# How to choose which skills to map **Canonical URL:** https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/choose-which-skills-to-map.html **Author:** Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith **Last reviewed:** 27 May 2026 **License:** Free to cite with attribution and link back to the canonical URL. --- ## Definition The vital few, not the exhaustive many. Aim for 10 to 20 skills that genuinely matter; a focused matrix is the one that survives. Start from the work and the strategy. The skills worth mapping are the ones the team must deliver now and as the business changes. Judge on two axes. How critical a skill is, and how widely it is held; together they tell you what to map first. ## Key takeaways - Use this guide to implement which skills to map with the same 0-5 framework as the site methodology. - Write descriptors before you rate, then calibrate managers on what each level looks like in your context. - Review the matrix on a fixed cadence and date every cell when capability changes. - Separate capability ratings from performance conversations. - Link training and hiring plans to named gaps, not generic catalogues. ## Guide body ## What is the first thing to do for which skills to map? World Economic Forum research finds that 39% of workers' core skills will change by 2030, and 63% of employers cite skills gaps as the top barrier (World Economic Forum, 2025). The vital few, not the exhaustive many. Aim for 10 to 20 skills that genuinely matter; a focused matrix is the one that survives. Start from the work and the strategy. The skills worth mapping are the ones the team must deliver now and as the business changes. Judge on two axes. How critical a skill is, and how widely it is held; together they tell you what to map first. ## What is the short answer for which skills to map? To choose which skills to map, start from what the team must deliver, now and next, and brainstorm the candidate skills. Then judge each on two things: how critical it is to the work, and how thinly it is currently held. Map the vital few, usually 10 to 20, that are critical, prioritising the critical skills only one or two people hold. In short: map what matters most and is most at risk; leave off what is peripheral or already everywhere. ## Why does building a skills matrix matter now? The wrong columns sink a good matrix A skills matrix can be perfectly built and still fail, if it maps the wrong things. The choice of skills determines whether the matrix surfaces real risks and decisions or just generates tidy, useless data, and whether it survives long enough to be useful at all. ## See It In Practice? A team's skills, on the quadrant Here is a set of candidate skills plotted on the priority quadrant: how critical each is up the side, how widely it is held across the bottom. In one view, the must-map skills, the maintain-and-watch ones, and the skills to leave off all sort themselves into place. map first · critical & thinmap & maintain · critical & coveredmonitor to leave off (diary admin, expense filing), neither critical nor scarce Illustrative plot. Position is a judgement of criticality and current coverage; the quadrant turns that judgement into a clear shortlist. ## HOW TO READ THE PLOT? Top-left is where to start. Compliance and Data analysis are critical and held by very few, the must-map skills and the most urgent cross-training priorities. They are the whole reason to build the matrix. Top-right earns a column too. Complaint handling and CRM are critical and well covered. Map them to confirm that strength holds, but they are not where the risk sits today. Bottom-left is a judgement call. Demand forecasting and social media are not critical now. Keep a watching brief; map them only if they are becoming more important. Bottom-right comes off. Diary admin and expense filing are neither critical nor scarce. Mapping them adds maintenance for no insight, so leave them off and keep the matrix focused. ## Monitorleave Off? Compliance (KYC) Complaint handling Demand forecasting Social media Diary admin Expense filing ## The Decision Tests? Four questions that decide if a skill earns a column When the quadrant leaves a skill on the borderline, these four questions settle it. If a skill cannot pass them, it probably does not belong on a focused matrix. Map it if... Leave it off if... Does the work depend on it? A gap here would hurt quality, delivery or compliance The work carries on fine whether or not people have it Is it a risk if scarce? Only one or two people hold a skill the team relies on Everyone already has it, so there is no coverage risk Will it drive a decision? Knowing the levels would change training, staffing or hiring The data would be interesting but change nothing you do Can you define and score it? You can describe what good looks like at each level It is too vague to rate consistently, like "being a team player" Notice that the last test is as important as the first three. A skill can be critical and yet impossible to map well if you cannot describe what each level looks like; vague traits like "good attitude" resist consistent scoring and quietly erode trust in the matrix. The best columns are skills that are critical, at-risk, decision-driving and definable. When a candidate skill clears all four questions, it has unquestionably earned its place; when it fails them, leaving it off keeps your matrix sharp. ## From Long List To Focused Matrix? The method is free. A ready-made matrix just makes the right list easy to act on. Everything here works with a pen and a blank grid, and that is a fine place to start. A purpose-built template just makes it effortless once you have chosen: drop your vital few skills in as columns, set a required level for each, and the matrix scores them on the 0 to 5 scale and surfaces the coverage risks, exactly the critical, thinly-held skills your selection was designed to find. The Advanced Excel Skills Matrix takes the focused skill list you have chosen and turns it into capability and coverage insight automatically, so the critical, thinly-held skills stand The online 5×5 builder maps a small team in your browser, with no sign-up. Test your chosen skills The full Excel template: heat map, required levels, coverage and analytics, up to 30 people and 30 skills. One-off, yours forever. ## Which tools on this site support which skills to map? - [Methodology pillar](/methodology.html) ## How should you score skills on the 0-5 scale? Use the same 0-5 descriptors as the PDF and this site's methodology. Define each level in observable behaviours, not labels alone. (See HTML for 0-5 scale table.) See the [methodology pillar](/methodology.html) and [descriptor generator](/descriptor-generator.html) for policy wording. ## What should you add when implementing this online? This web guide adds live links, cited sources, and site tools around the same method as the PDF. Download [choose-which-skills-to-map.pdf](/assets/downloads/guides/choose-which-skills-to-map.pdf) for workshops; use the sections below to implement online. The [methodology pillar](/methodology.html) explains the Upleashed 0-5 framework used across 106. 5M+ assessments. Pair it with the [descriptor generator](/descriptor-generator.html) so raters share one definition of each level. Treat each section as an action checklist: agree evidence rules, run calibration, publish the grid, then review on cadence. The PDF is the narrative; this page is the implementation path with calculators and templates linked in context. Start from the work and the strategy. The skills worth mapping are the ones the team must deliver now and as the business changes. Judge on two axes. How critical a skill is, and how widely it is held; together they tell you what to map first. Critical and thin comes first. A skill that matters and only one person holds is your highest mapping and cross-training priority. Map both hard and soft. Technical, behavioural and compliance skills all belong if they meet the bar. Choosing the columns is the real work Ask anyone who has built a skills matrix what was hardest, and they rarely say the spreadsheet. They say deciding what to put in the columns. Choose well and the matrix is sharp, useful and maintained; choose badly and it is either missing what matters or drowning in detail nobody updates. The vital few beat the exhaustive many The instinct when building a matrix is to capture everything, every tool, task and trait. Resist it. A matrix of a hundred skills is never kept current and is exhausting to read; a matrix of the 10 to 20 skills that genuinely matter gets scored, maintained and used. Choosing skills is therefore an exercise in leaving things out as much as putting them in. The goal is the smallest set of columns that still tells you what you need to know. Two questions decide a skill's fate For every candidate skill, two questions settle whether it earns a column. First, how critical is it? How much does the work, the quality, the strategy depend on this skill? Second, how widely is it held? Is it everywhere in the team, or resting on one or two people? Together these two axes sort your candidates into clear priorities, and they are the basis of the priority quadrant at the heart of this guide. Map what matters and what is at risk The skills that most deserve a column are those that are both critical to the work and thinly held, because that combination is exactly where your risk lives. A vital skill only one person can do is a single point of failure hiding in plain sight, and mapping it is the first step to fixing it. By contrast, a peripheral skill that everyone already has tells you little and costs effort to maintain. Choosing skills well means aiming the matrix squarely at what matters and what is fragile. The wrong columns sink a good matrix A skills matrix can be perfectly built and still fail, if it maps the wrong things. The choice of skills determines whether the matrix surfaces real risks and decisions or just generates tidy, useless data, and whether it survives long enough to be useful at all. spot for a maintainable matrix, focused enough to keep current, broad enough to be to change by 2030, so the skills worth mapping shift with transformation, which is why mapping the critical ones matters. The two failure modes pull in opposite directions, and both come from poor skill choice. Map too many and the matrix becomes unmaintainable, a sprawling grid that ages into fiction because no one can keep it current. Map too few, or the wrong ones, and it misses the gaps and risks that actually matter, generating data that changes no decision. Choosing the right skills, the critical, at-risk vital few, is what lets a matrix stay both maintainable and meaningful. It is the difference between a tool that earns its place and one quietly abandoned within a year. Seven steps to choose your skills This turns a daunting blank column into a clear, defensible shortlist. Work through it in order: gather candidates, judge them on the two axes, then Start from the work and the strategy Before listing skills, be clear on what the team must deliver, today and as the business changes. A new market, system or regulation on the horizon should shape your list. The skills worth mapping are the ones that this work, now and next, genuinely depends on, so anchoring in purpose stops you mapping skills out of habit. WATCH OUT Listing skills before you know what the team must deliver Brainstorm the candidate skills Now list every skill that might matter, widely, without filtering yet. Include technical and functional skills, behavioural ones like coaching and influence, and any compliance or safety skills. Involve the team; they know the skills the work really turns on. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do I choose which skills to put in a skills matrix? Start from what the team must deliver, now and as the business changes, and ### How many skills should a matrix have? Aim for 10 to 20. That range is focused enough to keep current and broad enough to be ### Should I map soft skills as well as technical ones? Yes, if they meet the bar. Behavioural skills like coaching, influence and communication ### What is the priority quadrant? It is a simple grid that plots candidate skills on two axes: how critical the skill is, and ### Which skills should I prioritise mapping first? The critical skills held by only one or two people, the top-left of the quadrant. These ### How often should I review the skills I map? Revisit your skill list whenever you re-score the matrix, and whenever the strategy ## FAQ ### How do I choose which skills to put in a skills matrix? Start from what the team must deliver, now and as the business changes, and ### How many skills should a matrix have? Aim for 10 to 20. That range is focused enough to keep current and broad enough to be ### Should I map soft skills as well as technical ones? Yes, if they meet the bar. Behavioural skills like coaching, influence and communication ### What is the priority quadrant? It is a simple grid that plots candidate skills on two axes: how critical the skill is, and ### Which skills should I prioritise mapping first? The critical skills held by only one or two people, the top-left of the quadrant. These ### How often should I review the skills I map? Revisit your skill list whenever you re-score the matrix, and whenever the strategy ## References 1. World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/ ## Related - [How to build a skills matrix, step by step](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/how-to-build-a-skills-matrix.html) - [How to write competency descriptors](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/write-competency-descriptors.html) - [Skills matrix best practices](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/skills-matrix-best-practices.html) - [How to ensure minimum standards of capability](https://skillsmatrixtemplate.com/guides/minimum-standards-of-capability.html)