To thrive in the current business climate, agility is key and organizations need adaptable teams that can pivot quickly. This requires team members with versatile skill sets possessing both deep expertise and broad capabilities. This is where the concept of T-shaped skills comes in.
First coined at pioneering design firm IDEO, this term refers to people with depth in one area yet able to collaborate across disciplines. T-shaped professionals blend specialization with big-picture thinking. They master core competencies while remaining flexible.
For Agile teams, these skills boost productivity and innovation. In this article, we’ll explore what T-shaped skills in Agile are, why they matter, and how to cultivate them. You’ll learn how to leverage this approach to enhance agility.
What is T-shaped Skills in Agile?
T-shaped skills refer to the combination of both deep expertise in one area and the ability to collaborate across disciplines. This model describes professionals who cultivate specialty skills while also remaining flexible and big-picture thinkers.
In Agile frameworks like Scrum that leverage cross-functional teams, T-shaped skills allow team members to complement each other and adapt quickly. Specialists like developers or testers have their core competencies. Yet they also possess general awareness and secondary skills across roles which empowers them to step in wherever needed.
For example, a programmer may know JavaScript inside out. But they can also lend a hand with testing, analysis, or release tasks as required. This cross-functionality enables teams to swarm on priorities. If one member is out, work continues seamlessly.
T-shaped professionals blend technical prowess with collaboration, communication, and business acumen. They contribute deep expertise while understanding how all the pieces fit together. This agility and versatility is crucial for organizations embracing Lean, iterative delivery.
Attributes of T-shaped People
T-shaped individuals demonstrate specific attributes that make them thrive in Agile environments:
- Deep Expertise: T-shaped individuals possess deep expertise in a technical skill like programming, testing, analysis, or design with strong capabilities in their core competency.
- Breadth of Knowledge: In addition to their primary skill, T-shaped professionals have a breadth of knowledge across multiple roles and disciplines, and they understand how different functions interact and overlap.
- Collaborative Mindset: With a collaborative mindset, T-shaped team members actively share information and insights focusing on collective success over individual accomplishment.
- Cross-Functional Thinking: Seeing the big picture, T-shaped workers grasp interconnections between domains. They can translate siloed perspectives into integrated solutions.
- Communication Skills: Strong communication and interpersonal skills allow T-shaped individuals to convey concepts, align efforts, and synthesize ideas.
- Growth Mindset: Eager to keep learning, T-shaped professionals constantly expand their skill sets, and embrace challenges as opportunities to develop new capabilities.
- Creativity: T-shaped workers apply creativity and innovation to solve problems by thinking outside the box.
- Adaptability: Comfortable with change, T-shaped team members easily pivot to new priorities and approaches and roll with flux.
- Customer Focus: Keeping the end-user in mind, T-shaped professionals aim to deliver maximum value. Customer empathy grounds their efforts.
What are Two Ways to Develop T-shaped Skills?
As an Agile professional, cultivating T-shaped skills takes proactive effort but pays dividends. Here are two key strategies:
Seek Cross-Training Opportunities
Raise your hand to shadow colleagues in other roles. Alternatively, offer peer mentoring to team members in your specialty. Pair program to exchange coding or testing knowledge.
Proactively request temporary assignments in unfamiliar areas. Short Sprints in new roles build empathy and expand your capabilities.
Target Skill Development
Reflect on your strengths and gaps. Look for specific skills to broaden your T:
- If technical, build business analysis and client interfacing skills.
- Pick up basics in a complementary role like QA or design.
- Strengthen soft skills like communication, collaboration, and strategic thinking.
- Take on formal training, online courses, and relevant reading.
- Get involved with industry groups or cross-functional initiatives.
Focus development on priority gaps while retaining your core specialization. This blending of depth and breadth accelerates agility.
How to Use T-shaped Skills in Agile
T-shaped skills supercharge agility by enabling nimble teams to swiftly adapt, synergize expertise, and deliver maximum value.
Here are some ways to leverage this versatile approach:
1. Assemble Cross-Functional Teams
Form Agile teams where each member has both a core competency like programming or testing, as well as supporting skills across roles. Blending specialized experts with flexible generalists creates a nimble group able to swarm priorities.
2. Promote Knowledge Sharing
Carve out time for peer mentoring, internal workshops, and skill swaps to foster knowledge transfer. Rotating team members through new responsibilities expands capabilities, and T-shaped skills spread as teammates teach and learn from each other.
3. Foster Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Bring together groups with diverse expertise through shared goals, informal interactions, and social events. T-shaped skills bridge silos as building connections between specialists forge trust and seamless collaboration.
4. Enable Dynamic Staffing
Leverage T-shaped skills for Agile staffing. This way, teammates with cross-training can smoothly pivot into new roles as needs shift. Adjust responsibilities fluidly in response to changing priorities.
5. Cultivate Continuous Learning
Nurturing versatility and adaptability empowers fluidity. Spark curiosity and a growth mindset by providing training, courses, and stretch opportunities to expand both technical and soft skills.
6. Grow Well-Rounded Generalists
While valuing specialized skills, nurture generalizing specialists with broad business acumen. Rotating members through diverse roles and initiatives builds customer empathy and big-picture perspective.
7. Collaborate on Solutions
Converge diverse expertise to generate integrated, creative solutions. T-shaped skills foster system-level thinking that breaks through siloed perspectives.
8. Clarify Interconnections
Illuminate links between activities using tools like value stream mapping. The cross-functional perspective of T-shaped skills grasps interdependencies between moving parts.
9. Simulate Flexibility
Conduct role-rotation simulations to build readiness for mobility. Reflecting on takeaways strengthens empathy and willingness to dynamically redeploy as needs dictate.
10. Reward Versatility
Recognize cross-functional contributions, not just specialization. Reinforce collaboration, knowledge sharing, and flexibility through well-rounded performance incentives.
What are T Shaped Skills Examples?
T-shaped skills in action may look like:
- A developer who is an expert in JavaScript while also having competency in writing test cases and SQL queries.
- A Business Analyst deeply skilled in requirements elicitation and process modeling who can also review UI designs and provide user feedback.
- A Project Manager proficient in risk analysis, scheduling, and budgeting who also grasps key technical concepts and participates in design discussions.
- A Tester specialized in exploratory testing and test automation who also contributes to story refinement sessions and helps replicate user issues.
- A UX Designer who masters research, prototyping, and usability testing while collaborating closely with developers on feasibility.
While the core competencies remain, team members stretch beyond their primary roles. A Business Analyst may not produce polished visual designs but can interpret wireframes and give useful feedback.
What is the Difference Between T-shaped and I-shaped Employees?
T-shaped and I-shaped skills represent opposite ends of a spectrum.
I-Shaped Professionals
I-shaped individuals possess deep expertise in a single domain but have limited ability to collaborate across disciplines. This makes their perspective remain siloed, and this narrow focus constrains agility.
For example, an I-shaped developer may excel at coding but lack interest in the bigger business context or user needs.
T-Shaped Professionals
In contrast, T-shaped professionals blend specialty skills with the ability to engage broader perspectives. They grasp the interconnected workflow. and contribute individual expertise while working flexibly across boundaries.
For instance, a T-shaped marketer combines marketing automation prowess with cross-functional collaboration on IT, design, and analytics.
Striking a Balance
Agile teams need a balance of I-shaped and T-shaped roles. However, T-shaped skills enable the collaboration, communication, and problem-solving vital for adaptability.
T-shaped workers amplify agility with their blend of depth and breadth. While I-shaped skills provide expertise, expanding capabilities expands possibilities.
Final Thoughts
Markets move quickly, and agility matters if businesses must keep pace. One way to enable it is T-shaped skills. Blending specialty depth and cross-discipline dexterity, T-shaped professionals masterfully merge expertise and collaboration.
For long-term adaptability, purposefully nurture these versatile capabilities to move beyond siloed thinking. Facilitate hands-on learning and brainstorming across teams, and help people expand technical and social skills.
With practice, individuals and organizations can evolve to thrive in ever-changing environments. Pursue T-shaped skills to equip for the future.
