Often when seeking advice, we set out to find those who have ‘Domain’ knowledge’. Those who know what we need to know because they have ‘been there done that’ or have studied the domain extensively for one reason or another.
When you break it down, there are three components to building valuable domain knowledge:
First hand experience.
There is no better way to gain a feel for a market than to be out there, in the weeds, dealing with the drivers of performance as well as the day-to-day challenges that arise. Understanding ‘why’ things happen is infinitely better than just being able to observe them happening, it gives you a sense, an instinct that cannot be easily defined. Hands on experience and exposure to a market and its drivers offers the opportunity for the nuanced understanding you may be looking for. Fingerspitzengefuhl‘ is a German word for it.
Helicopter view.
In a helicopter, you are high enough to see the whole domain, but still low enough to be able to see the features that make up the whole. Importantly, you can zoom in and out to investigate features that grab the attention in some way, to examine how they work, and the relationships they have to other features in the terrain.
Through others eyes.
Being able to see and objectively assess your value proposition from the perspective of your ideal customer is vital, a basic discipline of marketing and sales. Why should they buy yours, and not the offering of the opposition? You also need to be able to look at yourself through the eyes of your competitors, seeking the points of relative weakness and strength, the potential paths to a greater share of wallet, or attracting new customers. Others, not necessarily those with whom you are commercially engaged can also have an influence in the way you deploy your limited resources. Regulators, interest groups, research bodies, and others can all have an influence on your enterprise. Being attuned to the potential impacts of those views is an important component of domain knowledge. Just look at what a small group of animal rights activists did to the live cattle trade to Indonesia a few years back. Irrespective of your views on the rights and wrongs, they managed to totally change the face of a large industry almost overnight.
Most business owners find themselves short of the time and expertise to build a nuanced view of their domain. Confirmation bias also tends to rob them of breadth of view. Engaging an advisory group, or individual is the best way to fill in the holes and build long term success.
