It memes for classic ITSM problems

I’ve always been a huge fan of memes. I discovered the utility of memes in the professional space, when I started using IT memes in my presentations. Not only was I still able to communicate my point effectively, I also landed a few laughs from the audience.

This is from IT in the Park 2016 where I presented my first ever ITSM talk

From then, I’ve used memes as a creative design element, that helped me communicate an idea or make a point. I’ve created a lot of memes since then, admittedly a few more than I should have, but they were all well received and created a lasting impact.

From all the IT memes I’ve made, here are a few that can be tied back to a best practice. I’m sharing those memes here, along with a few tips and activities that can you help you avoid such situations.

It meme for self-service

This is a real pain for most IT teams. Despite creating multiple channels, end users still choose to walk up to agents instead of using any of the channels.

Integrating your self service portal with communication channels like Slack, Workplace or Yammer will create  an extremely intuitive self service portal. This will end the problem of end users walking up to your desk for help.

It meme for SLAs

If you haven’t heard about the concept of “watermelon SLAs”, this blog from ‘Joe the IT guy’ is a must read.

SLAs aren’t the only indication of the quality of service you provide.  Talking to your end users and gathering qualitative feedback are some easy ways to escape the watermelon SLA trap.

It meme for knowledge base

Wouldn’t we love for our end users to use the knowledge base more often? Most kbase articles do really good job of answering questions. However, our customers don’t want answers, they want solutions.

If our knowledge base isn’t able to serve that purpose, then you cannot expect them to use it. Embedding visual elements like GIFs & screenshots into a help article that’s written in simple language, will help your end users consume it easily and solve their problems.

It meme for user adoption

 tool adoption is a real challenge. You invest time and money to buy a new software, only to find that no one is really using it! There could be multiple reasons for this, but the biggest trap IT can fall into, is trying to optimise for adoption without really understanding why it’s not being used.

The easiest way would be to just ask them why they don’t use it! Just ask, it’s that simple!

It meme for discoverability

It is not enough to just have a self service portal, it must also be easily discoverable. Believe me when I say this, your users actually want to raise tickets through the portal. If they are not able to find it quickly enough, they’re going to resort to the old ways.

Placing a self service portal link on the desktop and linking to the self service portal on popular places like the intranet will help solve for this problem!

Well I guess one thing’s pretty clear . I have an IT meme addiction. I have a regular meme addiction too, but that’s besides the point.

During my short career in ITSM, I’ve made many such memes that aren’t directly linked to a ‘best practice’. I’m sharing them below purely for entertainment purposes!

No computers were harmed while creating these memes.Enjoy!

Bonus IT memes

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this blog! Here’s your reward:

Editor – Vinithra Menon