Video Game Design & Development

Capturing Your "Suite of Abilities"

Darya Talia

May 14, 2026

What is a Suite of Abilities?

A Suite of Abilities is your collection of developed abilities that can be used together to create a specific outcome and customer solution. Abilities are skills that you have knowledge of and have developed some level of competency or mastery in. They are something that is developed over time and can be recreated with a strong level of consistency. Abilities could be web design, project management, bookkeeping, car detailing, etc.

Let's say you work at a convenience store. What would you say your Suite of Abilities are? You could say: inventory management, customer service, point of sale systems, and food safety. The convenience store has recognized all of these abilities as valuable and necessary for the operation of their business, and was willing to train you on mastering these abilities. But abilities are transferable and transformable, and you can think of them separately from where they're currently being applied.

This blog post may contain links to referral opportunities for the brands I trust. The ones included in this article are listed and organized at the end of the article and marked by (#).

How do you define your Abilities?

You can define your abilities by thinking of the skills you use most often in your day-to-day life, work or personal, that create tangible outcomes. At work, you may be the go to person for printing documents or troubleshooting the printer. These abilities to "create physical prints" or "troubleshoot printers and copiers" can be applied in numerous environments. At home, you may clean and stock your fridge and pantry. "Food safety" and "supply management" are very useful abilities.

Start with the oldest abilities you have and consider all of the ways you've applied them and for how long. This shows competency and experience level. Something like "online file management" could be as simple as organizing documents in Google Drive or your company's preferred cloud storage service, or "event set-up and tear down" could apply to catering, esports tournaments, or job fairs. The trick is to see the inherent value in the work you've done for others and see how others could value that work, as well.

You should also consider your technology and existing physical materials as a part of your abilities, as well. An internet connection and computer can be used to conduct many services, especially remotely, and can serve as your primary architecture for conducting business. You may be familiar with many online tools and software, ranging from social media to customer relation management. There are numerous free and open-source software and platforms available to create work and conduct business, and of course paid tools that may have higher quality features. Here are some of my free and/or open-source recommendations:

Trello/Asana: Online, Collaborative Kanban (task list) Board
Ellipsus: Multi-platform Writing Software
Google Suite (1): Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and more
HubSpot: CRM (Customer Relation Management) and Email Marketing
Square: Point-of-Sale Service
Krita/Inkscape/Gimp: Digital Art Software
Canva: Digital Products, Presentations, Graphic Design, Photo Editing
Linktree: Link-based Landing Pages
Buffer: Social Media Scheduler
Visual Studio: Code Editor and IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
Github: Version Control for Programs
Blender: 3D Modeling and Animating Software
OBS Studio: Live Streaming or Video Recording Software

You should also consider tools such as tablets and cell phones. For physical media, take inventory of what you have, be it poster boards, canvases, oils, inks, and others, and determine what you can create using your skills plus materials.

How do you create work, products, or services from your Suite?

If you want to make something of your own with your SoA, you take your abilities and define SMART outcomes. Outcomes are the end results that your clients or customers receive from your abilities, like a functional website or a hosted wedding reception. Using the SMART framework provides the language you need to express your ability to your audience and to define your goals and limits available in any particular service. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) is a good way to look at an ability. It is something you can name, quantify, reproduce, has value, and can be completed given time.

As practice, think of what work, products, or services can be produced given the following Suite of Abilities:

Market Research
Design Aesthetic
Online Store Management
Physical Product Fulfillment
Product Development

Your solution is how the presence of the receivable benefits your client over its previous absence. Before having a website, a client may struggle to get referrals from online sources, like their social media, and after, they are able to show up higher in search results.

How do you market your Suite?

When it comes to marketing, you have to consider who you know and who you don't, and what their personal needs would be. Who you already know is incredibly valuable, as some of your first clients may come from personal relationships or pre-existing networks. Share with those around you with your clearly set SMART SoA what you can do for them, and how it will improve their current situation. If they're not interested in what you're offering now, they can spread the word to someone they know or re-engage with you later since they've been introduced to your work.

Who you don't know is a bit trickier, since it involves tightly defining your target audience and meeting them where they're at. Whether that's through social media marketing, online ads, or physical ads like billboards and business cards, you have to be strategic about where your audience would naturally be and when/why they would be there. Offering car detailing is generally good, but staging your cards at a local nail shop may not net you as many inquiries as at a local mechanic.

This applies to social media, as well, since different age groups tend to use social media at variable rates, and their "why" for using that platform affects what they engage with. Since Facebook is now for an older more conservative crowd, you may have a lot of luck promoting traditional services such as pressure washing or house cleaning there. When making your posts, you can break your abilities back down into skills in order to place keywords into your posts that attract the attention you want.

Follow your Suite of Abilities

Ultimately, defining and using your Suite of Abilities to create your own work is about following what you can do and letting it become something you want to do. Your life until this point has meant something, and defining your Suite of Abilities, whether to find a new hobby or start your own business, is incredibly valuable to appreciating yourself.

Let me know if, for the Suite of Abilities listed above, you came up with "Stationary", or if there's something else that can be done with those abilities. Keep Dreaming, young ones. 💙

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