Don’t Forget the Fun

Too often as product professionals, we are under stress. Stress around processes, deadlines, budget, and remembering to bring in the market voice. Yet, if you ask around a technology business, there is abudnance of people who want the oppotunity to join the product management/product marketing teams. Really? Why?

It’s a simple answer. Even with all the stress, this job is fun. Yep, fun. No where else in the company are your analytical skills valued as much as your creative skills. No where else can you be talking with a sales associate and the President in the same hour. No where else is brainstorming and idea sharing built into the role. Product professionals get to take their days in all kinds of directions.

Looking in from the outside – it’s easy for us in the role today, to forget the lighthearted moments of our jobs. I’m thinking of the movie, “The Rookie,” where there is a line in it that the main character says as he is playing yet another game in the minor leagues (paraphrasing here, not quoting) “you know what we get to do today? We get to play baseball.” Don’t forget that while this is hard, we get to have fun. Cool.