Why Domain Expertise Compounds

The Compounding Effect

When you spend years in a specific domain, you accumulate something beyond knowledge. You develop intuition—the ability to recognize patterns before they fully form, to sense when something is wrong before data confirms it.

In rights management, I can look at a proposed deal structure and immediately identify where complexity will emerge. Not because I've analyzed it, but because I've seen hundreds of similar situations.

This intuition cannot be taught or accelerated. It only develops through repeated exposure over time.

The T-Shaped Myth

The "T-shaped professional" model suggests deep expertise in one area combined with broad knowledge across many. It's a useful framework, but it undersells how deep the vertical needs to be.

In my experience, the horizontal bar of the T has diminishing returns. Basic familiarity with adjacent domains helps communication but rarely drives differentiation.

The vertical stroke—depth—is where value compounds. Deep expertise in media rights means understanding not just the technology, but the business models, the stakeholder dynamics, the regulatory landscape, the historical context that shapes current practices.

When Generalists Win

To be fair, generalists have advantages in certain contexts:

The Hidden Cost of Switching

Every domain switch resets your intuition clock. You bring transferable skills—stakeholder management, prioritization frameworks, technical communication—but you lose the accumulated pattern recognition.

I've watched talented PMs switch industries seeking variety, then struggle for years to rebuild credibility. The skills transferred. The judgment didn't.

A Practical Consideration

If you're early in your career, experiment. Try different domains. Find one where the problems genuinely interest you, where you're curious about edge cases, where you read industry news voluntarily.

Then stay. The compounding starts slow but accelerates. Five years in, you're fluent. Ten years in, you're an expert. Fifteen years in, you're one of the few people who truly understands how things work.

That understanding has value no generalist can replicate.