MB-260: Microsoft Customer Data Platform Specialist

It’s been a while since I’ve taken an exam. Admittedly, this is for two reason. Firstly, the renewal process for exams now (as updated last year) is not to take it again, but rather to re-qualify through Microsoft Learn. The second reason is that I’ve been waiting for some new exams to come out (OK – there’s the DA-100, which is still on my list of things to do…).

Well, there’s a new exam on the block. In fact, it’s a different type of exam – this is a ‘Speciality’ exam, rather than focusing on a specific type of application. It’s the first of its kind, though there are likely to be more to follow in the future.

It’s the MB-260, which is all around Customer Data. That’s right – it’s not about how to do sales, or customer service, or something else. It’s about taking the (holistic) approach to ALL of the data that we can hold on customers, and do something with it.

The official page for it is at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/mb-260https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/mb-260. The specification for it is:

Candidates for this exam implement solutions that provide insights into customer profiles and that track engagement activities to help improve customer experiences and increase customer retention.

Candidates should have firsthand experience with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and one or more additional Dynamics 365 apps, Power Query, Microsoft Dataverse, Common Data Model, and Microsoft Power Platform. They should also have direct experience with practices related to privacy, compliance, consent, security, responsible AI, and data retention policy.

Candidates need experience with processes related to KPIs, data retention, validation, visualization, preparation, matching, fragmentation, segmentation, and enhancement. They should have a general understanding of Azure Machine Learning, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory.

Note that there’s quite a bit of Azure in there – it’s not just about Power Platform, Dataverse, or Dynamics 365. People who handle reporting on customer data should have various Azure skills as well.

There’s also a new type of badge that will be available:

At the time of writing, there are no official Microsoft Learning paths available to use to study. I do expect this to change in the near future, and will update this article when they’re out. However the objectives/sub-objectives are available to view from the main exam page, and I’d highly recommend going ahead & taking a good look at these.

As in my previous exam posts, I’m going to stress that it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else! ). I’ve tried to group things together as best as possible for the different subject areas.

Overall, I had 51 questions, which was towards the higher number of questions that I’ve experienced in my exams over the last year or so. There was only a single case study though.

Some of the naming conventions weren’t updated to the latest methods, which I would have expected. I still had a few references to ‘entities’ and ‘fields’ come up, though for the most part ‘tables’ and ‘columns’ were used. I guess it’s a matter of time to get everything up to speed with it.

• Differences between Audience Insights and Engagement Insights
  • What are the benefits of each
  • When would you use each one
  • What types of users will benefit from each type
  • How to create customer insights
• Environments
  • Types of environments
  • How to create a new environment
  • What options are available when creating an environment
  • What is possible to copy from an existing environment
• Relationships
  • Different types of relationships
  • What is each one used for
  • Limitations of different relationship types
• Business level measures vs customer level measures
  • What each one is, and what they’re used for
• Power Query
  • How to use
  • How to configure
  • How to load data
• Data mapping
  • Different types available to use
  • Scenarios each type should be used for
  • Limitations of each type
  • How to set it up
• Segments
  • What are segments, how are they set up, how are they used
    What are quick segments, how are they set up, how are they used
    What are segment overlaps, how are they set up, how are they used
    What are segment differentiators, how are they set up, how are they used
• Measures
  • What are measures, how are they set up, how are they used
• Data refresh
  • Automated vs manual options
  • Limitations of each type
  • Availability of each type
  • How to set up each type
  • How to apply each type
• Data Unification
  • What is this
  • How it can be used
  • How to set it up
  • Limitations of it
  • Process validation
  • Changing existing models
• AI for Audience Insights
  • What is this
  • What can it be used for
  • How to use it
  • Factors that can affect outcomes
• Security
  • Using Azure Key Vault
  • Capabilities of this
  • How to set it up
  • How to use it
• Dynamics 365
  • Capabilities for interacting with Dynamics 365
  • How to set it up
  • How to display data, and where it can be displayed
  • What actions users are able to carry out within Dynamics 365

Wow. It’s a lot of stuff. It’s definitely an exam that if you’re not already currently hands-on with the skills needed, I’d highly recommend you get a decent amount of experience with it before taking the exam!

I can’t tell you if I’ve passed it or not…YET!. Results aren’t going to be out for several months, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure how well I’ve actually done.

So, if you’re aiming to take it – I wish you the very best of luck, and let me know your experience!