EVIDENCE 01
Repeated decisions
Notice the decisions people trust you to make when the answer is not obvious.
FOR EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS · BEFORE YOU BUILD
Find the value before you choose the vehicle.
You have years of valuable experience. The difficult part is identifying which part is worth building around, who it can help, and what it could help them do differently.
Make the decision about what is worth building before you invest months building the wrong thing.
RECORD 01
450+
Untrap Your Expertise readers
RECORD 02
2
Graduate disciplines behind the work
RECORD 03
EVIDENCE FIRST
Real work before product ideas
START WITH THE EVIDENCE
Your most valuable expertise may be hiding in how you work.
A résumé can tell you what you produced. It rarely captures the judgment, patterns, questions, and adaptations that made the result possible. Begin with these three clues.
EVIDENCE 02
Useful distinctions
Find the differences you see that change how a problem gets understood or solved.
EVIDENCE 03
Reproducible results
Trace the outcomes you have produced more than once, across roles, teams, or contexts.
THE OVERLOOKED STEP · ORDER MATTERS
Packaging is a downstream decision.
A course builder can help you produce a course. A marketing coach can help you promote an offer. AI can help you generate either. Those tools are more useful after you can explain what inside your experience creates value.
RECORD 01
Examine the evidence
Real projects, decisions, adaptations, and results
RECORD 02
Identify the value
Who it helps, what changes, and why your way works
RECORD 03
Choose what to test
A product or service that can carry that value
PORTRAIT · SDS
ABOUT SHANNON · INVESTIGATOR OF INVISIBLE EXPERTISE
I help experienced professionals see what their job titles leave out.
I am Shannon D. Smith, a learning and development practitioner with graduate training in instructional design and industrial-organizational psychology. My work has taught me that experienced people often struggle to describe the very thing that makes them effective: the judgment behind their results.
Untrap Your Expertise begins with evidence from your real work. Together, we identify what has transferable value, who it could help, and what is worth testing before you invest months building the wrong thing.
M.S., Instructional Design and Technology
M.S., Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Certified Professional in Talent Development
YOUR NEXT MOVE · START SMALLER THAN A PRODUCT
Before you decide what to build, find the evidence worth building from.
Use the free Snapshot to inspect your experience and identify the decision that comes first.