13 Apr 2026
“I’m not well-rounded, I’m just really good at one thing,” Taylor Swift said in a recent late-night interview. At her superstar level, that works. However, for most roles, especially in the UX-world, success looks different.
Where Talent Stacking Comes In
Most UX roles don’t reward one skill, they reward how well your skills work together.
Talent stacking is the intentional development of skills across related areas. Instead of focusing on a single discipline in isolation, it’s about building a combination of skills that connect and build on each other.
How This Shows Up in Practice
Early in my career, I worked in an environment where roles were not narrowly defined. For me, that meant contributing across a range of areas from designing marketing material, to writing RFPs and corporate content, maintaining websites, and creating visual assets like signage and photography. Over time, these became a connected skill set.
Later, in a larger organization, I applied these skills more strategically across website development, internal communications, and digital content, with a stronger focus and understanding of structure, clarity, design, and usability.
Why it Matters
Roles in UX, content design, and digital experience don’t fit neatly into a single lane. They require people who can bridge gaps between teams, translate complex information and think across content, structure, and experience.
The Value of Connected Skills
The goal isn’t to be the best at one thing (unless you are Taylor Swift). It is to build a combination of skills that make you uniquely effective. When skills are developed intentionally and applied in combination, they create stronger, more cohesive experiences. That combination is what makes the work effective and increasingly, it is what makes someone valuable.