How to Create a Skills Matrix

Use a Skills Matrix to confirm the skills, knowledge, and interest of your team members.
A Skills Matrix is a table that displays peoples proficiency in specified skills and
knowledge, as well as their interest in working on assignments using these skills and
knowledge. Whether youre able to influence the people assigned to your project team,
people are assigned to your team without your input, or you assume the role of project
manager of an existing team, you need to know what each team member can handle.
If you have a team that was assembled without considering your opinion on the
capabilities needed to perform your projects work, its essential that you find out team
members skills, knowledge, and interests so you can make the most appropriate task
assignments. If some or all of your team has been chosen in response to the specific
skills and knowledge needs that you discussed with the organizations management,
you should document peoples skills and knowledge and verify their interests, in case
you need to assign people to unanticipated tasks that crop up or if you have to replace a
team member unexpectedly.
The left-hand column of this Skills Matrix identifies skill and knowledge areas, and the
top row lists peoples names. At the intersection of the rows and columns, you identify
the level of each persons particular skills, knowledge, and interests.

Display peoples skills, knowledge, and interests in a Skills Matrix.

Take the following steps to prepare a Skills Matrix for your team:
1.

Discuss with each team member his or her skills, knowledge, and interests
related to the activities that your project entails.
Explain that you seek this information so you can assign people to the tasks that
theyre most interested in and qualified to perform.

2.

Determine each persons level of interest in working on the tasks for which
he or she has been proposed.
At a minimum, ask people whether theyre interested in the tasks for which theyve
been proposed. If a person isnt interested in a task, try to find out why and whether
there is anything you can do to modify the assignment to make it more interesting to
him or her.
If a person isnt interested in a task, you can either not ask and not know the
reason, or ask and (if you get an honest response) know the reason. Knowing that a
person isnt interested is better than not knowing, because you can consider the
possibility of rearranging assignments or modifying the assignment to address those
aspects of it that the person doesnt find appealing.

3.

Consult with team members functional managers and/or the people who
assigned them to your project to determine their opinions of the levels of
each team members skills, knowledge, and interests.
You want to understand the reasons why these managers assigned the people they
did to your project.

4.

Check to see whether any areas of your organization have already prepared
Skills Matrices.
Find out whether they reflect any information about the extent to which team
members have skills and knowledge that you feel are required for your projects
activities.

5.

Incorporate all the information you gather in a Skills Matrix, and review with
each team member the portion of the matrix that contains his or her
information.
This review gives you the opportunity to verify that you correctly recorded the
information you found and the team member a chance to comment on or add to any
of the information.