I agree that designers have no monopoly on passion in the process. I’ve worked with dispassionate designers, and I’ve worked with very creative and passionate marketing people, engineers, and sales people. In a lot of cases the sales people I’ve worked with have been some of the most passionate and excited about new product. They can be the most difficult as well and I think it is because their very livelihood spend on how much they can sell of the things the NPD team has produced, so getting them onboard and excited is pretty key to success. I try to remember that a lot of times the sales guys got into this because they love this product category, so drawing on that common ground you can get places. But if you alienate them you just pound against a brick wall. I’m saying this based on mistakes I’ve made personally in this area. I didn’t talk in an language that included them and i didn’t listen enough and it contributed to a poor performing line that year insight of having a clear insight based on user needs/desires.