This post is inspired by a conversation I was having with Sajan Thomas regarding the importance of domain knowledge for the Product Manager role.

Having worked on Products across multiple domains, I believe domain knowledge is important for Product Managers.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

1. Better Understanding of Customer Needs: A Product Manager with in-depth domain knowledge can better understand customer needs, pain points, market trends, and expectations. This knowledge will enable them to develop more relevant and successful products.
2. Efficient Communication: Product Managers with domain knowledge can communicate effectively (in their “language”) with their team, stakeholders, and customers. This efficient communication will assist in the product development process.
3. Faster Decision Making: They can make quick, informed decisions. They have a better awareness of the trade-offs and repercussions of their decisions.
4. Compliance: Having extensive domain knowledge helps Product Managers to ensure product compliance with industry standards.
   eg: Certain healthcare products in the US need to comply with 21CFRPart11.
   Products processing credit card transactions need to meet PCI-DSS compliance.

Disadvantages:

1. Narrow Perspective: Product Managers with domain knowledge may have a limited perspective due to their familiarity with the industry or product. That can blind them from seeing new opportunities and potential risks.
2. Resistance to Change: Product Managers with deep domain knowledge may be resistant to change and new ideas. That may lead to missed innovation opportunities.
3. Difficulty in Adapting: Product Managers with domain knowledge may struggle to adapt to new industries or product categories due to their fixed mindset.

However, not having domain knowledge is not the end of the road.
There are ways in which one can gain a “working” knowledge of the domain if not becoming an “expert.”

1. Try out various apps from the target domain.
2. Revisit Product Management basics with reference to those apps.
   Take notes and validate your observations from a Product Manager working in that domain.
3. Read about the latest trends in that domain.
4. Try to visualize a completely new product with the latest trend.
5. Start posting on social platforms about your learnings. Reach out to experts for their opinions.

Being open to new ideas, willing to learn about different industries, product categories, and user-focused thinking will help in taking the giant step to develop successful products and drive business growth in your target domain/industry.