Is it important to find your own product interesting?

Like many said here, it really depends on what motivates you. If the money/idea of building a business is enough, you don't need to enjoy the product.

There are examples such as Bradley Jacobs, a 5x billion-dollar founder/CEO who buys a specific business in a growing industry and use them as a platform to acquire others and consolidate a market.

He operates the businesses himself, at least for the first years. The industries includes Waste Management, Logistics, Construction Rentals and Oil Trading - none of them are related and I find really hard to believe he is deeply interested in each product or service.

The man seems purely motivated by the challenge and by the dynamics of the business world as a whole. If you're like this, you don't need to like your product.

Boring or unpromising? Usually when we don't believe in our own idea, it starts to feel boring.

Sometimes you just need a new co-founder to brainstorm some new ideas and give a fresh air to your product. Sometimes the idea is just unpromising for you from the beginning, and that's why it seems boring to you.

Doesn't matter how good the idea sounds on paper if you can't bring yourself to work on it everyday.
On a sidenote, sometimes things look boring when they are in the very inicial states but once you get some track it gets much more interesting.

What is boring is boring. I would never do.

Well, if you don't find your product interesting, how do you expect others to?

Traditionally, I've skipped ideas that didn't sound interesting to me. But I don't know, maybe it would be worth it to do a boring idea 🤷‍♀️

For me, I can never build a product that I do not find interesting. In fact, I use all of my products almost every day, it's the #1 source of motivation to push the project forward, not money.

An idea is only 1% of the picture. 99% is about execution.

That said, I think you can take a boring idea and execute it in a really executing way. Just ask yourself what makes it boring and what you can do to make it 10x more fun.

as always... it depends. if it's not interesting enough, you won't want to work for it. if money matters, then it's a trade-off of working on something boring to get money. you get the picture?

Definitely. When you talk about your product to most people they can be uninterested, which is the most demotivating thing ever, coupled with low market pull in the early life-cycle of your product, this could make or break it. Your passion for the product you're building could be a deciding factor in terms of its success. Money alone it's a fantastic motivator.

The only time I did it was when it had a high moral cause (a volunteering app)

Ideally I don't want to ever work for something I don't find interesting and preferably with added value (Past projects were about creativity / fitness / social)

In terms of productivity, I think it will also be impacted by the lack of interest, and vise versa, I believe that if you are fascinated by the project you will push yourself further, talk about it with more excitement and will have an easier time to understand the user.

Good luck building a product you find boring, tackling all the difficulties you will face & still finding the motivation to continue

For me, it's definitely important, or I wouldn't be able to get excited about it. If I'm going to be working on something for weeks at a time, I need to like it. It doesn't mean I have to use the product myself—I just can't be bored by it.

I've worked on products that I wasn't personally interested in, but they were interesting to learn more about and get into the heads of the people who would buy them. Part of what drew me in was how excited the companies were about their own products—they had such a passion for them that I caught some of that excitement myself.

That being said, I don't think you can expect to do your best work if you're not interested in what you're writing about. So if you find yourself just going through the motions with a company or a product and feeling like you can't get excited about it, give yourself permission to stop working with them or move on from that project.

One concept I've come to really appreciate after building a few businesses:
Founder <> Customer fit.

I found that even some of the most exciting products to be an absolute drag to work on because I didn't care for the customer segment I was serving (the joke is always about making software for dentists or lawyers ha!).

Inversely, building a business or product – even if boring – that truly helps a customer segment you love can be really energizing.

Bonus points: some of the most boring businesses are often incredibly profitable and overlooked by would be competition. 😁

For me, starting a business involves so much more ownership and commitment, I think it's really important to connect with the mission of the product. I couldn't see myself, long-term, working on a product that I didn't feel invested or excited by.

When I work for another company, my focus shifts. My main goals are to learn new skills, be a part of a solid team, and get compensated. I am okay with working on more "boring" products in this case if those boxes are checked.

I'd go for it — boring or not.

I like to think it's possible to find anything interesting. And even if the product is boring, maybe you can enjoy coding it? Or the challenge of growing it?

Yes it is important to find products like I did... at https://techmantion.com/, and https://healthmantion.com/

There a diverse sources of motivations that aren't necessarily related to the idea itself:

• money
• creative process
• improving the world
• receiving appreciation of users
• challenging yourself / leave comfort zone
• learning how to found and grow a company

I am a newbie who's still learning how to code (So take this with a pinch of salt)

I am doing a lot of these small and boring exercises given by my course instructor. Which I find really & I mean REALLY boring. (What is the point of doing this? Writing this code which spills out a random set of numbers?) But, now that some things have started making sense in my head. I beginning to understand even though these exercises are boring at first. I started enjoying it! Once I wrap my head around it, the thrill of solving problems kills all boredom.

I think the same thing can be done to projects ideas. Yes, it sounds boring. I mean, who wants to make this email marketing tool? Right?

But, if we just start learning about problems we are working on. Like understanding core concepts... I find as we learn more and more about the thing we are working on. It's start to become quite enjoyable.

And, before we know it, we start to have fun, working on this thing... on this problem

Tldr: You start to enjoy boring things once you understand & and start solving this problem. 😀

(Thanks for reading till the end... And, sorry for my poor English. Not my first language you see. Hope I was able to articulate my point.)

For me, the question is: can you see yourself spending 4-7 years working on this (assuming you are going the typical VC route)? Or will you count the days until you can do something else?

If you are able to draw energy from seeing the business grow, the product doesn't neccessarily have to be interesting because it's not the only thing that gives you fire (although I personally think it helps keeping up the motivation). In a sense, it would function as a means to an end, where you get psyched about it because it leads to what you ultimately care about - growth.

The Axiom says that the product must solve a real problem that people have;

That said, most of the time people find solutions to problems they have in the first place, this often is the sign that the problem exists, and they're not the only ones having it.

Nothing stops you to find solutions to problems you don't have and so don't care about, it's just harder coming up with good solutions and staying motivated.

NEVER fall in love with your own product. I learned it the hard way. Your problem needs to solve a problem people have; more than anything else it does.

Things that don't matter -

1. Single sign-on
2. Dark mode
3. Typography
4. Eye-pleasing color palette
5. Beautiful 'About Us' section
6. A cool 'Contact Us' form (simply put your email ID instead)
7. The quality and scalability of code
8. Cloud infrastructure that powers your product.

Of course that's a gross generalization. I only wish to point out that features that we care the most about aren't always the feature market cares about.

Don't fall in love with your product. You may have to kill it; if the market doesn't accept it.

In May 2018, I built a product I love, for a market I don't care about - one of my biggest mistakes.

It took me 3 years to stop working on it, I was torn apart

• my $6,000 MRR
• a market I didn't care about

Luckily, covid killed my startup and forced me to move on to something else.

💡 (my) Lesson: if you're in for the long run pick a product & a market you love. Or simply a problem you care about.

(if you want to see the product I mentioned, it's VirallyBot in my IH profile)

The only thing that has gotten me through tough times building an online video editor is being SUPER next level passionate about it

IDK if I would have made it this far without it

I act with my sense and some logic. My spider-sense is that something boring is boring for everyone. But if that boring thing is subjective rather than general, it is necessary to stop and think here. Is it just boring for you? Is this awesome for anyone else? Is that how all people in the world think about it? If yes, yes, it is boring and not worth the hassle at all. If not, you can do business with people who like it. If you don't like it, don't mess with it. If you don't like it and you need money then go get a job that you don't like less. If it is both yes and no then there is great potential for success here.

If you have an idea that will make money I would suggest to make money with that product and sell it. After that you will enjoy focusing on ideas you like.

I personally never stuck on the long term with products that I wasn't using myself or that I found interesting, literally NEVER happened.

I think this is because although money is a good motivator, before you are going to see any, a lot of time will pass and in that time you will want to quit if you are not passioned about the project.

I think so. If you don't enjoy working on what you're working on, then how are you going to make it through the tough times. If you havent hit the tough times yet, don't worry, they're coming. They don't avoid anyone.

Put another way - have you ever enjoyed a job where you disliked what you did? Probably not...

Uh, definitely yes.
You can go into ideas that sound boring to others, but if they sound boring to you it's unlikely you'll ever be able to generate any revenue.

I believe it is to stay passionate about it long term. Perhaps surrounding yourself, if you aren't already, with others that energize you about the product. Perhaps also figuring out what excites your customers about the product.

Christopher Carter
chriscarterux.com

Automate as much as possible with python

There are some really great ideas mentioned here, I would only add that it depends on the role you are undertaking in this idea/product the more charge, lead you have to take to shape this product the more enthusiasm you should have. $$$ can also be a great source of enthusiasm as well but the idea must be rich enough to buy you (this line for humor by the way). Moving on though, if you are in a supportive role then you might get by even, doing a great job.

Personally, I would give it a go unless it really really really doesn't move me anymore. That is also of course because I only have this idea and nothing other in my idea box.

To end with I leave an analogy, would an artist paint a piece the idea for which does not move him/her, but perhaps for the money he/she might 😁

Boring is just a matter of perspective.

CRMs are boring, but Salesforce is anything boring. That's because Marc Benioff wasn't building and selling a CRM but a belief system (what I call a BLUNT belief). And he had a lot of fun doing it (and made a hell of a lot of money doing so).

If I were you, stop looking for fun ideas and start looking for a belief that you can promote to the world. For Salesforce it was NO SOFTWARE. For Apple it was Think different, for HubSpot it was inbound marketing etc. Beliefs are not only more effective at growing a business (as long as you follow the BLUNT formula like the aforementioned companies), but they are infinitely more fun to sell and allow you to sell any product you want to believers.

@LucyAnimus I think it completely depends on the person.

Some people need to resonate with what they are doing, some don't. The bad news is that you won't know until you are a couple of years into it. At least in my case that's when I began "missing not being a user of my own product".

Also, if you are not a user or at least a target of your own product, you will find more difficult to "think like the user" and that makes everything harder:

• You find it harder to see your next launch

• you find it harder to write the copy

• you won't be able to be the "face of your brand" (which, IMO, is only gonna keep getting more important)

If I could go back in time, one of the things I would change would be choosing a product / project that I use.

But I say: I think it's different for each person.

There are plenty of opportunities out there. Giving the option, I would choose the one that resonates more with you personally 😊

I think it is for me. Like I said here, I just know I won't make something good if there isn't someone on the team with genuine enthusiasm and excitement about a product or problem.