations with stakeholders.