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KMC employs the best of the best - T-shaped Ninjas

Tiiso Maphasa 01 Jan 2018 • 2 min read

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KMC employs the best of the best - T-shaped Ninjas

In today’s fast pace enterprise, technology has become a critical backbone for any successful operation and, as such, every knowledge-worker’s skill set has become highly critical.

The Information Age has brought forth the necessity for an in-depth and fast understanding of numerous concepts and frameworks. In our world, the quality and speed of understanding come first in securing our client’s success. It has come to our attention that having a singular skill-set available to you, as a knowledge-worker, is acceptable but not necessarily helpful to your (and/or the client’s) development.

Enter T-shaped individuals

Well, what is a T-shaped individual? There are many definitions; “Generalising Specialists”, “Master Generalists”, “Technical Crafts Persons”, “Versatilists” and so forth.

They are generally armed with a thirst for knowledge in all the areas surrounding their area of specialisation and how the organisation they are in works. T-shaped individuals have the depth of knowledge in their own chosen fields of interest but have the breadth of knowledge across team roles and any “divisions” in their organisation or team.

An example of such a person is a developer with deep technical knowledge but with an understanding of high to mid-level business analysis techniques - like prioritising and story writing, allowing for a greater rate of autonomy while remaining aligned to their team and project objectives.

These individuals tend to have a holistic view of the current state of affairs within their space (organisation or team) as they have different perspectives on the same point of interest. This gives them the ability to, not only, gain context at “break-neck speeds” but also have the depth of knowledge to ensure that they deliver quality solutions for the right challenges.

At KMC we deliver high-quality solutions using iterative feature augmentation through the Agile Methodology. Agile at its very core requires tight-knit, autonomous and collaboratively mature teams. We place a high value on the skills and insights each individual brings into every space they influence or are influenced by.

So, who better to hire than T-shaped Ninjas? Have you been wondering how you’re a test analyst but have a high fondness towards architecture? Have you been hiding behind being a User Experience Designer who writes their own CSS for the developers? “What am I?”, you may wonder. Well wonder no further, you are simply a T-shaped individual and a Ninja we would love to have on our team because at KMC we hire the best of the best.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently - they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

Tiiso Maphasa