Loading

Product Development Outsourcers (PDOs)

Publiceringsdatum: Apr 10, 2026
Beskrivning

Audience: Consulting and ISV Partners.

ISVs trust Product Development Outsourcers (PDOs) to build their commercial apps as well as to provide other valuable services like training, support, and marketing their apps. ISVs trust Product Development Outsourcers (PDOs) to provide expertise in building commercial apps, as well as other valuable services like training, support, marketing, or selling their apps. As a PDO partner in the Salesforce PDO Program, you can leverage specialized training, increased access to the the Salesforce ISV team, and benefits from both the Consulting and ISV tracks of the Salesforce Partner Program.

Joining the Salesforce PDO Program

For PDOs seeking to join the new Salesforce PDO Program, there are two options based on your Competency distinction:

Specialist PDO

Specialist is the level through which PDOs enter the Salesforce PDO Program based on minimum requirements, and receive special promotion through the AgentExchange Collections page.

Requirements

  • Register for the Consulting Partner Program

  • Achieve Accredited Competency:

    • Have a minimum of 1 credentialed individual and have submitted at least 3 projects with any PDO specializations with a CSAT >4.2 in the last 24 months via the Partner Community

  • To have your projects verified by the Salesforce PDO team, please email pdo@salesforce.com to set up a 30-minute meeting where you will need to present the following in order to be approved:

    • Company background

    • Portfolio of project(s) completed

    • Specific ISV projects

    • Expertise and specialization

    • PDO strategy

Benefits

  • Consulting Track Benefits based your tier in the Consulting Track

  • Listed on the AgentExchange Collections page

Note: Tiers in the PDO program are evaluated on a quarterly basis by the Salesforce PDO team.

Cloud Expert PDO

Cloud Expert is our top level for PDOs in the Salesforce PDO Program. Having achieved additional requirements beyond Specialist level, they receive even greater benefits to tap into new customer bases and growth opportunities.

Requirements

  • Registered for the Consulting Partner Program

  • Registered for the AgentExchange ISV Program

  • Expert Competency:

    • Have a minimum of 5 credentialed individuals and have submitted at least 10 projects (any specialization) with an average CSAT of >4.4 in the last 24 months via the Partner Community

  • To have your projects verified by the Salesforce PDO team, please email pdo@salesforce.com with the following details for each of your +10 valid projects:

    • the name of the ISV, the name of the application,

    • the name of the project (as recorded in the Partner Community), and a description of the project scope.

  • Our team will review your submission and inform you of the outcome

Benefits

  • Select Tier benefits in the AgentExchange ISV Program

  • An official PDO badge to display on your AgentExchange listing

  • Access to product pilots and exclusive sessions on platform extensibility influencing the product roadmap

  • Eligibility to be included in the Co-Innovation Fund

  • Introductions to ISVs for strategic engagements

  • Quarterly business reviews with the Salesforce PDO team to review pipeline, in-flight deals, and success stories

  • PDO-specific content in the ISV First Call Deck and enablement material to educate partners on the benefits of the PDOs

  • Listed on the AgentExchange collections page

Competency Program & Level Requirements:

The Competency program synthesizes three aspects of a partner’s expertise in an area into a measure of deployable expertise that is easy to understand:

  • Knowledge: Technical understanding of Salesforce products and their applications, configurations, and administration. Measured by credentials

  • Experience: Accrued knowledge from implementing Salesforce products in different environments and with different customers. Measured by relevant projects completed

  • Quality: Consistency with which partners are able to deliver customer success. Measured by CSAT achieved on those projects

There are 7 PDOs specializations aligned with typical Product LifeCycle phases:

Ideation/Business Model/Value Prop:

You help ISVs define what kind of product to build, and come up with the right Epics/Stories for their product by providing:

  • Product Discovery, Product Ideation, Design workshop

  • Business Model, Total Addressable Market (TAM), and Product Market Fit Assessment

Architecture & UX Design:

You help ISVs define the Technical Design to support their product's Epics and User Stories by providing:

  • Tech Review Assistance

  • Mockups of how the app may look, PoC/Wireframes as needed

  • A Technical Design and Architecture Document

Development/QA/Release Management/Security Review:

You provide ISVs:

  • Ongoing agile development, test automation, release automation for the ISV product

  • Interact with ISV DevOps team, and help set them up on Salesforce CI/CD (Continous Integration/Continous Delivery) best practices

  • Assist with Security Review testing, questionnaire, and issue resolution during the security review process

AgentExchange Listing, Trials, and Demo:

You get ISVs ready for success after development by:

  • Assisting in creating their AgentExchange Listing via the Partner Community

  • Helping the ISV Sales Engineers setup demo orgs that make use of trial technology (eg. LMA, TMO, TestDrive) to set them up for turning leads into closed deals

Product Support:

You provide Tier 2/3 Technical support for ISVs once the product is released:

  • Ongoing support and maintenance

  • Assistance with installation and configuration into key accounts

  • Ongoing assistance with documentation based on customer feedback

  • Establish Product feedback loop to optimize product installation

Package Review & Optimization:

You ensure a product is optimized for the long-term, and makes best use of recent or upcoming Salesforce features:

  • Architecture, UX concerns for existing apps to ensure scalability and usability

  • Introducing new Salesforce release technology where appropriate to ensure customer success and satisfaction

  • Testing & Release Management Optimization and Guidance

Marketing Support:

You are helping ISVs get the data they need to properly Go To Market by:

  • Helping ISVs to leverage the different ISV tools such as the Partner Business Org (PBO) and AgentExchange Analytics.

  • Providing technical marketing inputs as needed that the ISV partner can then make customer facing

  • Help define, prioritize or execute go-to-market strategies

PDO Listing on the AgentExchange:

PDO listings can be found on the Consulting page of the AgentExchange by selecting the “PDO/AgentExchange” check box under the Salesforce Expertise filter on the upper lefthand side of the page. There is also a dedicated AgentExchange collection for PDOs that organizes partners into either specialist or cloud expert.

View the full Salesforce PDO Program overview on the Salesforce PDO Program page in the Partner Community.

Lösning

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a Product Development Outsourcer (PDO)?
A: Partner Development Outsourcers (PDOs) build ISV commercial apps as well as provide other valuable services like training, support, marketing and selling ISV apps.

Q: How do I become a PDO?
A: To become a PDO, you need to sign up here for the Salesforce Consulting Partner Program. After enrolling, you need to submit at least 1 project with any PDO specializations with a CSAT >4.2 in the last 24 months. More details about Competency are available here.

Q: I'm having issues signing up as a Salesforce Consulting Partner. Who can help?
A: If you are having issues signing up as a Consulting Partner, please email partnercommunitysupport@salesforce.com.

Q: Why do I need to register as a Consulting partner in order to become a PDO?

A: The Consulting Track of the Salesforce Partner Program offers a robust set of resources, training, and tools, enabling PDOs to develop expertise around specific business functions, product areas, and industries and get started servicing ISVs. The Salesforce PDO Program leverages Competency to help track projects our PDO partners have delivered to ISVs. Many PDOs are already on the AgentExchange, so if you are already registered as a Consulting partner, no further registration is needed.

Q: Can we report multiple products and phases at a large product as different projects?
A: Yes.

Q: What are the fees for reporting PDO projects?
A: No additional fee for reporting PDO projects.

Q: Can we report our own AgentExchange Partner (ISV) products as projects?
A: No, we cannot collect CSAT scores on those projects.

Q: Does it matter if the app is a free app?
A: No. You can report free apps as projects as long as they are listed on the AgentExchange (publicly or privately).

Q. Does it matter if the app is a Connector only app?
A: No. You can report Connector apps as long as they are listed on the AgentExchange (publicly or privately).

Q: Can we report a Lightning component as an app?
A: Yes. As long as it is listed on the Component Exchange.

Q: Can we only report new projects or can we also report the ones we are working on?
A: You can go back 2 years to report your projects. Please report only those projects which have, at the minimum, cleared the first phase and gone through the Managed Package/Security Review stage.

Q: Will the ISV Partner I completed the project get a request for a survey?
A: Yes. As soon as you report a project and provide contacts, the ISV will receive a survey link. As a best practice, we recommend letting your contacts at the ISV know in advance.

Q: When can AgentExchange visitors search/filter for PDOs?
A: Yes the AgentExchange Consulting page has a dedicated filter ‘PDO/AgentExchange’ - you will appear on this page based on your PDO Partner Competency achievements. It will also be listed on your Expertise tab. We also recommend that you update your Consulting Partner AgentExchange Listing to include PDO on several fields. Many PDOs are already following this process and show up when someone searches for PDO in the Consulting partners section of the AgentExchange. Here are some tips on listing keywords:

  • If you include a keyword anywhere in your listing, your listing appears in the search results for that keyword

  • Generally, a keyword’s relevance is increased by appearing earlier in the listing

  • Generally, a keyword’s relevance is increased by appearing more than once in the listing

  • Note that listing a keyword multiple times in a row does not improve the listing's ranking


Q: How do I create an AgentExchange Listing?
A: Create your AgentExchange Listing through the Publishing Console of the Partner Community.

Q: Can we track the individuals in our organization that hold specific certifications (Platform Developer I, Platform Developer II)?
A: Yes! This can be tracked through the Business Console of the Partner Community. Keep in mind - you need the "Manage Partnership" permission to access this feature.

Q: We do not work with Customer Administrators. Who do we mention on the Project submission page?
A: Please mention the product manager or your contact on the Salesforce ISV team.

Q: What should I report for the number of users?
A: You should report the average number of users, per customer org, the AgentExchange Partner (ISV) expects for their product.

Q: Can we get credit for Annual Contract Value (ACV) on the PDO projects we worked on?
A: ACV has not been included as a criteria for PDO projects.

Q: Do Certified Technical Architects (CTAs) provide additional value to our status?
A: Yes. CTAs give you more points and help you achieve status in a higher tier in the Consulting Partner Program sooner. Keep in mind - they do not count towards your PDO requirements.

Q: How do referrals for PDOs work with this program?
A: Salesforce may refer Cloud Expert PDOs to ISVs at different points of their ISV partner journey.

Q: Is there a way to see our status on Registered Projects?
A: You can track the number of completed projects with completed customer surveys in the Business Console of the Partner Community. You can send an email to navigator@salesforce.com to get the latest information on your registered Projects.

Q: Is there a deadline for submitting our projects?
A: No. We review attainment weekly and include projects with CSAT based on two years from the project end date.

Q: Will partners who took transition tests for certifications qualify for the certification requirements?
A: Yes.

Q: What if an AgentExchange Partner (ISV) doesn’t want to list on the AgentExchange?
A: At the minimum, a private listing is required to go through the Security Review process. If the AgentExchange Partner doesn’t want to make the listing public, they need to respond to the CSAT survey for the project to count.

Q: What should I do if I have additional questions?
A: Please reach out to pdo@salesforce.com.

Additional Resources

Knowledge-artikelnummer

000391772

 
Laddar
Salesforce Help | Article