Projects Apptitude
apptitude

Structured technology learning and decision support

Build technical judgment. Use it when decisions matter.

Learn gives anyone a place to start and a structure to continue. Consult helps senior officers pressure-test live technology decisions.

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Two needs. Two starting points.

Build foundations over time, or pressure-test a live decision now.

The signed-in Apptitude home offering separate starting points for working through a live situation or building technology foundations
The signed-in home keeps the two jobs separate: Learn builds knowledge with continuity; Consult supports the decision already on someone's desk.
Timeline
2024 to present
Status
Live and evolving
Audience
Learners and senior public-sector decision-makers

Learning technology and governing it are different jobs.

Someone learning technology needs a clear starting point, an order that makes sense, and a way to continue without rebuilding the map each time.

A senior officer with a proposal in front of them has a different need. They may not be the deepest specialist in the room, but they remain accountable for approving, funding, defending, or inheriting the work.

Apptitude serves both without pretending they are the same journey.

I stopped asking one information architecture to do two jobs.

The first version organised learning by topic. That gave learners structure, but it did not help a senior officer answer: "What should I challenge in the proposal in front of me?"

The redesign kept Learn's curriculum and progression, then created Consult as a separate situation-led entry point. That split led to three product decisions.

Learn for foundations
Give newcomers clear entry points, guided paths, and a repeatable module structure.
Consult for live decisions
Begin with the proposal, system, or spending question already demanding attention.
Judgment without theatre
Track meaningful learning and expose evidence gaps without manufacturing mastery or a verdict.

Learn gives anyone a place to start and structure to continue.

Guided paths provide sequence across technology foundations, data and AI, product, service design, and delivery.

Each module repeats the same ladder: understand the idea, use it at work, challenge or govern it, and reflect on confidence. Notes, bookmarks, and reviewed, practised, or used progress preserve continuity.

Where a concept is easier to absorb by watching or simply listening, Learn recommends selected YouTube videos instead of rewriting the same explanation. Apptitude supplies the sequence, context, and prompts around them.

The UX Fundamentals Learn module recommending selected YouTube videos and reference articles as starting material
Start with material that fits the medium. Spent a lot of time curating videos to make an unfamiliar concept easier to watch or listen to.
The UX Fundamentals Learn module organised into understanding the idea, using it at work, challenging or governing it, and reflecting on confidence
Continue with structure. The same learning ladder carries the concept from understanding to application, governance, and reflection.

Consult is for the person accountable now.

A senior officer does not need a curriculum in the middle of a live decision. A Consult makes uncertainty, weak claims, evidence gaps, and the next action explicit without pretending to issue a verdict.

An Apptitude Consult asking what is hardest to judge about a new technology proposal
01 Name the uncertainty. Start with the decision, not a course catalogue.
An Apptitude Consult summarising proposal risks and the evidence needed for a decision brief
02 Make the gap actionable. Leave with risks, evidence asks, and pause conditions.
  1. 01

    Frame the decision

    What is being proposed, and what is hardest to judge?

  2. 02

    Locate the weak claim

    Is the problem vague, the evidence thin, or the success measure missing?

  3. 03

    Turn gaps into asks

    Request the evidence, owner, measure, or constraint needed to proceed.

  4. 04

    Carry it forward

    Leave with a brief that can structure the next conversation.

Tech Trippin turns a dubious claim into a useful question.

For a learner, it connects familiar jargon to the underlying concept. For a decision-maker, it offers an immediate question to ask. When one question is not enough, the pattern carries into a Consult.

Tech Trippin claim library showing the signal, question, and practical takeaway behind a technology phrase
Each entry turns a familiar claim into a signal to notice, a question to ask, and a practical takeaway.

Built with

App
SvelteKit, Tailwind
Data
PostgreSQL, Kysely
Search
Meilisearch
Auth
Better Auth
Observability
Axiom, OpenTelemetry

What I can't claim.

I can show that Apptitude now separates two real jobs: building technical judgment over time and applying judgment to a live decision. I cannot yet show that learners return and continue, or that Consult changes real decisions. The next step is to test both behaviours separately: whether Learn gives newcomers sustained structure, and whether Consult changes the questions senior officers ask and the evidence they request.

© 2026 Zixian Chen