Subject Matter Expertise of a Product Manager

Question: "I've been a PM in the same industry for a number of years. Am I limiting myself? Do I need to expose myself to other domains to improve?"

I've been through this in my early career.

Most of my initial gigs - Pakwheels, Naitazi, Yallamotor etc. were online classifieds/auto portals.

Like anything else there are pros & cons involved.

If the domain you operate in has tons of competition & great potential to scale, there's no harm in specializing e.g. certain e-commerce categories & fintech are bound to boom.

In fact, that depth keeps making you valuable to players higher up in the food chain.

The downside is that you can hit a creative ceiling after a point & the process 'seems' repetitive.

On the other hand, exposing yourself to unique domains immediately widens your horizons.

You give yourself a chance to work on different problem sets, UX challenges, processes & tech stacks.

However, if you jump around too fast, your domain knowledge remains thin.

You can eventually pick up the basic Product Management principles but subject matter expertise is a true competitive edge for a PM.

So, if you don't want to remain in an industry for the long haul, definitely consider sticking for at least a few years to be able to make an impact.