There is an interesting saying in Product Management such that, "to be a good Product Manager, you have to either love or hate your product." It makes a sick kind of sense when you face a market of other products which are all being organized and positioned against yours. Love or hate for your product can be a powerful motivator, taking you that extra distance in understanding competitors, advocating for investment or sticking with it through difficult times.

Love or hate are powerful words not often spoken in executive business meetings...maybe they should be spoken more? I remember a talk I went to in which someone introduced the idea of a "Minimum Lovable Product" as a standard initial goal, versus a Minimum Viable Product. The core of the idea was that people hate using MVPs, so why should you make that your goal for an initial product?

On reflection, I don't feel you have to love or hate a particular product, but I do believe it is important to have passion for the product(s) you manage. Passion will take you through the launches which fumble, the executive transitions which force you to defend years of thought and research and the taking apart your existing markets.

When you are a leader of a product team, it is very likely you will have products in your portfolio for which you don't have a passion. Maybe it is a niche product which brings in cash, but does not require a lot of active management. Maybe it is an acquired product which is not very competitive, has huge amounts of technical debt and has a P&L in the red. For those products, as a leader you have to find some source of passion which you can share with the team managing and building it. You are a source of motivation and leadership, and if you don't have a passion it will show.

For products I don't have a particular passion for, I find passion in one or two different ways.

First is that entrepreneurial spirit which all Product Managers posess (in some variable quantity). The thrill of winning a tough customer, making it through difficult messaging and marketing activities, securing budget and funding, compiling and communicating competitive analysis, planning a new release of features, fixing / renovating those terrible parts of your product. All of these are activities which, no matter the product type, allow you to find a shared passion with staff who live and breath a particular niche.

My second go-to way to find passion is in the career development of my staff. One of my favorite authors is Richard Koch, and I remember one particular lecture he gave on the fact that everyone needs mentoring. Challenge your staff in new ways. I love giving opportunity to my staff - I'm often surprised in how they think and how they choose to solve problems. Opportunities which are particularly inspiring are those which allow for simultaneous mentoring. For example, I hired staff with extensive experience in managing consumer products, something which I had no prior experience in (my career is all Enterprise and SMB products). As I mentored them through learning the 101 and 201 level of Enterprise products, they brought a new perspective to things which significantly influenced how I thought about solving certain problems.

Passion is critical in everything you do, but in particular when dealing with products. Either a passion for the product you manage, the company you work for, the market space or the team you build. 2 or more of these are even better. Love or Hate are strong, polarizing words - but there is a sick truth in the cuthroat commercial world in which we live. There is always someone who will love or hate a market more than you do, and that passion will drive disruption which threatens your product and any security you feel.