How Stand-Up Comedy Can Help You Be A Better Product Manager
I have a great deal of admiration and respect for Stand-Up Comedians.
They’re not afraid to address the elephant in the room. Having the courage to get in front of audiences night after night on the road, spending many years in obscurity while they try to find their voice. The work ethic behind what they do leaves a lot to be admired.
What are ideas and aspects that you can take from stand-up, and apply it to your work as a Product Manager?
1. It takes time to become a good stand-up.
- Jerry Seinfeld, born in 1954 did his first open mic in 1976. Five years later, he did sets on the Tonight Show. In 1989, Seinfeld began airing.
- Dave Chapelle, born in 1973 started doing Standup at the age of 14. Chapelle’s Show began airing in 2003.
- Louis CK, born in 1967, made his first standup appearance in 1985. He did such a bad job that he didn’t try again for another two years. In 1996, HBO aired his first comedy special.
- Rodney Dangerfield, born 1921, started writing for comedians at the age of 15. In the 1960s, he returned to the stage but still struggled to find himself. Remaking his image, he started to get noticed in the late 1960s.
For Product Managers:
It takes time to become a good Product Manager. You need to have, as Nassim Taleb puts it, some skin in the game. You need to get some failures under your belt. Get some product launches out. Things will go wrong, and things won’t turn out the way you wanted them to. Which leads into the next point.
2. You’re going to fail.
There’s a great series of videos from Jimmy Fallon called “Worst I ever bombed”, where famous standups talk about their worst times bombing. Here’s one with Chris Rock.
It take years for standups to get to a point of where they can get recognition. It takes plenty of bad performances in small clubs with disinterested people before people come out to see them in droves. Oh, and plenty of sets that bomb.
Here’s Jim Norton on the worst time he bombed:
I cried on the way home from the gig because I thought my dream of being a comedian was over. I have bombed a lot worse since then, but none ever hurt as much as that one did.
I think the best way to handle bombing is to acknowledge it. At first, you try to dig yourself out by doing jokes, but once you realize that you are not going to salvage the set, might as well acknowledge it and enjoy it.
For Product Managers:
You’re going to have failures, so might as well learn to deal with it. Learn from them, and be ready to move on. No, you’re not telling jokes in front of a crowd that gets no reaction, but it might be releasing a product or feature to crickets, or hostility.
3. You’ll have your hecklers.
Ah, the Heckler. One of the best things in stand-up is watching a pro dress the heckler down in front of the crowd for ruining the flow of the show. I’m not going to link to any right here (they are VERY NSFW for the most part), but go search your favorite comedians on YouTube and watch them deal with hecklers.
For Product Managers:
I’m not saying you’re going to have people come to your office and heckle you while you work, or you should do the same to the customers that seem to constantly complain about everything. And no, you can’t go to their work or home and heckle them, like that one Seinfeld where Jerry goes and heckles the lady at her work after she heckled him during his set.
As well, I’m not saying you dress them down in a manner that comedians do, but just know that hecklers, or doubters, or naysayers or going to be always present, no matter what, so learn to have them around, and move on.
4. Don’t fall back on your past glories. Always evolve.
Here is a video of George Carlin in a suit performing fairly clean comedy, before he reinvented himself into what people remember him as. A lot of the YouTube comments mentioned they were waiting for George to come on stage, only to later realize that they were already watching him.
Here’s George talking about reinventing himself and finding his voice.
It should be noted the video above was just just a few months prior to his death.
Each year for his HBO specials, Carlin would throw out his material and start again for the next special. He didn’t rely on his past jokes. He ended up doing 14 HBO specials.
Throwing out old jokes was a turning point for Louis CK.
“I had been going in a circle that didn’t take me anywhere,” C.K. said in a speech honoring George Carlin. “I used to hear my act and go ‘this is shit and I hate it.’…I’d been doing the same hour of comedy for 15 years and it was shit, I promise you.” He listened to a CD of George Carlin discussing how Carlin workshopped comedy. “…The thing that blew me away about [Carlin] was that he just kept putting out specials. Every year there would be a new George Carlin special…and each one was deeper than the next.” C.K. decided to throw out his 15 years of material and start again, with nothing.
Burn It Down and Start Again: 4 Comics Who Threw Out Their Material and Reinvented Themselves
It was at this point where Louis really began to find his voice as a stand-up and become the world class comic that he is today.
For the Product Manager:
Don’t rely on all your past glories. Be ready to move on and make something better. Whether a new product, whether it’s your own, at a company, or a new company altogether, don’t just rely on all your past glories. Don’t be the hack comedian who still does the same material over and over from years ago.
5. Even the best still need to work on their craft.
When you watch any HBO or netflix comedy special, this isn’t the first time the Comedian is doing that material in front of an audience. They’ve spent months in smaller venues ironing out the kinks, finding what works and what doesn’t. They worked hard to get their material down pat. Many of these specials you watch tend to be 2–3 different sets spliced together pulling the best portion of performances from each.
For the Product Manager:
Keep learning and growing. Go take some classes. Go take up a new hobby. Read more fiction. There are a million different things here to keep growing as a person. Keep working at your craft.
6. Addressing the elephant in the room that make people uncomfortable.
Comedians are not afraid to provoke, evoke, get a reaction, or shock. They’re not afraid to talk about touchy or uncomfortable subject areas that others don’t. They’re not afraid to address the elephant in the room.
For Product Managers:
I’m not saying you bring up things just to get a reaction out of people, but don’t be afraid to bring up the elephant in the room. If you’re thinking it, chances are that someone else in the room is thinking about it as well. So don’t be afraid to point out if you think something can be better, or if something is wrong, or if a product stinks in its current iteration. Don’t be afraid to do so.
Conclusion:
The work ethic of stand-up comedians have many aspects that you can be influenced by and implement into your work as a Product Manager. From dealing with failures, hecklers, to addressing the elephant in the room, take these ideas into consideration and see how they mold your views as a Product Manager.
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