T-Shaped Thinking: How depth and breadth can spark ideas
There’s a simple model I return to again and again when people are developing their work, their business, or their next idea: T-shaped thinking. It’s one of those concepts that if you feel stuck between being a specialist and wanting to explore something broader, it helps to start blending the ideas. It’s not quite ‘niching’, it’s not quite ‘thought leadership’. Its a way of mapping everything you’ve got and then thinking about how you arrange it to make it work for you.
I discovered the idea from an article on IDEO founder, Tim Brown, who used it in the context of design thinking and innovation. It was around the observation that the most effective people in complex, creative teams weren’t just deep experts, nor were they shallow generalists. They were something in between.
They had:
Depth in one core discipline
Breadth across multiple others
Drawn as a letter T, the vertical stroke represents deep expertise, while the horizontal stroke represents curiosity, empathy, and working knowledge across other fields. In short: they knew a lot about one thing, and enough about many others to connect ideas.
What T-shaped thinking really is (and isn’t)
T-shaped thinking is not about becoming ‘average’ at lots of things and it’s not about abandoning your wider expertise in favour of just one thing.
It’s about:
Honouring the thing you’ve gone deep on
While deliberately widening how you see, think, and work
The vertical line of the T is your craft. The thing you’re known for. The skill you’ve built through time, effort, and experience.
The horizontal line is where creativity happens. It’s where ideas cross-pollinate. It’s where you start seeing patterns, opportunities, and solutions that aren’t obvious from inside one discipline alone.
It’s not just about work skills and expertise. I’d add all your skills and interests. The things you know lots about, your ‘mastermind’ subject, and the things that grab your attention, intrigue, curiosity.
One classic historical example is Leonardo da Vinci, the artist, anatomist, engineer, inventor. His genius didn’t come from staying in one lane, but from letting disciplines speak to one another.
He was a painter whose deep expertise is, well, painting, composition, colour, texture, light. That’s the vertical stroke of their T. But he had also spent time learning about engineering principles: structure, systems, tension, balance, materials. That way of thinking starts to inform their work.
Their paintings explore structure and load
Their installations become more ambitious
Their creative choices are influenced by how things hold, stretch, or fail
You see this everywhere once you start looking. Writers who understand psychology. Coaches who understand nature. Designers who study human behaviour. Entrepreneurs who understand storytelling.
Why T-shaped thinking matters now
Most of us are navigating work and careers that are less linear than ever. Roles blur. Identities shift. As job task moves and changes, we have to rethink what we do, how we do it, and how it can be ours.
People I work with are asking:
What are my options?
How do I stand out without starting from scratch?
How do I evolve without losing myself?
T-shaped thinking offers a way forward that isn’t about reinvention for the sake of it or through force. You don’t need to throw away your vertical. In fact, that depth is your anchor. But staying only vertical can be limiting. You risk becoming boxed in by your own expertise. The horizontal stroke is what allows you to adapt. Equally if you feel too generalist, you can think about what your vertical might be.
When I started my business 10 years ago I was a communications specialist with a broad skill set. Which was Ok, but I noticed it helped when I started to talk into a vertical, and it was easier for people to think of me when they had an opportunity. So yes I was (and still am) communications consultant, but specilaising in change. (Actually the first thing I vertical-ed on was employer brand - we can shift our T shape!).
Using the T to develop your work or business idea
Here’s a simple way to use the T-shape as a thinking tool. And scribble ideas in both directions to get going. You can start on either line.
1. Clarify your vertical
Ask yourself:
Where have I gone deep?
Where do I have real credibility or lived experience?
What do people already come to me for?
This is not about what you should be good at. It’s about what you actually are good at.
2. Explore your horizontals
Now ask:
What other disciplines, topics, subjects genuinely interest me?
What ways of thinking could strengthen my work?
What do my clients, customers, or audience also care about?
These might include psychology, technology, storytelling, systems, wellbeing, finance, or culture. And hobbies away from work.
3. Look for intersections
The magic isn’t in adding more skills, it’s in the overlap.
How does your depth change when filtered through another lens?
What becomes possible when you combine these worlds?
What problems can you now solve that you couldn’t before?
This is often where a business idea sharpens, a body of work evolves, or a new offer becomes obvious.
T-shaped thinking gives you permission to stop choosing between focus and curiosity. And the dreaded niching. You might get to have both. Depth gives you substance. Breadth gives you range. And the combination is often where the most meaningful, sustainable, and creative work lives.
You don’t need to become someone else. You just need to widen the conversation around who you already are.