While industry experience provides context, true 'product sense'—the intuition for what might go wrong or what questions to ask—is primarily developed through strong product management discipline. It’s about knowing how to serve a user, a skill that is transferable across industries.

An industry veteran without product discipline may build what worked years ago, ignoring current market dynamics. A skilled product manager, though new to the industry, will use discovery to find today's optimal solution, avoiding costly failures based on outdated assumptions.

Instead of viewing a lack of industry experience as a weakness, frame it as a strength. An unbiased point of view is valuable for challenging ingrained assumptions and seeing solutions insiders miss, especially regarding team dynamics and stakeholder management.

A non-linear career across varied industries isn't a weakness but a strength. This 'jungle gym' path sharpens a product manager's core toolset by forcing them to apply fundamental principles to new problems, much like a doctor specializing in different fields to become a better diagnostician.

Less mature companies over-index on industry experience, believing it shortcuts customer discovery. More mature organizations prioritize strong product discipline, knowing a skilled PM can learn any industry but a subject matter expert often struggles to learn the product craft.

The most valuable industry experience is the tacit knowledge gained from witnessing how an industry reacts to market forces like economic downturns or new technologies. This lived experience provides a deep perspective that is difficult to replicate through research alone.

To create successful products, designers must understand the entire go-to-market process. Direct sales experience reveals how decisions on pricing and packaging impact retailers and customers, preventing the creation of great products that never reach their audience due to commercial roadblocks.

Product managers are trained to conduct discovery to understand user needs, yet they frequently fail to apply this same curiosity and process internally. They don't discover what sales, marketing, and other partners need to be successful, leading to a disconnect where they only focus on shipping features rather than enabling the entire business.

The ideal product manager possesses both "book smarts" from formal training in established companies and "street smarts" from scrappy startup experience. This combination creates a highly adaptable individual who understands best-practice frameworks but also knows how to carve a path forward when resources are scarce and the playbook doesn't apply.