During this uncertain and difficult time, we’re all feeling increased stress and anxiety. They say laughter is the best medicine, and we have our fingers crossed that it works for everything we’re experiencing now, too. Hey, it’s at least worth a shot!
That’s why we’ve decided to gather even more instances of product management-related humor from around the web. All of us probably need a laugh more now than ever. We hope they put a smile on your face, even during the current crisis.
WFH do’s and don’ts
Seasonal #WFH tips!
What other things should we remember on video calls ?#CoronavirusLockdown #WFHTips pic.twitter.com/or3NnsvUTm
— Shipping Tomorrow 🚀 (@ShippingTmrw) March 26, 2020
Oof, who has had a painfully embarrassing moment on video conferencing calls? No judgment here. We’re all trying to make this transition to remote work, and it comes with a few bumps along the way. If you’re trying to take a call from the coziness of your bed, let’s make sure that video is O-F-F. And if it’s on, make sure you at least have clothes on. Oh, and this is Google 101 — keep those embarrassing searches in incognito mode.
B-I-N-G-O
👋 How is WFH treating everyone? We made a Bingo sheet of all the things we've been experiencing with remote work. 🎉 How many squares can you cross off? pic.twitter.com/7wMDBpQGZR
— pendo.io (@pendoio) March 20, 2020
Our friends over at Pendo made a Bingo sheet and it’s safe to say that the ProductCraft team has hit bingo. Several times (we’re hoping our prize money is in the mail). The one that personally resonates with me is, “Can everyone go on mute please?!” Can I get that on a mug?
An incorrect prediction
Uh… pic.twitter.com/wJpYXfjTrt
— April Dunford (@aprildunford) March 28, 2020
April Dunford is one of the funniest product people on Twitter, in our humble opinion. She’s also the author of Obviously Awesome, which if you haven’t read it already, close this tab and order a copy right now. Recently, she got a very interesting fortune cookie. And yeah, we’d say “Uh…” is the right reaction. Better luck next time, cookie oracles.
Guilty as charged
Hey can anyone send me some remote work from home tips? I can't seem to find any on the internet
I'm kidding this is not a serious question they are everywhere
— Kelly Vaughn (@kvlly) April 1, 2020
We get it. Remote work can be hard, especially for newbies, and everyone wants to share their own tips and advice for making the transition as smooth as possible. It’s good to try a few and see what works for you. That might mean wearing jeans (in which case, we have some questions for you) or being productive during what would normally be your commute time. Or, you can just eat some cereal and read our own list of remote product management tips — yes, we’re guilty of jumping on this bandwagon.
How’s that roadmap looking?
Hey remember when we predicted a global pandemic in our Q1 roadmap planning in December?
— Tommi Forsström (@forssto) March 27, 2020
You know what they say about best-laid plans. That they get canceled, or something … All roadmaps are subject to change, even during the most normal of times. Priorities shift, resources get moved, and sometimes, true catastrophes happen. And if we have any say in your roadmap, we’d like to reiterate that now is the time time to truly focus on your customers and their needs.
RIP
Postmortems are group therapy sessions organized by PMs.
— Jeff Morris Jr. (@jmj) March 24, 2020
When you get an invite for something that says “portmortem sync” in your inbox, let it be known that your resident PM wants to talk it out with everyone. Be ready to answer questions like, “And how did that feature release make you feel? Like, really feel?” You’d better believe they’ll have a Google Doc open on another tab to document all the grievances. And if it gets emotional — which it probably will — then that’s okay, too.
ACE’ing WFH
Intercom has some great tips for remote communication, and we realized that we’re pretty guilty of not always following the first one: Assume Positive Intent. Every time someone sends a Slack without any emojis or trails off with an ellipsis, we should probably try not to jump to any conclusions that they’re mad. … Right? … Maybe? Read the full article to learn how you can improve your remote communication etiquette and keep your colleagues from wondering whether you’re angry or not.
Also, this chart made us laugh:
Personal space
I've updated my standard email "signoff;" instead of just "Thanks" it's now "Stay healthy and stay away" #SocialDistancing
— Jeff Lash (he/him) (@jefflash) March 17, 2020
One of our favorite product leaders (and ProductCraft conference speakers) puts it best: stay healthy and stay away. Even when this is all over, we might keep the “stay away” part if we’re feeling particularly antisocial.
Don’t let the door hit ya
Good riddance to Q1. Don’t ever come back. Bye.
— Ned Segal (@nedsegal) April 1, 2020
And we’ll raise our glasses to that. With any luck, Q2 will be much, much better. At least March is finally over, after lasting a full 97 days.
We hope everyone is staying healthy and practicing good social distancing. May the next edition of PM humor find you in a better place.
