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I& #39;ve been thinking a lot about a concept I& #39;m calling "Imported Knowledge": taking experience from one domain and applying to another. Now that I& #39;m watching for it, I keep seeing this technique used in successful companies and products. (1/n)
e.g. Apple: "Our goal was to bring a liberal arts perspective and a liberal arts audience to what had traditionally been a very geeky technology and a very geeky audience." https://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141115121/steve-jobs-computer-science-is-a-liberal-art">https://www.npr.org/2011/10/0... (2/n)
In other words, Apple& #39;s special sauce was making computing better by using expectations, skills, and tools from other fields (art, industrial design, luxury goods, etc) that the tech industry previously lacked or ignored. (3/n)
Another example is expats/immigrants who use knowledge of one culture to improve another one, e.g. @DanGrover (you should follow!) who worked at WeChat in Guangzhou. His insights about Chinese mobile UX are so good because he knows *both* US & CN. http://dangrover.com/archive/ ">https://dangrover.com/archive/&... (4/n)
Another example: my previous company @cantaloupesys built tech for the vending industry. A big advantage was our CEO @mdeeps who had grown up in a family vending business, so he instinctually knew things about the industry that others needed time to discover. (5/n)
Another (sad) example: Adam Gadahn, who parleyed American-ness into a senior terrorist position:
> In a short period of time, Gadahn became a senior advisor to bin Laden...playing the role of "translator, video producer, and cultural interpreter." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam... (6/n)
> In a short period of time, Gadahn became a senior advisor to bin Laden...playing the role of "translator, video producer, and cultural interpreter." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam... (6/n)
Another example is "Moneyball". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball ">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mone...
Any good scientist or financial analyst knows to use basic statistical techniques to optimize the return of a financial portfolio or scientific process. But applying these techniques to pro baseball was a huge innovation.
Any good scientist or financial analyst knows to use basic statistical techniques to optimize the return of a financial portfolio or scientific process. But applying these techniques to pro baseball was a huge innovation.
Or a personal example: I worked as a software developer for a few years before switching to PM. My atrophied dev skills are still very helpful, because it& #39;s much easier for me (compared to less technical PM folks) to efficiently communicate and collaborate with engineers. (7/n)
As these examples suggest, Imported Knowledge doesn& #39;t have to be expert-level. As long as it vastly exceeds normal expectations in your industry or role, even average knowledge of one domain can be a superpower in another domain. (8/n)
I often encourage people to "mine their experience" for potential Imported Knowledge superpowers. Have experience that& #39;s rare among your peers? Are there roles and/or companies where this knowledge would be unusually valuable? If so, pursue them. (Not terrorism though!) (9/n)
A corollary is to not worry about acquiring seemingly irrelevant experience. E.g. did you spend a year backpacking? You& #39;re now probably an expert in laundromats, cheap food, hostels, trains, and muggers. This expertise may be very valuable in the right company or role!
P.S. - What originally got me thinking about this was how zoonotic viruses often require an intermediate host (like pangolins for SARS-CoV-2 or pigs for 1918 Flu) that can carry and intermingle both human and animal viruses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis ">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoon... Stay safe out there! (10/n)
Oops, I messed up numbering on this thread. Doh! (11/n, but really 13/n)
