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Ask HN: Are you using a skills matrix in your organization?

1 points by kostarelo ↗ HN
I've been reading about skills/knowledge matrices as a way to gather each individuals' skills and have an overview of your teams' strengths and weaknesses.

Are you using one in your team? How exactly?

3 comments

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rs23296008n1
I remember being listed on one of these matrix things. I had a look one day and found someone with poor spreadsheet-fu had moved my details one row and column down. Now I magically had skills I'd never heard of and they were all obsolete buzzwords.

It's a pity I was shown this several months after I'd been let go for "poor fit".

I've always wondered what happened to the poor guy who had been assumed to have my skill set and had to live up to it. Probably got canned later for "not delivering to expectations".

I'm sure these are a good tool in the right hands, much like chainsaws. But I still have suspicions on how they are used.

kostarelo
oh sorry to hear that.

Indeed, it can easily lead to disasters if not used correctly (wrong inputs, outdated, etc..). We're currently using one for our team (~5 people) but I'm looking into how it can scale up to the whole engineering organization (~100 people).

rs23296008n1
A skills matrix is useful to have. We use them to decide what contracts and projects we chase. Sometimes we use them to unearth areas we have no capability for then find a few people interested enough to dig in. Sometimes we find out there's plenty of interesting things and our competitors haven't a clue.

Its a tool. Like a chainsaw. You can use it to make ice sculptures or to hack off an arm. Metaphorically.