Product Manager's Core Knowledge
Question: "What am I expected to know if I want to be a product manager?"
In order to be a product manager you will need to possess both Domain Expertise and Functional Expertise. This basically means that you will know how to do product management and have Knowledge of your customers, competition and product.
The discipline of product management consists of several roles that require specific types of expertise. The following nomenclature is used to describe the types of expertise required for each product management role, as defined by Blackblot's Product Manager's Toolkit® (PMTK) methodology.
"Domain Expertise" is knowledge in the technical and business aspects of the product, industry, market, and technology. "Functional Expertise" is the ability to use tools and execute techniques, processes and tasks that create winning products. Each ‘expertise type' (domain or functional) may have a specific ‘expertise focus' (market, industry, product, or process). For example, a person can have domain expertise in the software industry (‘expertise type') and be a market expert (‘expertise focus').