1.
1
Experimenting with BAPO in
Spotify Ads R&D:
aligning product strategy, technical architecture,
ways of working, and org structure
Jason Yip
Senior Agile Coach, Spotify
@jchyip
https://jchyip.medium.com
jchyip@gmail.com, jyip@spotify.com

2.
2
The problem as I
saw it

3.
Spotify Advertising
was/is growing
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211027005313/en/

4.
Recent acquisition
More complex deliveries Some pre-existing
collaboration issues
ALSO
Might be time to
revisit structure...

5.
5
My framing question

6.
How might we approach org
design in a systemic, logical way?

7.
7
From “structure
follows strategy” to
BAPO

8.
“Unless structure
follows strategy,
inefficiency results.”
Alfred D. Chandler Jr

9.
https://janbosch.com/blog/index.php/2017/11/25/structure-eats-strategy/
BAPO is Jan Bosch’s more fleshed out expression
of “structure follows strategy”

10.
Category Description KPI (Key Performance
Indicator)
Commodity
(aka hygiene)
● Needed for product to work
● No customer will select the
product because of this
functionality
● Minimise total cost of
ownership
Differentiating
(aka better = $)
● Unique capabilities that
drive customer interest and
buying behaviour
● Maximise business value
Innovation
(aka not
guaranteed to
work)
● Experimental functionality
as part of trying to identify
new future differentiation
● Number of experiments
attempted
“Business” is about product life cycle categories

11.
“Architecture” is about decoupling and
dependencies
“Commodity”
service
“Differentiating”
service
“Innovation”
service

12.
Category Potential ways of working
Commodity
(aka hygiene)
Outsource, use 3rd party services, internal
platform teams, minimise unnecessary variation
Differentiating
(aka better = $)
Iterative-incremental development, maximise
valuable variation
Innovation
(aka not guaranteed to work)
Running lots of parallel experiments, acquisition
“Process” is about ways of working

13.
“Organisation” is about staffing allocation and
team structure
“Commodity”
teams
“Differentiating”
teams
“Innovation”
teams
Minimise Judgment call on how to balance remaining allocation
between “differentiating” and “innovation”

14.
14
Target

15.
1. (minimum) Inject
BAPO into the
narrative;
2. (ideal) Create a target
operating model to
directly influence org
design

16.
16
Principles for
change

17.
● Start where you are;
● Use existing resources;
● Person-by-person buy-in
(aka “ground war” or
nemawashi);
● Frame as an experiment

18.
18
What happened?

19.
No existing product
capability maps
… but we do have
architecture diagrams
Start where you are;
Use existing resources

20.
Plan to get person-by-person
feedback and buy-in
Frame as an experiment

21.
Commodity Differentiating Innovation
Ad serving
console
Order
management
Mobile client
platform
Audiences
Budget allocator
Ad Studio
Native layer
features
Partner API
Format business
logic
Spotify for Artists
integration
?
Example of the
strawman I
created
Google Ad
Manager
integration

22.
Commodity / hygiene
Differentiating /
better = $
Innovation /
Not guaranteed
to work
After validation with Product Leads
Account
management
Audience
management
Payments
Campaign
management
Commodity 3rd
party measurement
Advanced
forecasting
Advanced pricing
Decision
optimisation
New client
platforms
Reporting
New formats
New targeting
Architecture
services
Product
capabilities
Ad serving console
Order management
Mobile client
platform
Audiences
Budget allocator
Ad Studio
Native layer
features
Partner API
Format business
logic
Spotify for Artists
integration
?
Google Ad
Manager
integration
Customer-specific
measurement?

23.
Commodity / hygiene
Differentiating / better = $
Innovation / Not
guaranteed to work
Add current teams and allocation
Account
management
Audience
management
Payments
Campaign
management
Commodity 3rd
party measurement
Advanced
forecasting
Advanced pricing
Decision
optimisation
New client platforms
Reporting
New formats
New targeting
Architecture
services
Product capabilities
Ad serving console
Order management
Mobile client
platform
Audiences
Budget allocator
Ad Studio
Native layer
features
Partner API
Format business
logic
Spotify for Artists
integration
?
Google Ad Manager
integration
Customer-specific
measurement?
Teams
~X people ~Y people ~Z people
Platform Insights
Operators
Ad Serving
Payments
Activation Dynamic Ad Breaks
Ad Engagement Retention
?

24.
Present to Mission Leads

25.
25
Results

26.
1. (minimum) Inject
BAPO into the
narrative?
2. (ideal) Create a target
operating model to
directly influence org
design?
YES
Not
really

27.
27
Lessons

28.
● BAPO is a useful model;
● Change tactics were useful
(start where you are, use
existing resources,
person-by-person buy-in, frame
as an experiment);
● Don’t try to teach “level 3”
leaders to fish

29.
Give someone a fish, you
feed them for a day; teach
them how to fish, you feed
them for a lifetime.

30.
Level 3+ leaders don’t fish

31.
To learn more
● (blog) Jan Bosch’s 2017 post on BAPO:
“Structure Eats Strategy”;
● (book) Impactful Software by Jan Bosch;
● (blog) My Medium post on this: “Concepts
I use every day: BAPO”
● (paper) An evolution of BAPO: “ESAO: A
holistic Ecosystem-Driven Analysis Model”
by Jan Bosch and Petra Bosch-Sijtsema