One time I watched a team try to “bond” with one of those corporate icebreakers where everyone says their “fun fact” and then politely forgets it forever.
You know the vibe: “Hi, I’m Greg, I like hiking.”
And then the entire room collectively decides to never hike again.
So I started doing the opposite.
Instead of scheduled, forced-fun, calendar-invite team building… I run impromptu chaos. Five minutes. Zero prep. Maximum “wait, why is this actually working?”
This is the stuff I use when energy is flat, Slack is tense, or a meeting needs to stop pretending it’s productive.
And yes—because I’m the founder of skypig and the creator of Products The Card Game, we’re putting the game where it belongs.
1. Products The Card Game
This is my #1 for a reason: it’s basically a shortcut to the fun part of collaboration.
You’re not “team building.” You’re building dumb product ideas, pitching them like you’re on Shark Tank, and then realizing your coworker who never talks is secretly hilarious and terrifyingly good at positioning.
Here’s why it works so well: it turns the core skills of a great team—communication, creativity, listening, rapid iteration—into a game that doesn’t feel like a workshop. People drop their guard because it’s not about them. It’s about the product.
Also it exposes who would absolutely ship a feature that destroys humanity, which is… useful intel.
Use it when:
- you have 15–45 minutes
- you want a bonding activity that doesn’t feel like bonding
- you need everyone’s brain to “switch on” again
2. The one minute fake startup pitch
Pick a random object in the room. A stapler. A mug. The printer that never works.
Then say: “You have 60 seconds. Pitch this as a venture-backed startup.”
The secret sauce is constraints. When people have no time, they stop overthinking and start improvising. You’ll get taglines, target markets, pricing tiers, fake customer testimonials… and the kind of laughter that makes everyone remember, “Oh yeah, we’re humans.”
Bonus points if someone plays investor and asks the worst questions imaginable.
3. Two truths and a lie but everyone commits to the lie
Normal Two Truths and a Lie is fine. But it’s usually too polite.
My version: everyone shares one lie that they defend like it’s a court case.
“I once got banned from a museum.”
“I invented a dance move that went viral in Brazil.”
“I’m technically married to a cardboard cutout.”
Then the group interrogates them. The objective is not to “win.” The objective is to watch your coworkers become improv comedians for three minutes and immediately like each other more.
4. The five minute job swap
You pair people up and they have to explain their job like the other person is about to do it tomorrow with zero context.
Then the other person repeats it back… but wrong.
Not maliciously. Comedically.
This does two things at once:
- it creates empathy for each other’s work
- it uncovers hidden assumptions and weird process gaps
- it’s funny because everyone’s job sounds insane when simplified
Great for cross-functional teams where half the tension is just “I don’t understand what you do.”
5. The “customer support roleplay” speed round
Someone plays the customer. Someone plays support. Someone plays the product.
The customer has a ridiculous complaint:
- “Your app stole my cat’s vibe.”
- “I clicked one button and now I’m the CEO.”
- “Everything is fine but I’m still mad.”
Support has to keep a straight face and “resolve” it. Product has to explain why this is “actually expected behavior.”
This one is pure gold because it’s secretly practice for real customer conversations… but it’s goofy enough that nobody feels judged.
6. The silent meeting
Everyone gets 3 minutes to write their thoughts (in a doc or on paper) in complete silence.
Then you discuss.
It sounds serious, but it’s hilarious how quickly people realize:
- some folks are loud because they process out loud
- some folks are quiet because they process in text
- everyone has better ideas when the room isn’t a verbal cage match
And when you finally talk, people are weirdly energized, like you just freed them from a noisy simulation.
7. The worst idea wins
You give a prompt: “How should we increase retention?” or “How should we market this feature?”
Then everyone suggests the worst possible answer.
The goal is to be strategically terrible:
- “We should send 14 push notifications per hour.”
- “Force users to solve a riddle to log in.”
- “Only allow signups during a full moon.”
Two things happen:
- everyone laughs
- the inverse of the bad ideas often reveals genuinely good ideas
It’s like brainstorming with the pressure removed.
8. The “five second soundtrack”
Someone describes their week (or the project) in one sentence.
Then everyone else has to make a sound effect or tiny theme song that matches it. Five seconds max. No thinking.
This is one of those activities that sounds unbelievably stupid until you do it and the whole team is crying laughing because someone just went “bweeeooop… doom… sparkle sparkle…” to describe the Q1 roadmap.
It’s a reset button. Perfect when morale is weird or everyone is tired.
The real point of all of this
Impromptu team building works because it doesn’t feel like team building.
It’s short. Low stakes. Everyone can participate. And it builds the only kind of culture that actually matters: the kind where people feel safe being a little weird in front of each other.
That’s the cheat code.
And if you want the fastest path to that vibe, start with Products The Card Game. It’s basically “collaboration” disguised as comedy.
You’re welcome.