Note: This guide uses a lot of resources only available to Salesforce Partners that are extremely helpful, whenever possible I try to provide links; However, even without these partner resources, if you are confident in your knowledge of the topics covered, you should be able to pass this tough certification.
What is this certification?
Einstein Analytics Plus is a rebranded and redeployed feature for Salesforce consumers (it used to be called Wave Analytics). It encompasses three components:
Einstein Analytics: This is the package’s ETL and discovery tool. Through its Data Manager, you can bring in, modify, and publish data from different sources through the myriad of connectors that it offers for enterprise database solutions. Analytics is also able to produce the Steps, Lenses, and Dashboards that the tool is really all about, knowing your way around these areas are vital to pass the certification.
Einstein Discovery: This is the package’s semi-AI tool to analyze datasets and try to gain insight from it while presenting it in an easy to understand format. It consists on analysis of what happened, why it happened, what the software thinks will happen, and how to improve a certain variable you’ve given it (such as revenue, product sales, etc.)
Einstein Prediction Builder: This is their forecasting/predictor software. You can very much ignore this; this is nowhere in the exam.
Is this test easy?
No. Especially if you have never used Salesforce before, this test will destroy you unless you are properly prepared. If you have previous experience with Salesforce, it will help you minimally. I would recommend at least 3 weeks of studying before braving into taking this test if you plan to pass it your first time around.
How can I pass this certification and be successful in life?
Luckily, I’ve devised a 6-step plan for you to become the expert you will be marketed to be. The order on how you do the following tasks is up to you, but I highly recommend doing #1 first, everything else after that can be at your pleasure.
Take notes, a lot of them, specifically on terminology, and go over them as often as you can. The sooner you are comfortable speaking the language of Salesforce Einstein the sooner you will be ready for the test. Remember the certification is all multiple-choice/multiple-selection, so it is more important you know what is where than how to write a SAQL query (though knowing that is also minimally important, specifically about 5% important I would say).
Read through the TrailMix modules. I know it is easy and tempting to just complete the steps in the modules and check your work and move on, but the modules really cover lots of ground on the capacity of a tool and when it should be used.
Highly unlikely to pass this certification without utilizing partner resources, the TrailMix itself won’t be enough, so go through the partner items I list, and get that partner account so you can access them. If you don’t have partner access, I have attached as many links that are publicly available as possible.
Certification preparation steps
Complete the TrailMix for Einstein analytics plus WITHOUT the Super Badges. This TrailMix can be found here: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/users/ea-trails/trailmixes/learn-einstein-analytics-plus. It is called “Learn Einstein Analytics Plus” in case the URL changes.
With a partner account, go here: https://partnernavigator.salesforce.com/s/einsteinanalytics
Go into the “Grow your expertise” section.
Under the “Learn Specialization Skills” column there is a link to a video called “CERT PREP Einstein Analytics Discovery Consultant- Fast Path OVERVIEW RECORDING”. Download and watch the video.
This video can also be accessed here
Under the same column, the slides of the video are available under the name “CERT PREP Einstein Analytics Discovery Consultant- Fast Path OVERVIEW PPT”, go through those slides and click on every single link there is in that PowerPoint.
The creator of that video isn’t kidding around, he handed a lot of keys to the kingdom in those links. Read every article/watch every video and take diligent notes on these sections specifically.
This PPT can also be found here
Under the same “Grow your expertise” section, there is a column called “Discover Webinars”
click the link named “EA Academy Class Recordings” and watch all of the videos.
Take good notes on these as well.
These webinars can also be found here
You should now attempt and complete the Super Badges in the TrailMix specified in #1 above. I believe they are highly necessary to nail down some of the more important concepts on dataflow creation and SAQL syntax.
At this point your knowledge of the tool should be pretty robust. Go to the official guide to the exam.
Under “Recommended training and references” click on any topics you don’t feel confident about and read on them straight from the documentation. The documentation is your Best Friend Forever for this test, so many questions are answered there and its perfect if confidence is low in a singular topic.
Are there any practice tests available?
As of June 2019, I could not find a single practice test for the certification. However, Salesforce did a trial group before launching the certification that included some “accreditation” exams, the link is in the partner learning path I’ve already linked to previously, but I’ll place a link below. They don’t score these anymore, but a couple of questions there are tangentially related or are very similar to the test.
Focused Knowledge
I am going to list topics I found in the exam that you may want to concentrate in. These may change but I wanted to make sure you can focus your knowledge to the most important concepts in the exam.
Focus topics
Data Layer
Data Sync: Understand what it does, its limitations, how it affects dataflows, how to optimize it, etc.
Dataflows: Know them in and out. One of the super badges is critical for this, know exactly what each function in a data flow does and how it affects the underlying data.
I would focus heavily on the differences between edge marts, sfdc digests, and non-sfdc digests.
Pay attention to the data transformation tools such as append, flatten, etc.
Understand the difference between Dataflows and Recipes and the power/purpose of each.
Security
Encryption: How does encryption affect current data? How does it affect future uploaded/ created data? What keys does it use to encrypt in Einstein analytics as opposed to overall salesforce?
Sharing Inheritance: How does the use of Sharing Inheritance affect the use of Security Predicates in datasets? Is the opportunity object special
Security Predicates: How does it manifest for users when they fulfill a predicate vs when they don’t.
Inter-App sharing: Differences between Viewers, Managers, and Administrators.
How does Einstein handle visualization of rows that the user isn’t approved to view?
How does a user go about creating geo-JSON maps, why are they useful?
Administration
Migration: What are the different ways one can migrate a dashboard in Salesforce?
Limits: What are the limits of Einstein Analytics? (Ex: How many dataflows can you have at a time? How about with data sync enabled?
What is a permission set vs a permission set license and how do these tools allow for access management implementation?
Understand what the Integration and Security user roles are in the importing of data into Einstein
What are the differences between profiles, groups, and users in terms of the administration of their permissions to utilize Einstein?
Dashboard Design
Performance: How can you make a page in a dashboard load faster? How can you assess the performance of a dashboard?
What is the purpose of a dashboard, and how should people react and navigate one?
What are the components of an app template when exported into its many JSON definition files? What are their roles?
How can dashboard layouts help development of dashboards?
Dashboard Implementation
Lenses: Know lenses in and out, what can you accomplish with them? What are the different forms of visualization? How are they different from steps? Can you affect the fields from a dataset from a lens? Know compare tables.
Progressive Disclosure: what is it?
XMD: What can you accomplish with the XMD file of a dataset?
Bindings: Result vs Selection Binding and how to implement them. This is a big topic in another super badge.
Dashboard inspector: What can you accomplish with this tool? What can you learn from it?
Timeseries: get familiar with the structure of this SAQL feature.
APIs: Know what can be accomplished from the REST, SOAP, and External Data APIs
How do the coalesce and fill functions in SAQL help you?
Discovery Story Design
Be familiar with every step of the story creator UI when creating a story form a dataset
Understand what the GINI coefficient, and other model metrics, mean
Understand how to optimize the story building process in terms of data preparation
Understand how to deploy a story into a salesforce object
Understand how to improve the story through the recommendations given by the wizard
Understand how Discovery handles collinearity and what you can do about it
Understand the output of a story, and be able to interpret it in business terms
How can you deploy a story into a salesforce object?
Focusing on the areas above will guarantee you passing this exam. It is important to have in-depth knowledge of the data migration portion of the Einstein Analytics platform, as it is tested extensively and one of the heavier subjects the exam is weighted on. After that, the administration and security portions are what were a bit more challenging for me since I was new to Salesforce when I started learning Einstein, but they aren’t the heaviest objects. If you feel confident on your interpretation of discovery stories, how they are made, and how to implement them in salesforce, you probably are.
Just passed the certification and I was able to help in a small way? Are you having a tough time and want some help? Are you just interested in discussing all things technology? Please contact me, I’d love to hear from you on twitter @AbrahamLAv
About the author: Abraham Leal is a consultant and developer at Sense Corp. As a consultant Abraham has worked in data cleansing and engineering projects involving Master Data Management, Data Streaming, and Oracle Database Migrations. He is heavily involved in internal product development utilizing Python, Java, and ReactJS and holds certifications in AWS Services and Salesforce Einstein.