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The Zen of Product Management Haiku!

Need a break from the onslaught of daily tasks? Try writing a Product Management haiku - it's the perfect way to creatively express your product management acumen!

What’s Haiku?

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, traditionally printed in a single vertical line. Haiku in English generally appear in three lines, usually with specific syllable counts, to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku. The classic English haiku line/syllable format is "5/7/5."

Submit your own haiku for (almost) instant fame on this page and possible publication in an upcoming edition of the Pivot Point newsletter!

Submit a Haiku

Can't handle the truth
A roadmap, humbug
You want to pay, we will add
Have forecast to meet

--Anon


Old System Development Rules made new
Wild Enthusiasm, make a cool acronym, disillusionment
Search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent
NOTHING works until v 3.0 ask Bill, promotion of the non participant

--George Prater Architect (and some Prod Mgmt UW)


Rome
All roads lead to me
I am the Product Manager
I must be crazy

--


The Professor
The love of teaching
Good mentors inspire within
Passion to Succeed

--Angela Campbell


Law of Attraction
In current social content ecosystem
Good Content beats the web crawlers
SEO is Internet's Law of Attraction

--Omar Aloyoun - EVERNET.com


Launch Disaster
No clear goals for launch
No cross-functional launch team
Blamestorm imminent

--Chris Cummings


Google Products Secret
Google Adopted A Secret Formula
Simplicity Is The Utltimate Sophistication
Quote by "Leonardo Da Vinci"

--Omar Aloyoun - Evernet.com


The Roadmap
Eureka! I’ve found
a place where roadmaps seldom
change: Rand McNally.

--John Curtis, Ulticom


Sartre Was Right
Arbitrary deadline,
Fire drill again!
Oh, where is my pizza?

--Sally Carter


Holiday Dreams
Dear Santa, bring me
an exec team with some sense.
Or else a new job!

--Grinchy in Green Bay


Quality Improvement
check, check and recheck
if not, product line will slip
unacceptable

--Joseph Spence, Sr.


PM
I often wonder
am I the product or is
the real product me?

--- Confusious PM


Usability almost
usability
is important says the boss
but not funded! psych!

--Trevor Rotzien


The Product Manager
Products and features
Come to life, improve business
PRD wizard

--Bonnie Taepakdee


Spiralling Out of Control
This was working, right
But it is not working now
Here we go again

--Jerry Vaughn


Bug Testing at Freelock
occasionally
web pages might go awry
hopefully this works

--Aaron at Freelock


At Stake
the engineer errs
and writes a patch, the PM errs
and both lose their jobs

--David Asher


Untitled
Find time, find some time
to do some great product management work
Oops no, got this call!

--Sandeep Mangla


MRD
Blind development
Market demand is not met
thus we need the spec

--Kate Thorsen


A sad little rumination on expectations, craftsmanship and hope
My MRD rocks
Devs begin to laugh loudly
Reality strikes

--Thomas Brooks, Captaris


Innovative Reality
New product. No cash.
Fervent prayers for just one thing:
early adopters

--Scott McLeod, Adaptis


Untitled
In my solitude
Cares cleansed from my weary mind
My hope is renewed

--Hank Byington


The Last Haiku
Bug bash finally done
We’re almost feature complete
Where are my car keys?

--Anonymous


Untitled
User needs explored
Product features set
Customers rejoice!

--Lin Lindsey


Finance Haiku
"Sold" does not always
mean dollars can be counted
GAAP clouds the forecast

--Linda Merrick


Haiku
Crossing chasms well;
That’s the theory anyway.
I hope to keep up.

--Matt Bogusz


Forgot Something
Pricing was set
Collateral was ready
Finance pulled the plug

--Mara Krieps


Untitled
Products are key
Process is essential
Design for Customer Delight

--Bruce Nowjack


Haiku
A flurry of angst
Hasty, troubling tradeoffs
We're feature complete

--Thomas Brooks


Overhead
Mean Finance guy
fully burdened my product
Oh no! Watch it drown

--Mara Krieps


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