Five Timeless Product Management Lessons from The Office’s Michael Scott
By: Himadri Joshi
Tags: Leadership Development, Product Management, Learning, Office, Leadership

Five Timeless Product Management Lessons from The Office’s Michael Scott

The world's best boss has plenty of insight for PMs.

Source: TVLine | Courtesy of NBCUniversal

For those of you who don’t know him, Michael Scott was an effervescent fictional character played by Steve Carell on a mockumentary sitcom called “The Office.”

With 42 Emmy nominations, it consistently ranked high on the viewership board of Netflix and is a Top 5 contender in almost every “Best Sitcom” list published. 15 years since its inception, viewers keep coming back to it. According to Nielsen research, The Office ranked as the most-watched show on Netflix in 2018, with 52 million minutes streamed — more than 20 million more than Friends.

An example of User Retention if nothing else.

But we don’t talk about the show in terms of actual business lessons. But if we look closer at Michael Scott-ness, we can draw Product Management pearls of wisdom from it. Here, five PM lessons from the world’s best boss.

1. Be a people person

Number one on our list is People. Throughout the show, Michael Scott cares for people around him in his very own unique way. Whether it is visiting Pam at her Art exhibition or subtle things like opening the door for the cameraman when he drives himself into the lake.

Michael makes an effort to connect with people, so much so he sometimes cares about their well being more than their performance at the job. This empathy extends to his co-workers, friends (not always a mutually exclusive group), and to his clients.

📢 “The most important thing for a company is the people. The people. People” — Michael Scott

This is the cornerstone of Product Management and cannot be stressed enough. PMs can only achieve things with others.

You know how to code an ML algorithm? Linear regression maybe? Great. You understand design heuristics principles by Jakob Nielsen? Brilliant. You’ve cracked the perfect sales pitch for the product? Way to go.

Our understanding of the concepts can act as an enabler while interacting with the people who are the masters in their domain.

In the examples above, it’s the Development, Design, and Sales Team. Don’t get me wrong—learning this and more helps you understand the ecosystem, but as PMs, we can’t work in isolation.

It's funny because its true (Source: Dilbert)

While I do not exactly follow Michael’s shenanigans, connecting with people has always helped in ways I did not plan.

Often in the PM world, this is also known as the ability to empathize. Its reverence comes from its applicability in every minute of being a PM. Some scenarios at a high level are:

Prioritization: Prioritization of features/functionalities, meetings, user tickets, etc. Product prioritization frameworks often include empathy as an impact factor for both customers and other stakeholders. Effective communication: This includes the scrum calls, client meetings, emails, etc. Empathy paves the way for effective communication as it allows us to see things from the perspective of the listener. Conflict management: One of the less spoken about skills as a PM, but quite important to say the least. Conversations are a whole lot easier when you understand the motivation and step in someone else’s shoes.

“I want people to be afraid of how much they love me” — Michael Scott

While it's practically impossible to have a personal connection with every person you work with, it helps immensely working as a PM. Begs the question, How does Michael do it? This brings us to the next lesson.

2. Embrace improvisation

Michael Scott’s love for improv comedy is quite evident throughout the show.

It kicks off with him finding a flyer and then eventually learning about it from Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles. In fact, one of his worries about moving to Colorado with his fiancée is that he has to start his improv journey back again in a new city.

The Art of Improversation (Source: Pinterest)

He has a “got-a-gun” technique for every improv scene as he believes that having a gun is the best scene elevator. The love for improv unknowingly translates into his management style and ways of working.

✍🏻 Improv comedy is about continuing a scene with the OKR set to laughing. The key to this continuum is effective listening, brainstorming and creativity.

Improv and PM have a lot in common. Starting off with the golden rule of “Yes, and…” It means that whatever your fellow improviser says or acts, you build on the same and carry it along.

Concept of “YES, AND” (Source: Pinterest)

In the PM world, we listen, build on suggestions, feedback, and ideas. This does not necessarily mean that we agree with every idea suggested but shooting down an idea, at first sight, is a No-go. Always do a “Yes, and”!

Another similarity between the two is collaborative work. An improv scene where everything looks scripted to the audience is a perfect example of everyone coming in together to create a great scene!

Creativity is another crucial tenet of improv. Improvisers get an open space to communicate their ideas within the group while performing a scene. The Office episode “Did I Stutter” starts off with a lively brainstorm session, where people are unafraid to jump in and contribute their ideas. They are happily contributing ideas because Michael is writing everything down and celebrating it with enthusiasm.

No wonder, we have countless “rockstar PM job descriptions” where creativity is a de-facto ask. Coincidence? Not really. PMs can take a leaf out of Michael’s love for improv which unknowingly translates into the workplace. One of the ways to do it is through personas. Let’s see how.

3. Cultivate personas

Fans of the show will know Michael Scott loves his characters. He has a persona for every scenario and quite frankly why not? He is a special agent, an NFL star, owns a robot butler, is an innovator, and is also Catherine Zeta Jone’s husband. Meet Michael Scarn!

Personas are a way of life (Source: Pinterest)

We also have Michael Klump to celebrate body shapes and Date Mike who is every woman’s dream date. (If you want to know which Michael Scott you are, check here.)

While these personas lead to funny situations in the show, they highlight how Michael uses them to communicate an idea or a point across. The type of persona that Michael uses depends on the audience, the occasion, and the message to be conveyed. Similar to how PMs use personas in the product lifecycle.

Personas are important for PMs as they help us define and prioritize the users of product.

Personas can be of varying types but segmented into two i.e. User and Buyer Personas.

Good personas like everything else in this world, data-driven and possess attention to detail.

And we are not done once they are created. Like most documentations that PMs do, personas get constantly updated either in a time-bound fashion or through compelling events such as product version release, a new competitor addition, etc. Taking notes is one way to ensure living documents (for eg. personas) are taken care of.

4. Become a note taker

Michael Scott loves taking notes and is often found with a tape recorder. Whether it is a T-shirt idea such as Goodbye Stinks or movie titles like “Saving the world has never been this hard,” the man is full of ideas and has his recorder ready whenever inspiration strikes him.

Michael’s favorite Ryan showing us how its done (Source: Giphy)

A quality not spoken about enough—PMs need to be the best note-takers ever.

The best notes comprise of action items and are comprehensible irrespective of when they are read.

As a rule of thumb, always enter meetings with a pen and paper. The tool can be Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Apple Notes, or Microsoft excel. It does not matter as long as notes are taken, revisited, and acted upon.

All of this is great but works only if you have the last one working. This is one of those “One-king-to-rule-them-all” kind of quality.

Drum roll, please? (Source: Giphy)

5. Know thy product

Michael makes for a lot of uncomfortable moments throughout the show. His comprehension of worldly matters is different from the world itself but here is something he is good at—he knows paper. For all his buffoonery, Michael knows everything that is to be known about the product.

There are numerous PM principles, frameworks, guides out there but all of them point in one single direction. ️Every PM should be well versed with their product.

1. What goes into building the product?

2. What are the economics behind the product?

3. Why customers buy your product?

4. What are the market trends associated with the product?

The answers to these acts as a starting point for the rollercoaster journey that is Product Management. Some PM skills take years and decades to hone in and specialize.

One of the mantras which I try to abide by is

“Learn a new thing about the product every day.”

You will be amazed to see how many you have explored over time and how well it equips you.

Michael Scott is one of the greatest TV characters of all time due to the sheer brilliance of Steve Carell and writers of the show. He is not perfect and has an unorthodox approach, which as a PM should be celebrated.

Which other Michael Scott qualities do you think PMs can learn from?