This year one of the rapports we are earshot more and more is T-shaped equipment. One of the most relevant topics for modern companies in all sectors is how to foster innovation and best practices in software development by market attractiveness is maintained and the team is retained. Today I will talk about the advantages of T-shaped teams and how you can organize your team to launch products more quickly and maintain shared knowledge within the organization. techgeeksblogger
What are T-shaped teams?
The term T-shaped team was popularized a couple of years ago
by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, a Californian design company known for its
innovative practices. The T-shaped team concept describes the skills of a
person or team in the workforce. The vertical bar in the letter T represents
the depth of related hard skills and experience in a single field, while the
horizontal bar refers to soft skills and the ability to collaborate across
disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise
other than one's own.
For example, companies began to focus on having full-stack
engineers - someone capable of tackling a larger part of the system - knowledge
from frontend and backend development to continuous integration and deployment
of those solutions.
Companies need adaptable people, who can think outside their
own bubble of expertise and shape their approach as the business evolves. For
example, our Apiumhub T-shaped team combines extensive general knowledge of
software development in Frontend, Backend, DevOps, iOS and Android with a
specialized focus on software architecture.
Think of it like a hospital. In a hospital, there are
general practitioners who can see and work with a wide range of patients and
illnesses, but there are also specialist physicians who care for people with
heart conditions. In a T-shaped team, the broad skills and knowledge of the
hospital generalist, and the focused efforts of a specialist, are combined into
a single team or person.
Becoming a T-shaped team or a T-shaped person is a major
achievement. This saves the company time and money.
It is important to note that at Apiumhub we believe that the
deep vertical specialist is critical, that is why clients actually come to us,
but the vertical aspect allows us to better communicate with other teams and
that is why clients stay with us for years.
Characteristics of T-shaped equipment
The T-shaped kit has an interesting variety of features.
Here are some:
•Enthusiastic: They like to learn and are enthusiastic about
acquiring new skills or abilities.
•Collaboration: T-team members possess a wealth of knowledge
across disciplines and are adept at working with different types of people to
solve problems.
•Empaths: T-shaped team members can see and relate to the
point of view of others.
•Visionary - Because you have a wide range of skills and
knowledge, you can see the future of a project and how everything can fit
together.
•Open minded: T-team members are willing to listen to the
ideas and perspectives of others.
Advantages of T-shaped equipment
Employing T-shaped professionals is beneficial for a
company. With their basic competencies and their ability to learn quickly,
T-shaped teams excel at their core responsibilities, but can also perform other
tasks effectively. In this way, they contribute to the growth of the company as
a whole. Specifically, they offer the following advantages:
•Flexibility
T-shaped teams are flexible enough to take on new tasks and
help other members of your team to ensure that overall goals and objectives are
met.
•Collaboration
By learning the skills of others, the T-shaped teams also
learn the specific language of each domain. This helps teams communicate more
effectively and understand the situation from different perspectives. T-shaped
people are able to deal with other people and understand their needs as a
whole, thanks to their ability to discuss issues throughout the company. They
understand how others work and the reasons for doing things in a certain way.
“By learning the skills of others, we also learn each
other's specific language. This helps us communicate more effectively as we
better understand different perspectives. " - Jason Yip
•Empathy
One of the key things that differentiates T-team members
from others is empathy. This is not only good for company morale; one person is
also more likely to be involved in helping another to the point of being
willing to explore another discipline. For organizations that constantly
require a knowledge update, T-shaped teams are more likely to be multidisciplinary,
which means more skills to deploy based on your needs.
•Technical skills and social skills
In addition to technical skills, such as programming,
T-teams also possess soft skills, such as critical thinking, making them a
complete package.
•They see the big picture
T-people draw ideas and input from all team members to
rebuild a vision for the future. They are not limited to a single competition,
so they are able to look beyond a contribution and consider other influencing
factors. Their perspective is much broader than that of someone who is
responsible for a deep experience in a single service area.
•Good leaders
Since the members of a T-shaped team have strong soft skills
- attributes such as collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving,
teamwork, and others - they are also good leaders.
A team has to strike a balance of skill sets to maximize
effectiveness. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to organizing
teams. But it's important to recognize the vision, strategy, and soft skills
that a T-person brings to a company. Fostering a culture of continuous learning
and open communication encourages the development of T-shaped people. We
believe that companies should recognize each individual's experience, but also
push them to try new things and interact regularly with other groups.