Improv Or Product Development

It's less like a scripted play and more like an improv show

I was making a quip at work saying that “we should stay in sync like…”, and I got stuck on what to compare it to.

I asked ChatGPT, and it suggested "actors in a play".

I liked that, but it's not exactly suitable for the situation.

Actors in a play have a script to play from.

Actors know what happens in the story.

At work, we don't know what needs to happen. We don't know how the story ends.

In fact, we often cannot even agree on what story we're playing a part in.

It's much more like an improv show, where one actor starts to act out a scene, and others have to play along, collaborate and not break the flow.

You have to be vigilant about what the others are doing, and improvise, all in a fraction of a second.

By definition you cannot prepare.

And that’s liberating.

One thing I love about improv is that there’s no wrong answer. You can be as wacky as you want as long as you’re contributing.

The only wrong answer is to try really hard to play your scene instead of the one that’s already in motion:

You have to go with the flow of the scene and see where that takes you.

Product development is a lot like this.