Screw Your Sector Experience 😉

​ ​ ​ ​ Hello Indiana, Before I kick off today, I wanted to mention something that may be of interest, particularly if you work in conversion optimization. One of the many companies I work with is a UK company called Conversion Rate Experts. They are growing like crazy and have several roles they are currently seeking to fill. If you are interested in a new position, you might want to check them out. Anyway, in my last email, I was boasting about a large project that fell into my lap, so it feels only fair that I tell you about a frustrating failure I experienced this week. I was approached by a fintech start-up that was interested in working with me. Best of all, they wanted me to start next month, which worked out perfectly as I'm slightly light on work for July. However, when we spoke, it only took a few minutes for him to conclude I was not a good fit. He was impressed by my expertise and my suggestions about how to proceed. He didn't even reject me because of my horrible personality defects. Instead, he felt I didn't have sufficient sector experience. With over 27 years of working in the industry, I have worked with almost every sector imaginable. I have worked with financial institutions and technology companies. However, I haven't worked with Fintech in particular. That was an issue for him. He isn't an isolated example either. Sector experience is a massive requirement that I see come up repeatedly for everything from job advertisements to hiring agencies and contractors like me. A personality fit matters, but sector experience does not as much as you think! I can cope with a client rejecting me for my personality easier than rejecting me for lack of sector experience. At least when I get rejected for my personality, I know the project would probably have been a nightmare if I rub the client up the wrong way. Are you not convinced? Then let me explain. Your sector is not a Unique Snowflake! For a start, those working in a sector over an extended period begin to perceive it as unique or unusual. That happens partially because the longer you work in a sector, the more you come to see its nuances and complexities. However, when working on a re-design for a website or even creating a digital strategy, these nuances are not as significant as you might think. For example, the Fintech client I mentioned earlier may have been concerned that I did not have a good enough understanding of the regulatory constraints related to selling financial services. Although they would be correct that the financial services sector has regulatory requirements unique to it, almost all sectors have legal requirements of some sort. There is nothing unique about that, so any experienced consultant will have approaches for dealing with these constraints. Even more significant differences like the gap between business and consumer are not as vast as you might expect from many perspectives. So, for example, usability or conversion rate optimization work does not vary between B2C and B2B as much as you would expect. In both cases, you are trying to persuade people to take action, and people make decisions in a consistent way. However, even if these differences did exist, there are still benefits from involving people outside the sector. Sector Experience Limits Your Thinking You see, the longer you work in a sector, the more it begins to limit your thinking. For example, for many years, I was fortunate enough to work extensively within the higher education sector. As a result, I came to understand its nuances and the unique challenges they faced in digital. In some ways, this proved beneficial. However, over time, I fell into a rut. Because there was so much similarity between projects, I recycled solutions and stopped looking at them with fresh eyes. I began dismissing some potential approaches because they had failed to work in the past, even though circumstances may have changed in the intervening time. This kind of mindset is something that you encounter all too often within sectors. As a result, ideas never get properly explored because something similar had failed in the past or because exploring them gets too bogged down in nuance. Then, of course, there is the fact that you become too busy watching the competition. Sector Experience Leaves You out of Touch The longer you spend working exclusively in a single sector, the more tempting it is to look to your competition for inspiration. That creates two problems. First, it will leave you trailing the competition, always copying their last idea. However, even more significantly, it will gradually lead you to look outside of the sector less and less. If you're not careful, the result can be that you fall behind best practices because you are failing to see the innovation happening elsewhere. I'm Not Slamming Sector Experience Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting that having a deep understanding of the sector doesn't come with its benefits. That is especially true if you work in-house within a sector. However, it is essential to recognize the dangers associated with overly specializing in a single sector and particularly in hiring an outside contractor who focuses entirely on your sector. Part of the reason for hiring an outsider is to get a fresh perspective, and that will not always happen if they're too highly specialized in one particular field. What I am Trying to Say I realize this probably comes across as bitter being that I lost a piece of work, but I believe there are two valuable takeaways from this experience. First, Think carefully about the kind of person you hire, whether for a full-time position or as an outside contractor. Then, ask yourself whether you need some fresh ideas and somebody to challenge the status quo. If so, look for somebody with experience outside of your sector. Second, if you work within a particular sector, regularly look outside of that sector for inspiration. Try your best to minimize the amount you focus on your competition and never reject an idea out of hand because a similar idea failed in the past. But yes, I am bitter about losing the work too! Thanks, ​ ​ If you no longer want to hear from me, I completely understand and you can unsubscribe from all emails here. Alternatively, if you need to update any of the information about yourself you can edit your profile here. ​ ​