Buzzword bingo for your next meeting
Buzzword bingo from one room link for the whole meeting. Everyone gets their own card from the same squares, and the first full line wins.
Send the room link. Mark each phrase you hear.
How to play buzzword bingo
How to play buzzword bingo in a meeting
- Before the meeting, pick a set of squares, start a room and send the link to everyone who’s coming. There’s nothing to install and nobody signs up.
- Everyone who opens the link gets their own card: 24 phrases around a free centre. The cards differ, but every phrase comes from the room’s 36, so when someone says one of those 36, about two in three of you can mark it.
- Tap a phrase when a speaker says it, and tap it again if you marked it by mistake.
- The first full row, column or diagonal wins. The free centre counts, so the four lines through it need only four phrases.
- Call it quietly. Type it in the side chat, or work “bingo” into a question for the speaker. Shouting it is also traditional.
Pick a set of squares
The general set holds 56 squares for any meeting. Four more sets of 60 fit a sales floor, an engineering team, the all-hands, and HR and remote work. A square can sit in more than one set. The set goes in the room link, so everyone’s card comes from the same one.
Meeting bingo on Zoom and Teams
Keep your card in a browser tab beside the call, or on your phone. Your marks stay in this browser, so a dropped connection or a reload doesn’t cost you the game.
The side chat is where the game lives. The meeting runs on the main screen and the players run a second one underneath, where every “bingo” gets called. Afterwards, go easy on the praise to the organiser. Tell them it was the best session all year and it comes back weekly, cards and all.
For an all-hands where phones stay in pockets, print corporate jargon bingo cards from the same sets instead: up to eight different cards, two to a page.
Bullshit bingo, meeting bingo, buzzword bingo
Whatever your office calls it, the name comes from an internal Silicon Graphics tool that principal scientist Tom Davis built with Seth Katz in early 1993. Chris Pirazzi put the first public version on the web that year, and a Dilbert strip on February 22, 1994 showed it being played in a meeting.
Buzzword bingo and the meetings you sit through
How much of the week meetings take
The average professional sits through 17.1 meetings a week, 14.8 hours in all, or 37% of working time. Each runs 51.9 minutes on average, which leaves eight to find the next room. A block marked focus time doesn’t count as a meeting, so it’s the first slot on the calendar that someone books over.
Half of all meetings start 75 seconds late, and 64% of recurring meetings have no agenda. That’s a minute and a quarter of “can you see my screen” before anyone gets to “synergy”.
Tuesday carries the heaviest load, with 23% of the week’s meetings, and Friday the lightest, with 16%. Tuesday is your best day for a full card.
Which meetings fill a card fastest
The weekly numbers hour is a safe bet. Everyone reads out a figure, then the senior half of the call chats until the hour is up. Attendance is required and opinions are not, which leaves plenty of time to listen.
A floor that has just come back to the office is better value. You hear the next team’s stand-up through the partition, and your own team calls you on video from the next cubicle. Even the 1:1 with the boss in the next room happens on Teams. House rule: a phrase from someone else’s meeting counts if you heard it clearly.
Where the squares come from
The general set’s squares all have an entry in the corporate jargon dictionary. 44 of the 249 made at least one recent list of the phrases office workers hate most. The rest are office staples those lists skipped, such as deep dive, north star and hard stop, and the talk of sales, engineering and HR teams. Hard stop is the square you’ll hear twice, because the first one didn’t take.
The buzzword bingo squares
All 249 squares, set by set, each with what the speaker means.
General 56 squares
circle backtalk later, or neversynergyworking togethertouch basea call that could be a messagebandwidthtime to do morelow-hanging fruitthe easy winstake this offlinenot in front of everyoneleverageuseagilewe'll change the planreach outget in touchping memessage memove the needlemake a measurable differencepivotthe plan failedper my last emailyou didn't read itthink outside the boxtry something newon my radarI know, and that's allgame changera small change, said loudlydeliverableswhat we hand inplease advisetell me what to docadencehow often we meet about itdouble clicklook closerthought leaderposts opinions onlinemoving forwardfrom now onboil the oceando everything at onceblue-sky thinkingideas with no budgetswim laneyour part of the jobpeel back the onionlook layer by layerparadigm shifta new way of workingbest practicewhat others dorun it up the flagpoletest the ideareinvent the wheelredo what existsducks in a roworganised firstput a pin in itpause thisget the ball rollingstarthit the ground runningstart fast, untrainedballs in the airtoo many taskspush the envelopego furthermission criticalit breaks without thisbleeding edgenew and riskysubject matter expertthe one everyone askslearningslessons, one syllable longerout of pocketunreachabledeep divea close look, in a long meetinglevel setagree on the factsnorth starthe main goalheadwindsit's going badlywheelhousewhat you're good athard stopI'm leaving at this timenew normalworse, and stayinggive 110%unpaid overtimeboots on the groundthe people doing it, on siteidea harvestingcollecting your ideas for their slidesspidey sensea hunchchange agenthired to change thingsempoweryou decide, you're blamedwe're like a familystay late for freewin-wingood for them, fine for you
Sales 60 squares
in the pipelineplanned or under wayEOQend of the quartercold callphoning strangers to sellupsellsell the pricier oneclose the dealget the signaturequotayour sales targetelevator pitcha one-minute pitchdecision makerthe one who signsleave money on the tablesold too cheapnumbers gamemore calls, more winssticker shockgasping at the pricebells and whistlesextras nobody needspitch deckslides that sellwarm leada buyer already interestedCRMsoftware tracking every dealcross-sellsell them something elseB2Bselling to companiesgatekeeperwho guards the buyeralways be closingalways push the saleRFPa formal bid requestrainmakerbrings in big businesswhalea huge clienttyre kickerinterested, never buysdiscovery calla first fact-finding callSMBsmall and mid-size firmssmile and dialcheerful call after callvalue propositionwhy anyone should paypain pointthe customer's big problemtop of mindremembered firstcall to actionwhat to do nextfreemiumfree basics, paid extrasloss leadersold at a lossNPSwould you recommend usMQLmarketing says it's readyROIwhat you got backbottom lineprofit after costsballpark figurea rough guessskin in the gameyour stake at riskbest-in-classthe best, supposedlyvalue addwhat extra it bringsgo-to-marketthe launch planfollowing upyou didn't replyfriendly reminderan annoyed reminderhop on a calltalk live insteadthe askwhat they wantbring to the tablewhat you addOTEbase pay plus commissionQBRthe quarterly reviewdue diligencechecking before a dealredlinemark up changesstakeholderanyone it affectsroad warrioralways travelling for work
Also in this set, listed above:
- circle back
- touch base
- low-hanging fruit
- leverage
- reach out
- move the needle
- game changer
- win-win
Engineering 60 squares
iterationthis version, for nowSLAa promised response timefuture-proofbuilt to stay usefulAPIprograms asking programsvibe codingcoding by asking AIworkslopAI filler to fixagenticAI doing tasks alonesprinta fixed work stretchbacklogunstarted, maybe foreverMVPthe smallest shippable versiontechnical debtold shortcuts slowing everythingit works on my machinethe bug is yourssunsetshut down for gooddogfoodingusing our own productbikesheddingarguing over small detailsraise a ticketlog it and waitgo liveused for realstand-upthe short daily meetingretrolessons for next timepost-mortemwhy it went wrongtimeboxa fixed time limitDRIwho answers for itstraw mana draft to criticisewhiteboardingsketching on a boardin the weedslost in small details30,000-foot viewthe big picture onlyparking lottopics saved for laterLGTMlooks good, approvedackgot itTL;DRthe short versionasyncwritten, reply wheneverreply in threadanswer under the messagegoing darkignoring chat to workIIRCif I remember rightAFAIKas far as I knowETAwhen it'll be donescope creepthe project keeps growingroadmapwhat gets built whenscalablegrows without costs growingquick and dirtyrough but good enoughfirefightingone emergency after anotherfire drillpanic that didn't matterfocus timeblocked from meetingsHiPPOhighest salary's opinion winsescalatetake it higher upmove the goalpostschange the target midwayindividual contributorworks, manages nobody
Also in this set, listed above:
- bandwidth
- take this offline
- agile
- ping me
- double click
- boil the ocean
- swim lane
- best practice
- reinvent the wheel
- mission critical
- bleeding edge
- learnings
- deep dive
All-hands 60 squares
all handsthe whole-company meetingyou're on mutenobody can hear youculturehow we do thingscore valuesour stated principlespsychological safetysafe to speak updisruptshake up an industrydouble downput even more inAI-firsttry AI before hiringleanfewer people, less wastemoonshothuge goal, probably doomedecosystemkeeps customers insideflywheeleach win eases the nextburning platforma crisis forcing changeblue oceana market without rivalsrestructuringreorganising, often with cutsrightsizingjob cuts, renamedheadcountapproval for one hirebudget freezeno new spendingtrim the fatcut spendingrunwaymonths of cash lefttop linetotal revenueYoYcompared with last yearhockey stickflat, then straight upblack swana shock nobody predictedthe buck stops herefinal responsibility is minelead by exampledo what you askwalk the talkact as you saysense of urgencyas if due todaybuy-ineveryone agreeing to itopticshow it looksC-suitethe top executivesopen door policywalk in and talkon the same pageunderstood the same wayelephant in the roomthe problem nobody mentionsat the end of the daywhen all's weighed upbreak down the silosmake teams sharesinging from the same hymn sheetone message from everyoneraise the bara higher standardwork smarter, not harderfind a quicker wayplay the long gameless now, more laterdisagree and commitobject, lose, back it
Also in this set, listed above:
- synergy
- move the needle
- pivot
- think outside the box
- game changer
- moving forward
- blue-sky thinking
- paradigm shift
- north star
- headwinds
- new normal
- give 110%
- boots on the ground
- change agent
- empower
- we're like a family
- bottom line
- stakeholder
- roadmap
HR and remote 60 squares
wear many hatsseveral jobs, one salaryreturn to officeordered back incoffee badgingswipe in, coffee, leavehushed hybridhome days, quietly allowedquiet vacationingoff, but green onlinemicroshiftingwork in short blocksanchor daysmandatory team office daysremote-firstthe office is optionalright to disconnectignore messages after hoursproximity biasfavouring who you seebosswaresoftware watching your screencore hourshours everyone must workworkationa holiday, plus laptopmouse jigglera gadget faking activityhot deskingno assigned deskWFHworking from homeOOOout of the officePTOpaid time offunlimited PTOno fixed days offdial injoin the call remotelyonboardingyour first weeks' setupoffboardingthe leaver's checklistexit interviewHR's goodbye chatnotice periodbetween resigning and leavingprobation periodfirst months on trialjob huggingclinging to your jobculture fitwill you fit inghostedthey stopped replyingghost joban ad, no jobopen to workjob hunting, publiclyother duties as assignedanything else, foreverbackfillreplace who's leavingcompetitive salarypay not statedsalary bandpay range per leveltotal compsalary plus everything elsedry promotionnew title, same paycounteroffermore money after resigningDOEdepends on experiencewellness programstep challenges and appspizza partythanks, paid in pizzahome office stipendhome desk moneyfour-day weekfour days, same paysabbaticalmonths off, job keptquiet quittingthe job as writtenwork-life balancetime for a lifemandatory funcompulsory team social360 feedbackreviews from all sidesPIPimprove by the deadlinemeets expectationsthe job, no moredevelopment areayour weakness, said kindlyact your wagework to your payfast-paced environmenttoo few peopleself-starterlittle training given
Also in this set, listed above:
- hit the ground running
- subject matter expert
- out of pocket
- new normal
- we're like a family
- you're on mute
- headcount
Questions about buzzword bingo
How do you play buzzword bingo?
Each player gets a card of office buzzwords and marks one whenever a speaker says it. The first to fill a line wins, and the speaker never knows they were calling the game.
What is the meaning of buzzword bingo?
It's bingo with office jargon in place of numbers, played quietly through a meeting, a keynote or a video call. Nobody has to agree to it except the players, since the speaker never finds out.
What is an example of a buzzword?
“Synergy” is the classic. In one count of 3,000 posts and comments about jargon, it came up 181 times, second only to “circle back”. It also gets 310,000 US searches a month, not all of them about work.
What does buzzword mean in slang?
A word used more to impress than to say anything. At work it means jargon like “leverage” where “use” would do.
How do you play bingo with words?
Swap the numbers for words: each card holds 24 of them around a free centre, and you mark a word when you hear it. With no caller, the conversation calls the words, so the game runs in any meeting or lecture.