Depth in one skill but breadth across complementary domains. The idea is that the vertical bar of the T represents deep expertise, while the horizontal bar represents the ability to work across disciplines.
Marc Andreessen, discussing this on Lenny’s Podcast, argues that people who are “T Shaped” are force multipliers more than ever. The traditional siloes between Product Manager, Designer, and Engineer are disappearing — and the people who can operate across those boundaries are the ones who multiply the output of everyone around them. Sometimes called “unicorns”.
Jakob Nielsen has written about the same phenomenon in Rebirth of the UX Unicorn, arguing that the specialist-only era in UX is giving way to a return of generalist-specialists.
This echoes something I’ve been thinking about: AI narrows skill gaps. When AI tools can help anyone perform at a decent level in adjacent domains, the person who already had broad intuitions across those domains becomes dramatically more effective. Being T shaped has always been valuable, and UX unicorns have always existed to some degree, but AI is making their strengths all the more apparent. The floor rises for everyone, but the ceiling rises fastest for people who can connect ideas across disciplines.