#MadeToday Profile: Maker skill tree by Steph Piper

We spoke to Stephanie Piper about her new book SKILL SEEKER Maker Edition, which is being launched at the Edge on Saturday 8 March 2025.

The book is terrific, how did it come about?

Skill Seeker is a book borne from a desire to make video game skill trees for real life skills. I love the idea of gamifying learning, and I wanted to make something that could incentivise you to continue to grow your skills. I also wanted it to be off the screen, on paper and away from distractions. It began as a basic printable template, a grid of 73 tessellated hexagonal tiles. Each page covers a skill area, and each tile is something you can do in that skill, either a milestone, skill area, technique, material, safety consideration or failure you might experience. It's arranged with basic tiles at the base and more advanced tiles at the top, and to use the template, just colour in any tiles that you've already completed. It can give you a good indication of your progress, help identify your skill gaps and inspire you to try new things.

Could you tell us more about how you built the collaborative Skill Trees Project Repository?

When I made the first skill tree template I was blown away by the response after posting it online — I had a whole range of people filling it out, sending it back and commenting that they didn't realise they'd made so much progress. It was a great confidence booster to help those who might suffer from imposter syndrome, or those who might not realise the depth of a skill — you just don't know what you don't know. I began to build a repository of these templates for a range of maker skill areas, 3D printing, electronics and more by collaborating with subject experts. It's hosted on Github, which makes it easy to licence, host and accept contributions from the community. 

Soon I began to accept and add template submissions from experts in the community, and the repository of skill areas continued to grow to include more niche subjects like roller derby, climbing, comic book artistry and astronomy. It's been a real joy to make these templates up when they are submitted, there's always such a depth to these skill areas and lots of interesting new things to learn about. The skill trees repository now has about 60 skill areas covered and continues to grow with more submissions. Visit the repository here: https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree

I realised that the ideal form of this project would be a book that you could use to track a range of skills at once, plus you could see all your skills in a video game style dashboard, tally up your points and calculate your scores. Keeping it on paper means that you can have a truly self-reflective experience and get an idea of who you are and where you're going. Select new goals to work on, and even get a chance to understand the goals of friends who use the book and find out how you might help each other to level up your skills.  

It's very cool that Make picked it up, tell us a bit about how you got it published?

I created a draft and sent through book proposals to a range of publishers, and ended up working with the team from Make Magazine to make the book come to life. It's been a real dream to work with a publisher like this and I'm delighted to finally have the book available this year. It comes with a range of 15 Maker skills, from 3D modelling to laser cutting, woodworking, sewing and lots more. I'm excited to have a book launch coming up soon on 8 March at The Edge where you can get a chance to see the book and hear more about the process of making it come to life.

What's next for you? 

This year I'm also working on a kids version of the book suitable for children aged 8-12, and am seeking educators to work with who might provide feedback on beta testing copies of this book.

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Steph Piper is the Library Makerspace Manager at UniSQ, based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.  She is the Author of Skill Seeker, a book to help you track and level up your skills. She designs beautiful, multicolour circuit boards you can find on Etsy and crowdfunded GlowStitch, machine sewable LEDs.  She also created The Party Button, a two meter tall art installation inspired by the classic crosswalk interface. She teaches 3D printing, 3D modelling and Arduino classes, and has a background in biofabrication and 3D printing for medical grade implants.

For more on Steph Piper, visit makerqueen.com.au.