Ibbaka

View Original

Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

David Botta

David Botta does data analysis, data visualization and writing at Ibbaka.
See his skill profile here.

Skill and competency models are part of the designed world. They are created by people (sometimes working in teams) with the intention of being applied for specific purposes. But how are they designed? Who designs them? How does the design and the approach to design impact the use and evolution of the models?

Ibbaka is researching how competency models are designed. We are doing this for several reasons:

  1. To celebrate competency model designers and the diverse approaches to design

  2. To build better tools for competency model design

  3. To understand how the approach to design and the resulting competency model shapes use

  4. To understand how the design of a competency model impacts how it evolves

Different disciplines have different approaches to design. For example, companies doing analog (as opposed to digital) integrated circuit design tend to take the first solution they find, because time-to-market in that industry is crucial. The consumers of these things cannot easily switch if a better chip comes along two months after they commit. Analog integrated circuits are difficult (read time consuming) to design because physical proximity of the circuits matters; the circuits can interfere with each other. Depth-first problem solving predominates, where solutions need to be correct, but not necessarily the best out of all the correct solutions.

In contrast, some architecture and game companies can afford to have design teams to compete against each other for the most exciting solution. Here the problem solving is breadth-first, where solutions are not correct or incorrect, rather, they are good or bad.

New knowledge can invoke a rethink of major design decisions. An architect might gain a better understanding of how people will act and totally change the original building layout plan. A medical technology company might discover that market segmentation for its automated lab equipment is different than they thought, and change their product lines accordingly. Sometimes the tail will wag the dog.

With industry standards, many design decisions can be modularized and outsourced. For example, nowadays many sub-industries contribute to the guts of your computer. How far do you go with modularized decision making (an important question for the post-pandemic world)? The answer of course is it depends on what you are doing.

A little closer to the universe of connected concepts and terminology where competency models reside, what about the design of the World Health Organization’s Classification of Diseases? They have learned through experience to aim for the highest level of generality that preserves the meaningfulness of the information.

The nature of design decision making can vary widely.

What are the characteristics of skill and competency model design?

From our conversations with other experts and our participation in the IEEE 1484.20.2 Defining Competencies Working Group we are aware that there are many different approaches to design and that people come to the design of skill and competency models from different disciplines. Some of these disciplines are

  • Learning design

  • Curriculum design

  • Organizational design

  • Knowledge networks

  • Task analysis

  • Process design

Given these different backgrounds, it is not surprising that there are different approaches.

Another reason there are different approaches used in the field is the different uses to which skill and competency models are put.

  • Identifying current or future skill gaps

  • Introducing a new capability

  • Supporting the adoption of a new process or technology

  • Building teams

  • Managing recruitment

  • Succession planning

  • Career planning

  • Curriculum development

  • Certification and micro-certification programs

Once question we want to answer … “Does the use to which a model will be put influence the approach to design?”

Design Research or Research for Design?

Design Research is often confused with the research needed to complete any design work. There is an important difference between the two.

All good design work involves research into users, requirements and constraints. This is an important part of design and good designers will have good research skills.

Design research is different. It is research into the process and practice of design. From the Wikipedia article on ‘design research.’

Design research emerged as a recognisable field of study in the 1960s, initially marked by a conference on Design methods at Imperial College London, in 1962. It led to the founding of the Design Research Society (DRS) in 1966.

Design research informs design methods and contributes to their evolution and improvement.

Hopefully our results will be of interest to a many people. We are mostly focused in the how, rather than the what. But when the tail wags the dog, “what” suddenly becomes important… Those cases should be pretty interesting. We hope the knowledge generated will benefit everyone who does competency model design. The rising tide lifts all ships.

If you are involved in the design or implementation of skill and competency models, we would like to speak with you. Please reach out to us at info@ibbaka.com

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks