Industry Domain Experience: Let's Talk About It
Oh boy, this is one of my favourite topics when it comes to product management. Let's first recognise a seasoned product manager is very different from the associate level. Hell, even a product leader (who does not have to be the product manager) has a different level of experience. Too many job postings out there have these harsh requirements that pretty much rule out someone who will bring real value to your organisation. Even worse? Your application might not even warrant a call, and it gets chucked in the bin after waiting weeks on end for a response. Now don't get me wrong, in specific industries, it may be required or extremely beneficial for an advanced degree or domain expertise,. However, I honestly have never turned down an application because of someone's education or lack of industry domain knowledge. For me, a phone call is needed to find out who that person really is and what value they can bring to the table. Recruiters have that tough job of sorting out the CVs as a first step and often don’t get the key words correct or articulate the matching experience. So, if you are in a larger organisation and get hundreds of applicants, you aren't going to be calling 200 people for sure. However, a good recruiter should be versed in the same things I am going to talk about here, finding that product manager skillset and passion. That way, I feel confident that they are finding those candidates I want to chat with. That's why I love to see more and more recruitment firms out there now focusing on product management recruiting for organisations. Selfishly I still want to see all CVs to be sure sometimes. 😊
Getting back to the industry domain piece. Oh, right, check out Scott Uhrig's blog about how he breaks down domain experience. What we are talking about here is both primary and secondary industry experience when it comes to the domain. Primary being something like software, and secondary would be ERP software. Getting turned down due to primary domain experience would be ludicrous, but getting nixed for not having that secondary brain grain is mind-boggling. I once hired a dude who worked with printer software as a product manager to work on a data migration tool. Gee-whiz friend, why did you hire that guy?? Let's get into that a little bit and hopefully change your mind about who you should look for moving forward. But first, back to the application process.
How many interviews have you been in where they hammer you about an understanding of the products and the industry focus? Should you have an idea of what exactly you are getting that yourself into? Absolutely, you should do some research on the company you are asking to pay you large sums of money before engaging with them. More importantly, you should be interested and excited about the product you want to manage after looking around. I'm more worried about hiring the individual who could care less about what's being built and is just looking for the $$$ at the end of the day. Steer clear of any product management openings if you aren't excited about what you are building; we beg of you. If you want to hire the right person? Look for someone who wants to get to work right away, and you can hear the passion as they talk about why they want to work for you, and that's not coming from a cover letter, folks. Sorry-Not-Sorry...
I have enjoyed being around folks who have come in with primary and or secondary industry experience and some who have had no exposure whatsoever. Even with this "needed" experience, that doesn't mean you're going to flourish, especially if the product line is different. A good product manager can first look at what problem it is that the product is trying to solve. Most importantly, what's the outcome you are looking for? What's that change in human behaviour that you seek. If you haven't picked up a book or asked your mentor about outcomes vs. outputs, you probably should after you finish this article. You might have a quick realisation that while you thought you were achieving what customers are looking for, you might not be. That's growth for you, and you're welcome. 😊
Let's get back to the good ones out there who are the right individuals for the job. One product manager I worked with came in off products light-years away from what we worked on. I had already interviewed dozens of candidates and this person was the last one. One of the techniques I always make sure to avoid is stress questioning. You want the individual to want to work with you, not the other way around friends. It was more of a conversation for us, and I knew this budding PM was a digestive listener and looking for something exciting to build. Their value wasn't in domain experience; it was in their skills as a product manager. This person had resourced knowledge from their start as a PM to understand the customer's needs, no matter the industry. I was impressed enough that I knew they would thrive, and I could act more as a mentor than a line manager. This, this is the person you want to hire folks. They're out there, waiting for their next opportunity. Ready to build and manage something based on some crazy idea we had. I can now report back to you that this person flourished within a month's time. They took something I started and brought it even further, all because some of us believe that a conversation can tell a lot more about someone's skills than experience on paper.
Next time, I'll talk about avoiding the con artists and psychopaths that slide into companies regarding the interview process. They're out there, and if you have read Thomas Erikson's book, you will want that skill set of navigating around them.
