Instructional design is a multidisciplinary field, but it’s not a “do everything at expert level” profession. Over the years, I’ve seen countless job postings that unintentionally combine the responsibilities of:

• Instructional Designers
• eLearning Developers
• Multimedia Producers
• Software Engineers
• Facilitators
• LMS Administrators
• Lab Technicians
• Subject Matter Expert (SME)

The result is a role that no single human could realistically fulfill.

This tool helps illustrate that reality. By entering a total number of years and enabling the skills required for a role, you can instantly see how those years must be divided. If one area increases, the others must decrease. It’s a simple concept—but seeing it visually makes the point impossible to ignore.

✔ Model realistic experience distributions

Turn on the skills you expect in a role and see how the years spread across them.

✔ Drag sliders to explore trade‑offs

Increasing expertise in one area automatically redistributes experience across the others.

✔ Lock skills to reflect non‑negotiables

If a role truly requires deep expertise in one area, lock it and see how the rest adjust.

✔ Analyze job descriptions

Paste a job description and the tool highlights the skills it implicitly demands.

✔ Compare profiles side‑by‑side

Save two profiles—such as “Job Description” vs. “Realistic Candidate”—and compare them visually.

✔ Visualize everything

The tool includes both a bar chart and a radar chart to show how balanced (or unbalanced) a role really is.

✔ Use presets for common ID archetypes

Explore built‑in presets like:

• Generalist ID
• Technical ID
• Creative ID
• Facilitator‑Heavy ID
• eLearning Developer
• Advanced eLearning Developer
• Unrealistic Job Description
• My Actual Career Path

You can even create and save your own custom presets.

The calculator highlights a truth that often gets lost in job postings:

You can be great at many things, but you can’t be an expert in everything at once.

When a role demands mastery across eight distinct disciplines, the realism score drops—and the visualizations make that imbalance obvious. This helps:

• Hiring managers write clearer, more achievable job descriptions
• Recruiters understand the difference between ID, eLearning, and technical roles
• Candidates articulate their strengths without feeling pressured to “be everything”
• Teams identify gaps and hire intentionally

Hiring Managers & Recruiters

Use it to sanity‑check job descriptions and understand the realistic skill mix of an ID.

Instructional Designers & Developers

Use it to reflect on your own career path, identify strengths, and communicate your expertise.

L&D Teams

Use it to map out team capabilities and plan for future hiring needs.

Anyone Curious About the Field

Use it to explore how diverse—and specialized—the world of instructional design really is.

This isn’t just a slider widget. It’s a conversation starter.
A myth‑buster.
A visual argument for realistic expectations in our profession.

My goal is to help people see instructional design for what it truly is: a rich, multifaceted discipline where depth matters, trade‑offs are real, and thoughtful specialization leads to better learning experiences.

If you’d like help interpreting your results or want to explore how this tool could support your hiring or team‑building process, I’m always happy to connect.