Design taxonomy for finding, not admiring
Evaluate whether a skill taxonomy supports retrieval, comparison, and maintenance rather than only looking conceptually complete.
The taxonomy is a retrieval machine. A skill hierarchy can look coherent in a workshop and still fail in the product. The real test is whether it helps a learner, manager, admin, or recommender choose the right node without extra interpretation. Find Can users get from their words to your preferred term? Compare Can adjacent nodes be distinguished by a clear boundary? Maintain Can a new course, role expectation, or assessment be placed without reopening the whole system? Designers often over-focus on conceptual elegance and under-focus on retrieval pressure. The fix is to test with real queries and real placement…
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