Summary

An individual transitioning from a tech lead role to a more managerial position has created a skill map to assess and organize their competencies across technology, delivery, people, and product, revealing strengths in delivery and areas for improvement in technology and people management.

Abstract

The author, having recently stepped down from a tech lead role, has been experiencing uncertainty in their professional direction. To address this, they developed a skill map using four axes: technology, delivery, people, and product. The map categorizes skills into four levels, from foundational knowledge to the ability to lead teams and disseminate knowledge across an organization. The self-assessment revealed a strong proficiency in delivery, with the ability to lead teams and share knowledge. However, it also highlighted a broad yet shallow knowledge in technology and a lack of confidence in people management skills. The author acknowledges the need for more systematic input in managing people and plans to focus on gaining experience and input to grow in the technology and people areas, which are currently causing distress.

Opinions

The author believes in the principle that expertise comes from practice and preparation, emphasizing the importance of hands-on experience.
They recognize that self-perception of abilities can become inflated with success, leading to overconfidence when tackling new challenges.
The author values the visualization of skills through a skill map as a means to clarify one's capabilities and identify areas for development.
They consider the Engineering Management Triangle to be too high-level for their current active role and

Productivity

I Mapped Out My Skills in Four Levels and Realized What I Must Improve

By looking at the skill map I created, I realized the following.

I recently let go of my tech lead role, and my work style has become more similar to EM. I always wanted to become an EM, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to do it right from the start, and I’ve been in agony for the past month or so.

What particularly bothered me this time was that my current location could have been more specific, and I felt vaguely unsteady. I want to create an environment where employees can confidently move forward by elaborating on their tasks and directions a little more. As part of this, I made a My Skill Map and would like to introduce it.

Thoughts Leading to My Skill Map

One of the things I keep in mind is, “You can’t do what you haven’t practiced.” It is an undeniable fact that the only way to know ten is to listen to ten and to practice it repeatedly is the only way to become an expert. My strength over the past five or six years has been approaching each task carefully with this mindset.

But maintaining this mindset is not easy. When you can do something, your image of your abilities inevitably grows. Expectations from those around you will also increase. When trying something new, we sometimes become arrogant and think we can do it right from the start.

I realized that this is precisely the situation I am in now. To make matters worse, within my vastly expanded skill range, things I had previously prepared for were scattered everywhere, making me unsure of what I could and could not do. He analyzed that this caused him to feel vague and restless, not knowing what the problem was or what to do next.

To overcome this situation, I wanted to take inventory of my skills and organize the current situation. For this purpose, a skill map is ideal because it allows you to visualize your skill set from multiple perspectives. This line of thinking led me to an activity called My Skill Map.

How should I structure my skill map?

Even if you decide to make one, just idly listing what you can do is not an excellent way to structure it. I want to visualize my skills by type using groups and axes. Since I approach engineering from an EM worldview, I used the four axes of technology, delivery, people, and product as usual.

Engineering Management Triangle was also a candidate, but it had a much higher perspective, and I didn’t think it suited me as I was still active as a player. It might be better to use Triangle in about three years. Different people will likely adopt completely different classification methods.

The level of each skill was divided into the following four levels.

Lv.1: I have prerequisite knowledge from having touched it in the past.
Lv.2: Have over one year of work experience and can perform normally
Lv.3: Can lead the team
Lv.4: Disseminate knowledge to the entire organization and community

I don’t have anything special in mind, and I just feel like this is what it would be like if I put in natural stages. As a hiring manager, I may have looked at it to see if it would be helpful.

Skill Map

The position of each skill axis is a rough reflection of my own subjective opinion, and there is no strict meaning to it. Many people approach the same skill from different perspectives. Also, since I created it using the free version of Miro, the resolution when exporting is limited, and the text may be challenging to read.

My skill map analysis

By looking at the skill map I created, I realized the following.

My strength is in the delivery field.

I have gained experience leading teams and have been able to share my knowledge on blogs, on stage, and in company guilds. Recently, I have been feeling like a frog in well as hitting a wall with an agile coach, but it would be inappropriate to lower my self-evaluation too much.

The technology area is wide and shallow

This directly reflects my full-cycle/full-stack work style as a web application engineer. Although I have an outstanding meta-ability to combine the tools I have learned broadly and shallowly, such as software design and infrastructure roadmaps, I have yet to gain any specific skills.

It is also characteristic that there are areas with shallow resolution, such as “AWS” and “General Web.” Although the skills are sufficient to develop on the rails of existing systems safely, it must be said that they are insufficient to make discontinuous improvements. This seems to be why we’ve been having trouble with the development direction lately.

Not confident in the people area

When I placed skills such as one-on-one, I didn’t have the confidence to put them at Lv.3. Of course, they are doing the necessary work, but I feel that they still lack verbalized ideas, successful experiences, and reproducible know-how.

I can’t imagine being able to confidently and systematically teach my colleagues who are engaged in the same work. This is a good reflection of the current situation where EMs struggle with their behavior. I feel there is a lack of systematic input regarding managing people, so I would like to take care of that.

Summary

Looking at it this way, hotspots appear to be areas of technology and people level 2. Many skill groups are smoking here. I began to see a connection between the lack of growth in these areas and my current distressed situation. I believe the only way to move up to level 2 is to use your head and gain input and experience, so I’ll keep doing it.