Good question and some interesting points in the answers Women in Product. Thanks for sharing.

I’d like to share a little food for thought if that’s ok?

Having delivered software products for over 10 years and running a tech consultancy for almost 7 years, I would agree domain expertise is a nice to have but not a deal breaker. However, I’d say the ability to adapt to changes, learn quickly and act accordingly is what matters in product management. Creating software products that both delight its customers and generates expected revenues for the business is problem solving exercise. Thus, it requires a product manager that’s got their finger on the pulse of all the following at the same time: (1) the customer needs, (2) the team delivering the product and (3) the business’ objective/mission.

In the case we hired majority of those who had domain knowledge, imagine if the business decided to pivot? This would create a large turn over. So in some ways, prioritising domain expertise could be a huge risk, unless your business was niche and the benefits of this domain knowledge exceed other costs.