[SQueeeeeL]

Because those skills require actual experience and domain-expertice. You can't factory print MBAs that actually give you skills, but you can create the illusion of value by teaching something, so they throw out a bunch of random econ and ways to control employees and everything gets a little bit worse everytime someone graduates

[perrygeo]

This. Some product folks know their industry well and have actual hands-on experience building something in the same ballpark. They are a joy to work with. Even if they don't do their job particularly well, you can ask them real questions and trust them to make reasonable decisions. They have an intuitive sense of what does and doesn't work for the target audience.

Product folks who don't have domain experience always seem to fail, no matter how hard they work. Their opinion is not trustworthy on important topics. To compensate for their obvious lack of merit, they HUSTLE. They fall into the trap of crowd-sourcing ideas, insisting on design patterns that make no sense, and micromanaging a project to death with story points. They pathologically avoid any tough decisions (because deep down they know they don't have the skill or knowledge to make them) and prefer to focus on small tractable tickets that they show visible progress. No matter how well they run their processes, their lack of domain experience will almost ensure poor quality.

[rjbwork]

Unfortunately, domain experience is no panacea. Dealing with product people that don't understand technology but do understand the domain is equally as frustrating.

[testTED]

Those with the domain expertise stay away because of this culture.