Okay so for a while now we’ve been doing Scrum in our team. You know, standups, planning, all that jazz. And honestly? Sometimes it felt like we were just going through the motions. Lots of meetings, lots of talking about work, but still… friction, you know? Someone gets grumpy about scope creep, another person zones out during retro. Classic stuff.
Then last month, during one of those inevitable “this sprint is going off the rails again” moments, I stumbled onto some Scrum memes online. Like, the one about the product owner changing their mind again right after sprint planning? Or the developer staring blankly when asked “How long will this take?” Oh man, it was painfully relatable. I chuckled, shared one in our team Slack channel as a joke.
And something clicked. People actually reacted! Not just with a ‘haha’, but with comments like “TOO REAL” or “Literally happened yesterday!”. So I thought, huh, maybe there’s more to this meme thing. Why not actually use them?
Here’s exactly what I started doing:
- Started a ‘Meme Corner’ Channel: Just dedicated a tiny space in Slack. Didn’t force anyone, just put it out there.
- Dipped My Toe First: In the next sprint planning meeting, when we were talking about risks, I popped in that meme of the guy sweating over “Only 5 small stories this time…”. Boom! Laughter broke the tension immediately.
- Made Them Specific: Didn’t just throw random memes. If someone mentioned blockers looking like the Avengers’ big battle scene from Endgame? That meme went up. It felt relevant, not just silly.
- Let Them Lead: The best part? Others started joining in! Our tester posted a “When Dev says ‘Works on my machine’” screenshot during a bug triage. Our PO used the “This meeting could have been an email” meme when retro got a bit long-winded. Ownership shifted!
At first, honestly, it was a gamble. Thought maybe the team lead would shut it down as “unprofessional”. Or it would just bomb. But surprisingly? Didn’t happen.
What actually happened?
- Ice Melting: Seeing everyone laugh at the same struggle instantly humanized us. We recognized the frustration wasn’t personal, it was just… Scrum life. That defensiveness? Started fading.
- Danger Became Funny: Those super awkward conversations? The risk everyone was afraid to mention in planning? A meme made it safe to laugh about it first. THEN we could actually talk about it without people getting mad.
- Shared Language: Instead of long explanations about feeling overloaded, someone would just drop the “This is fine” dog in the burning room meme. Message received, immediately! Way clearer.
- Ownership for Retro: Before, retro was like pulling teeth. Now? People actually brought memes to retro to represent their pain points. It sparked way more open, less finger-pointy discussions. Like, “Haha, yeah this meme sums up that communication breakdown perfectly! How DO we fix that?”
Now, was it perfect? Nah. Took a few tries to hit the right tone. Some memes landed flat. Others felt a bit too snarky at first. We learned together to keep it light, constructive, and self-aware, not mean. The key was keeping it real and inclusive.
The biggest surprise? It wasn’t about the jokes themselves. It was about creating this tiny spark of shared recognition. That little “ugh, we’re all dealing with this!” moment. Turned out, laughing together about the grind wasn’t unprofessional – it was glue. Made us feel more like one team navigating the mess, rather than individuals battling each other. Definitely sticking with our meme corner.
