Lessons from Saturday Night Live for improving product team culture

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TLDR

John Krewson, who began his career in sketch comedy before moving to software product development, explains what product teams can learn from sketch comedy. Like comedy writers, product teams must be able to be vulnerable, throw away unsuccessful ideas, and prioritize delivering valuable products over perfect products. John shares principles and practices adapted from sketch comedy that product managers can use to balance autonomy and accountability, make meetings more engaging, and understand customer problems.

Introduction

What if the secret to building breakthrough products is less about an innovation framework and more about the chaotic, creative energy of a Saturday Night Live writers’ room? Specifically, can sketch comedy principles revolutionize the way your software teams collaborate, create, and deliver products that customers love? We are about to find out, and I won’t keep you in suspense—lessons from sketch comedy can make you a better product manager and developer. In this episode, you’ll hear specific techniques to transform boring meetings into energizing collaborative sessions, practical methods to help your team improve ideas fast, and a new approach to product ownership that distributes creative control without losing focus.

Our guest is John Krewson, who brings a unique perspective as a 25-year software industry veteran and professional sketch comedy performer, including a brush with SNL. He’s the founder of Sketch Development Services, has coached everyone from startups to Fortune 50 companies on agile transformation, and wrote the book on applying sketch comedy principles to product development, titled Pitch, Sketch, Launch.

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

John Krewson’s Journey:
John began his career as a professional actor and performed as a background player on Saturday Night Live. He then switched careers to software development and worked his way up to management, leadership, and consulting roles. As a product leader, John found himself relying on his training as an actor and director.

How Sketch Comedy Principles Inform Product Development:
A software development team builds features without knowing whether they will satisfy the customer, in much the same way as a sketch comedy team has no idea if their sketch will be funny. The sketch comedy team mitigates risk by making their sketch only three and a half minutes long. Similar to software features, the sketch is a tight, independent unit of value, where the risk is mitigated by its independentness.

John studied the process of moving from an idea to a product in sketch comedy, particularly at SNL, and, along with a comedy sketch writer, wrote about how that process could be applied to product development in Pitch, Sketch, Launch.

Efficiency and Iteration:
In sketch comedy, 90% of sketches don’t go on the air. Comedy teams practice their ideas on small audiences to figure out which sketches are funny before bringing them to a big show. In product development, ideas should be iterated upon using customer feedback.

Vulnerability and Transparency:
Sketch comedy teams have thick skins because they’ve been told they’re not funny 90% of the time. Organization culture can allow teams to be vulnerable enough to put ideas forward that may have a 90% chance of being unsuccessful.

Always Be Ready:
Lorne Michaels said, “We don’t go on because it’s ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.” Saturday Night Live has never missed a deadline in 50 years, not by aiming to be perfect, but by presenting the best version they can get done by Saturday. Rather than trying to figure out the most efficient way of landing the plane, they figure out the most valuable way of landing the plane.

Opportunities to Play:
At John’s company, Sketch, the product development teams take dedicated “play days” to play with and react to each others’ ideas, whether good or bad.

Autonomy and Accountability:
At SNL, sketch writers have 100% autonomy over writing their sketches during the week, but the director has accountability over the final show by choosing which sketches are performed. Similarly, product teams can balance autonomy and accountability by allowing independent units to build features, while having overarching accountability to select which features make it into the final product.

Agile and Scrum:
In an analogy to Scrum, on SNL, the director Lorne Michaels is the product owner, who articulates the vision for the product. The sketch writers and cast members are the development team, which executes on the vision. State managers and directors facilitate the execution and support the development team.

The Role of the Product Owner:
The product owner knows more about the customer than anyone else on the team. John suggests that the product owner should spend a third of their time with their customers understanding their problems, a third understanding the product and backlog, and a third with their team understanding engineering constraints and communicating customer insights to the developers.

The best product owners help the development team see the customer and their problems as clearly as the product owner does.

Lean Coffee:
John mixes up the routine by occasionally using a meeting structure called Lean Coffee. Everyone writes what they would like to talk about on a sticky note and puts the notes on a whiteboard. Everyone votes on what they’d like to talk about. The team talks about the topic with the most votes for 5 minutes, then for 2 more minutes if the majority wants to keep talking about it. Then they move on to the next highest voted topic.

Topics include a mix of business concerns and fun or random topics. The leader facilitates an environment where play, fun, and lightness are encouraged.

Useful Links

• Check out John’s book, Pitch, Sketch, Launch
• Connect with John on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Sketch Development

Innovation Quote

“We don’t go on because it’s ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.” – Lorne Michaels

“Nothing great was ever built by the team that couldn’t wait to clock out.” – John Krewson

Application Questions

1. How would expecting up to 90% of your ideas to be rejected change the way your product team currently operates?
2. How can you help foster a resilient, open, vulnerable culture on your product team?
3. What might regular “play” or creative sessions look like for a product or engineering team in your organization?
4. How could distributing creative control (while still maintaining focus) benefit or challenge your current team structure?
5. How does your team balance the tension between waiting to be “ready” and pushing forward to deliver value on a deadline?

Bio

John Krewson is the founder and CEO of Sketch Development Services, a St. Louis based consultancy that focuses on helping companies simplify the complex process of delivering software.  

Founded in 2015, Sketch is a two-time member of the Inc 5000. Sketch has worked with dozens of companies from startups to the Fortune 50 to help them learn, adopt, and apply new ways of working to match an ever-changing work environment.  

Prior to establishing Sketch, John’s career path encompassed various roles, including software developer, project manager, technology leader, and consultant. In addition to his professional endeavors, John has a unique past in the entertainment industry. In 1997, he made a brief appearance on Saturday Night Live.  

Drawing parallels between knowledge workers and entertainers, John frequently incorporates his acting background into his presentations and training events, offering unique insights and lessons that resonate with audiences. 

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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