Categories: design

Often I hear that the best type of designers and problem solvers are T-shaped people. For those unfamiliar with the the term, a T-shaped person according to David Darmano, are people with a depth of knowledge in creativitiy, but also a high level of curiosity, empathy and ability that lets you quickly branch out and become proficient in other areas. In summary, T-shaped people posses skills and knowledge that are both deep and broad.

To find more information on T-shaped people, wordspy.com led me to this citation:

“T-shaped” communications planners, with a background in media, have a deep understanding of media, and a broad understanding of the other disciplines within the marketing spectrum. They might not have a deep understanding of the minutiae of direct marketing, but they would broadly understand the repercussions of its inclusion in a through-the-line campaign.

To continue the alphabetical analogy, if the ideal communications planner is “T-shaped”, then a classic media agency employee is “I-shaped” — with a deep understanding of their discipline, but not necessarily of any other — and a classic client-side employee “hyphen-shaped”, their role requiring a broad understanding of many disciplines rather than specific knowledge of one.

“The worry is that media agencies are trying to do a “T” job with “I” people.”

— Angus Bannerman, in Marketing Week, October 2, 2003

More and more media agencies and corporate companies are looking for T-shaped people as a key to innovation and to spur creativity. By not acquiring these type of thinkers successfully, businesses fail to create such iconic products like the Apple iPhone or Ninetendo Wii. For example, in the Korea Times, LG Economic Research Institute states that South Korean companies are technically advanced, however they lack T-shaped people. Engineers who do not understand the market, who do not have an empathetic perspective of the world, who and do not possess a multidisciplinary approach to design face issues innovating. As a result, their competition is always “10 steps ahead”.

I think this statement made by LG Economic Research Institute is unfair. Korean companies do make great products, just look at Samsung’s DLP and Plasma televisions or their mobile devices. During the product development and hiring processes, management may not acknowledged the importance of or effectively find T-shaped thinkers, therefor the blame shouldn’t be placed solely upon the engineers.

If more businesses are searching for T-shaped work environments, what methods do businesses use to detect T-shaped thinkers during an interview?