It would be presumptuous to call myself an expert, but I will say I have prolonged and intense experience.
In his book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell famously states the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill is practicing the correct way for 10,000 hours. While I don’t necessarily think this is the most accurate way to designate expertise, it is a good gauge prolonged experience:
- I have more than 10,000 hours of experience in strategy and consulting.
- I have way more than 10,000 hours of experience in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design of websites and apps.
- I have way, way more than 10,000 hours of experience in branding & logo design.
Perhaps a better judge of expertise can be found in the Generalized Expertise Measure (GEM) developed by Marie-Line Germain containing objective evidence-based items and subjective self-enhancement items. In these terms, an expert has:
- Specific education, training, and knowledge
- Required qualifications
- Ability to assess importance in work-related situations
- Capability to improve themselves
- Intuition
- Self-assurance and confidence in their knowledge
By this measure, I believe my 20 years of experience in strategy, user experience (UX), user interface (UI), consulting, branding & logo design, and website & app design qualify as expertise.