Is Being a ‘T-shaped’ Person Still Enough?
Why having one in-depth skill may not cut it anymore
IDEO’s Chief Executive Tim Brown coined the term ‘T-shaped Person.’ This is in reference to IDEO’s method of hiring people for both their breadth and depth of experience. The design and engineering world ate this concept up, and for years, it has been the ideal for finding good candidates.
Brown gave an interview in Chief Executive Magazine saying,
The vertical stroke of the “T” is a depth of skill that allows them to contribute to the creative process. That can be from any number of different fields: an industrial designer, an architect, a social scientist, a business specialist or a mechanical engineer.
The horizontal stroke of the “T” is the disposition for collaboration across disciplines. It is composed of two things. First, empathy. It’s important because it allows people to imagine the problem from another perspective — to stand in somebody else’s shoes. Second, they tend to get very enthusiastic about other people’s disciplines, to the point that they may actually start to practice them. T-shaped people have both depth and breadth in their skills.
One can see how this is a valuable model to hold designers and engineers towards — it is very beneficial to have someone who can cross disciplines and work well with all departments, but to still have a deep understanding of a certain skill that they specialized in. People have idolized this person in comparison to the ‘I-shaped’ person, who has deep experience and knowledge in one area, but doesn’t have the broader collaboration skills a ‘T-shaped’ person does.
Being in grad school as a UX designer, the idea of becoming a ‘T-shaped’ person has been lectured to us over and over again — from both teachers and industry professionals. However, I have noticed a shift lately in defining exactly what ‘shape’ person is the ideal hire in 2017. From the sounds of it, ‘T-shaped’ just isn’t cutting it anymore. It is insufficient in a an age of nonstop innovation to be ‘T-shape.’ If this is the case, what shape is desirable?
Recently I was told ‘T-shaped’ was out and ‘pi-shaped’ was in. Pi-shaped meaning that now you are strong in 2 separate skill sets. This often plays out in the form of strong visual design skills paired with front-end development skills. These ‘pi-shaped’ people are a powerful addition to the team who can move quickly and prototype as they go, learning and advancing with every step.
In leadership, it seems to be the case that now ‘X-shaped’ people are the ones sought after. These rare unicorns are rooted in the depth and mastery of their subject knowledge and professional esteem and credibility, and can support diverse teams. They collaborate very well with ‘T-shaped’ people, but without their guidance, ‘T-shaped’ people can be unproductive. The military coined a term called, ‘swarming,’ which means attacking a problem from different angles all at once. With X/T collaboration, swarming can be incredibly effective in interviewing, researching, brainstorming, sketching and prototyping in parallel — each activity informing the other. This skips the traditional linear path, and can find results much quicker.
If you aren’t feeling overwhelmed to be an oddly-shaped unicorn just yet — there’s another shape to be aware of. An agency executive recently told our class that the new thing to look for was ‘key-shaped’ people — which seems like a big jump from the ‘T-shape’ model. People are claiming the one solitary downward stroke of the ‘T’ is simply insufficient — one must have skills in more than one disciplinary area. The ‘key-shaped’ person possess several areas of disciplinary skills with varying degrees of depth. It is common for them to have one very deep area of discipline, but it is accompanied by those other disciplines so as to make it not their only capability. These various areas become the ‘teeth’ of the key. The executive described it as being the ‘key’ to unlock business problems for the company.
The advantages of being ‘key-shaped’ seem to be that “as the number of teeth increase…they support the ability to translate knowledge, collaborate and work with others from dissimilar backgrounds.” Having these multiple areas of expertise also increases your likelihood of creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills.
So, is it enough to be a ‘T-shaped’ person in today’s fast-paced and competitive market? Maybe — but it definitely looks like there is a shift underfoot, and higher expectations are being placed on designers and individuals to bring a large variety of skills to a position. The good thing is, a ‘T-shape’ is a great base to have, and is the starting point to shift into all of these other shapes — so if you’re a ‘T-shaped’ person, you’re already in a good position.
