Do you need to understand our industry?

Less than you would expect, and understanding why tells you something about how these projects work.

What I do not need

I do not need to know your products the way you do. I have built for valve manufacturers, solar repair operations, certification schemes and estates, and I was not an expert in any of them when I started, and I am not now.

What I do need

I need to understand the shape of your process — where information enters, who touches it, where it waits, where it goes wrong. That is a transferable skill, and honestly the patterns repeat far more than any industry likes to believe.

I also need someone who does know the domain to be available. Someone who can tell me why that field must never be blank, and what happens if this ships without that certificate. In one project the client's technical manager was described to me as "the fact holder", which is exactly right. Every build needs one and you should know who yours is.

The advantage of being an outsider

People inside an industry stop seeing its oddities. An outsider asks why the form is printed, signed, scanned and then re-typed. Sometimes there is an excellent regulatory reason. Often the answer is that it was like that when they got here.

You cannot ask that question convincingly if you have been in the industry twenty years. It is one of the few advantages of arriving late.

Where I would say no

If a domain is so specialised that getting it wrong is dangerous — clinical decisions, structural safety — I would want a specialist alongside, and I would say so rather than learn on your project.