Do you need to love your product to be a great product manager?

In short, no, you do not need to love your products, but it does help if you do. Not every product you work on will be something that you enjoy or connect with, but that is not a requirement to successfully manage a product. Sometimes it’s okay to just love the process. But, the process of product management can be challenging and chaotic, it would help on those challenging days if you like the product or believe it can help others. So how do you continue to work on a product you may not be connected to? This is one of the few times that the broad nature of product management is positive, and you can connect in three other ways:

1. Connect with customers
2. Connect with your team 
3. Connect with the numbers 

Connect with Customers

Customers are the foundation of any product; they are the ones using your product on a daily basis. While your product may not be relevant or interesting to you, it may be a critical component to them. Connecting with your customers on a regular basis to get feedback, not just about what can be improved, but understanding their business or tasks and how they use your product. Knowing that you are able to help someone else in their lives can help you appreciate the work you do even more. By establishing stronger connections with customers, you can make the product more personable and specific. You are more likely to enjoy the work or be excited to plan the roadmap if you know that shipping this new feature would help Sophie from accounting at Company X speed up her time to process pending accounts. Customer engagement can be a boost to your connection to your product. Seek out customer feedback often to make sure that you understand the why behind your product.

Connect with Your Team

Not enjoying your product is one thing, but you should at least enjoy the team that you work with. Change your focus from the product to your team, and you can focus on making sure people reach the potential that you are providing good opportunities and strategies for them (and the product) to succeed. Connecting with your team as a product manager is not just about building relationships; it’s about creating an environment of collaboration, trust, and empowerment. These factors can significantly enhance the success of your team, the product you’re working on, and your own effectiveness as a product manager. By focusing on the team dynamics, the product will continue to grow and succeed if everyone feels safe, included, and valued. By doing this, you are growing your own product management skills, which will help you be successful in your career for any product you manage. Problem-solving is a key part of product management. If you connect with your customers and know their problems, make it your goal to solve them.

Connect with the Numbers

The main goal of product management is to grow your product. Growing your product means more usage, more usage means more dollars, more dollars means more resources, more resources mean more features that, in turn, can increase your usage. Watching your product grow can be an amazing feeling, whether you are connected to the product or not. Setting goals and metrics allows you to have extrinsic factors motivating you to succeed and ensure your product continues to grow and be profitable. Metrics provide quantifiable evidence of whether the product is achieving its goals. Tracking your progress shows you how far your product has come, and that can be a motivating factor to continue to push for more enhancements. Another bonus of tracking your metrics is that it provides insights and identifies potential opportunities and issues that you may find more interesting. If you are not connecting with your product, it can also be challenging to make decisions about priorities and where to put your resources. Looking at the numbers allows you to make data-driven decisions that are objective and more easily highlights possible pain points that you may have missed.

Overall, it can be challenging to connect with a product that you are not interested in. Product management is already difficult and requires a variety of skills from you on a daily basis. Not all products you work on will be exciting or relevant to you. Until you find a product you are passionate about, try connecting with your work in other ways through the product management processes. You do not need to love your product to be a great product manager. By connecting with your customers, teams, and metrics, you can ensure that you stay engaged with your product and continue to grow, both your skills and your product.

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