The Pi-Shaped Marketer, or: how to become a successful marketing specialist in the 21st century
You have probably heard of the go-to advice in the job market when it comes to career advancement: the T-shaped skills model – the T-shaped developer, the T-shaped marketer, the T-shaped what not.
The T-shaped model is a metaphor used to describe people’s abilities in a given work domain. A T-shaped marketer is somebody who understands marketing and coms topics from A to Z and specializes in one specific area (e.g. content marketing, performance marketing). At a more conceptual level, the T-shaped model represents a compromise between a mere generalist or specialist orientation.
Combining generalist and specialist knowledge means you have the skills to understand the game. You know how the individual figures are placed on the pitch. But you specialize in (a) specific position(s), such as goalkeeper, or midfielder. Think about Christiano Ronaldo or Mesut Özil. They have switched positions throughout their careers from midfield to forward. The depth and breadth of their game (in addition to other skills) has helped them excel and obtain an edge over their competitors.
Classic: the T-Shaped Marketer
Technology is constantly evolving. And in an ever-more complex world relying upon skills and experiences from a single domain may not only be limiting it may in fact be disastrous. David Epstein devoted a whole book (Range) to this topic. Being a ranger myself, I have always defied suggestions to what I thought was advice to overspecialize. Too great was my thirst for knowledge and breadth. I am somewhat addicted to amassing experiences from different fields and synthesizing learnings towards molding myself into a better person and professional. And btw: rarely do we come up with truly original ideas. So when I thought of the Pi-shaped skills model – while pondering over things to write about – a quick Google search revealed that somebody else had already coined the term. That’s all right. And it’s actually cool. We had arrived at the same idea separetely. So I still wanted to pen a piece on the topic as the benefits of Pi-marketing remain underestimated in a borderless digital job market.
Avantgarde: the Pi-Shaped Marketer
Pi-shaped (inspired by the Greek letter pi) marketers are multifaceted people. They usually display a mastery of broad domain knowledge and deep expertise in two or more work-related areas. Not only do these people have a competitive edge in the job market. They also provide greater flexibility to the teams they are embedded in, particularly those organizations with limited resources such as start-ups (it should thus come as no surprise that start-ups usually hire generalists at early development stages). To be sure, the Pi-shaped model represents an approach suited for people further advanced in their careers. You have to start somewhere. This means you have to become an expert in a given domain before moving on and adding additional field expertise to your knowledge set.
Meaningful ways to combine domain knowledge in marketing may include, for instance, mastering search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing (CM), or SEO and search engine marketing (SEM), CM and social media marketing (SMM). Other combinations and add-ons are also conceivable. Just make sure you don’t stretch it too much. Staying on top of developments requires time and devotion. So unless you are a highly disciplined workaholic, there will be a limit to domain expertise expansion.
Of course, there is also a practical side to things: specialist knowledge lands you the job. Talent acquisition still hires for (approximately) linear biographies which is synonymous with the specialized ant model. That is to say, whatever you do, make sure you go for depth and breadth while prioritizing the former: macro will help you thrive, but micro will help you survive. In other words: T is your MVP, Pi your key to success in the long run.
