Spotify has been growing quickly as a company, and they are continuously experimenting with ways of making the company work as effectively as possible. At the Lean IT Summit 2014, Kristian explained how management and leadership work in a large agile organization like Spotify. Find out what leadership looks like in a large agile organization? How can a leader support autonomy and alignment? How different forms of leadership – both formal and informal, product, organizational and technical – overlap and interact to create successful teams. More Lean IT on www.lean-it-summit.com

1. Section name 1
Scaling Agile @ Spotify
• Released oct 2012
• Presented at Agile 2013
• Many questions around leadership
• How do you make decisions?

2. 2
40M active users.
10M paying subscribers.
1.5B playlists.

3. 3
56 countries

4. Growing
fast
30
4
years
ago

5. Growing
fast
Now
350
50 50
150
10

6. Structure for innovation

7. Section name 7
Vision and purpose
Highly effective
x 75
Alignment with the
organization
Personal and
professional growth
Any act in support of these is
an act of leadership
Autonomy
Continuous learning
and improvement

8. Section name 8

9. 9
Container squads
IOS Android Desktop Web
Feature squads
Infrastructure squads
Enable & support
Enable &
support
Enable &
support

10. Section name 10 Chapters
P
Squad
P P P
Squad Squad Squad
Chapter
Chapter

11. Section name 11 Tribes
P P P P
Squad Squad Squad Squad
Chapter
Chapter
P P P P
Squad Squad Squad Squad
Chapter
Chapter
Tribe Tribe

12. Hierarchy of needs at
Spotify

13. Section name 13 Maslow
• Self-actualization
• Self-esteem
• Belonging
• Safety
• Physiological

14. Section name 14 Maslow
• Physiological – kickass work
environment

15. Section name 15 Maslow
• Safety – no fear culture, embrace
failure
”We
aim
to
make
mistakes
faster
than
anyone
else.”

16. Section name 16 Maslow
• Belonging – social events, strong
teams, tribes...

17. Section name 17 Maslow

18. Formal leadership roles

19. Section name 19 Chapter Lead
• Grow individuals
• Grow chapter competence
• Hire the right people
• Salary reviews
P
Squad
P P P
Squad Squad Squad
Chapter
Chapter
CL
P C
CL
CL

20. Section name 20
Product Owner P
• What do we do – and why?
• Product vision
• Squad mission
• Purpose
• Alignment
• Support the squad

21. Section name 21
P
Product Owner framework
• Working with the world
• Working with the product
• Working with the squad
• Working with the process

22. Section name 22
Product Owner P
Example
How we created an artist page
roadmap together

23. Section name 23 Agile Coach
P
C
• Grow high performing teams
• Continuous improvement
• Ways of working
• Collaboration
• Grow a high performing organization
Levels of agile coaching, The agile coaching institute

24. Section name 24
User
stories
Sprints
Planning
Poker
We
definitely
do
the
basics...
juli
29,
2014
Scrum
Kanban
Stand
ups
Retrospec:ves
XP
Demos
Story
Points

25. Section name 25
1 on 1 coaching
• Team members
• Product owners
• Chapter leads
• Senior management

26. Section name 26
Squad roadmapping
• Group of coaches came up with new
visualization
• Ran workshops with all squads in a tribe

27. Section name 27
Continuous delivery
• Maturity workshops
• Big cultural shift
• Cross tribe initative

28. Section name 28
Product Owner
Agile Coach
Chapter (Team) lead
”POTLAC”
How
can
we
support
our
squad?
Squad support
AC P CL

29. Section name 29 Tribe Lead
P
Squad
P P P
Squad Squad Squad
Chapter
Chapter
Tribe
• High-performing tribe
• Grow strong chapter leads
• Coach the agile coaches
• Build a strong tribe leadership team

30. Section name 30 Tribe Leadership Team
P
P
P
P
Tribe lead, CL, PO, AC
Examples
• Recruitment / onboarding
• Grow high-performing tribe and
teams
• Culture
• Alignment

31. 31
Leadership teams
Strong leadership team AC P CL
Good manager
Dysfunctional leadership team
Bad manager

32. Growing high performing
squads

33. Section name 33
TEAM DYNAMICS RESULT DRIVEN ACTIVITIES
Counter-dependency
3 2
Dependency and
inclusion
and
fight
Trust and structure
Work and
productivity 1
4
Lean & Agile
methods
Innovation
Quality
Value
Speed
High-performing squads

34. Section name 34
TEAM DYNAMICS RESULT DRIVEN ACTIVITIES
Counter-dependency
3 2
Dependency and
inclusion
and
fight
Trust and structure
Work and
productivity 1
4
Lean & Agile
methods
Innovation
Quality
Value
Speed
High-performing squads

35. Section name 35
Autonomy vs. Alignment
Alignment
Autonomy

36. Section name 36
Alignment
Autonomy
Authoritative
organization
Conformist
culture
Micromanaging
organization
Indifferent
culture
Innovative
organization
Collaborative
culture
Entrepreneurial
organization
Chaotic
culture
Autonomy vs. Alignment

37. Section name 37
Supporting squad autonomy
Innovative
organization
Collaborative
culture

38. Section name 38 Example:
Ongoing experiment with
Priorities

39. Section name 39 Example:
Dominating individuals in a squad
1. Give
feedback
2. Improve
team
dynamics
3. Reinforce
feedback
culture
4. Nurture
informal
AC P CL leadership

40. Section name 40
Example:
A squad is growing too big
1. DraK
new
missions
2. Facilitate
squad
split
3. Support
individuals
4. Kick-­‐off
new
squads
AC P CL

41. Growing a high performing
organization

42. 42
CTO
Tribe lead Tribe lead Tribe lead
Chapter lead
Chapter lead Agile coaches
Engineer Engineer Engineer
CPO
VP Product VP Product
Product Owner Product Owner
The reporting structure

43. 43
The reporting structure
Engineer Engineer Engineer
Tribe lead Tribe lead Tribe lead
CTO
Chapter lead
Chapter lead Agile coaches
Product Owner Product Owner
VP Product VP Product
CPO
supporting

44. Section name 44 Organic structure If you need to know exactly
who is making decisions,
you are in the wrong place

45. How
do
we
know
how
we’re
doing?

46. Section name 46
Squad health check

47. Section name 47

48. Section name 48
Summary
-­‐
Go
for
the
minimum
viable
org
structure
-­‐
Trust
people
and
give
them
the
freedom
to
innovate
and
perform
-­‐
Create
Tght
feedback
loops
Cause -> Effect

49. Section name 49
TODO: INSERT PICTURE OF US?
Thank you!
KrisTan
Lindwall
@klindwall