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Culture over-process
The document discusses Spotify's culture of autonomy and agile practices. Spotify started with small autonomous squads that grew into tribes and chapters organized around missions. The company emphasizes trusting employees, celebrating failures, and focusing on employee motivation and collaboration across squads. Spotify's culture and structure enable continuous delivery through practices like decoupling components and using feature toggles.
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Culture over-process
- 1. Culture Consultant www.crisp.se > Process Paris Scrum GatheringKeynote, Sep 23, 2013 Henrik Kniberg Father henrik.kniberg@crisp.se @HenrikKniberg Agile & Lean coach Author
- 2. Boring but importantpractical info about these slides Usage Feel free to use slides & pictures as you wish, as long as you leave my name somewhere. For licensing details see Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) Downloading the right font This presentation uses the ”Noteworthy” font. If you’re using Mac OSX 10.7 or later it should be preinstalled. If you’re on a Windows or older Mac OS then you need to download the font from here: http://tinyurl.com/noteworthy-ttc • On Windows right-click the font file and select ”install”. Then restart Powerpoint. • On Mac, double-click the font file and press ”install font”. Then restart Powerpoint. The PDF version of these slides has the font embedded, so you don’t need to do anything. On the other hand you don’t get the fancy animations. Font test How the font is supposed to look: (screenshot from my computer) How the font shows up on your computer: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog Henrik Kniberg Regardless of font appearance, if that text doesn’t fit nicely into the box then you’re going to need to download the right font, or switch to a new font and fiddle with the slides to make sure things fit.
- 3. Culture stuff that peopledo without noticing it Henrik Kniberg
- 4.
- 5. Problem: Agile isFragile Agile Henrik Kniberg
- 6. Failure story: How toburn €1 billion Henrik Kniberg 01:39
- 7.
- 8. Pust Java –an agile/lean showcase • • • • • • Agile & Lean • Media Success Gradual rollout • Happy users Real users involved • Happy team CIO awards Project of the Year Bottom-up decision making Value-driven Suitable tech platform Henrik Kniberg
- 9. Pust Siebel –train-wreck in slow motion • • • • • • • Waterfall Big Bang rollout Inappropriate tech platform Real users not involved Top-down decision making Warnings ignored Cost-driven • Media Disaster • Furious users • Furious team How to burn € 1 billion Henrik Kniberg
- 10. Culture eats Processfor breakfast! Agile Henrik Kniberg
- 11. Success story: Revolutionizing the musicindustry Henrik Kniberg 01:39
- 12. Once upon atime the music industry was broken There must be a better way…. Henrik Kniberg
- 13. Play Everywhere! Like amagical music player in which you’ve bought every song in the world! Henrik Kniberg Let’s revolutionize the music industry!
- 14. 20,000 tracks added everyday 20 million tracks Henrik Kniberg
- 15. 30M 24 million Free users 20M 6million Paying users 10M 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
- 16. 4 dev centersacross 3 time zones Stockholm Gothenburg San Francisco New York 16 Henrik Kniberg
- 17. Staff doubles everyyear 1000+ employees 28+ countries 1000 750 500 250 2006 Henrik Kniberg 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
- 18. Happy employees (despitegrowth pain…) % of employees that would recommend this company to a friend Henrik Kniberg Source: glassdoor.com
- 19. Born Agile –and breaking all the rules! Henrik Kniberg 01:39
- 20. 2006: small agilefish was born Henrik Kniberg
- 21. Grew up toform an agile culture Henrik Kniberg
- 22. Scrum practices startedgetting in the way Sprint planning Sprint burndown T ask breakdown Estimation Velocity Henrik Kniberg
- 23. Shu Ha Ri Shu= Follow the rules Ha = Adapt the rules Ri = Ignore the rules Screw the rules! Scrumbutophobia (n) See also: Scrumdamentalism Fear of doing Scrum wrong Symptom: Stuck in Shu Henrik Kniberg Rules are a good start, then break them when needed.
- 24.
- 25. Principles > Practices Transparency Customer collaboration Deliver often Continuous Improvement Autonomous Teams Respond to change Servant leadership Courage HenrikKniberg Iterative development Inspect & Adapt Trust Simplicity
- 26.
- 27. Autonomous Squad • Small,co-located, self-organized • End-to-end responsibility for the stuff they build – from design to commit to deploy to maintenance. • Within the scope of its mission, a squad is empowered to decide what to build, how to build it, and how to work together while doing it. Reality check: Not all squads are this autonomous (yet) Henrik Kniberg
- 28. Office optimized forautonomous squads Henrik Kniberg
- 29. Broader mission =more autonomy Build radio Henrik Kniberg Increase monthly active users
- 30.
- 31. Why Autonomy mattersso much • Motivation • Speed • Scaling Henrik Kniberg
- 32. Be autonomous. Butdon’t suboptimize. • Be a good citizen in the Spotify ecosystem • Spotify’s mission > Squad’s mission • Collaborate & sync with other squads • Follow agreed-upon standards Henrik Kniberg
- 33. Office optimized forcross-squad collaboration
- 34. Example: Sprint demo& open discussion
- 35. Alignment & Autonomy Alignment Dowhat I say! Henrik Kniberg False dichotomy! Autonomy Do whatever
- 36. Alignment enables Autonomy Weneed to cross the river High Alignment Build a bridge! Authoritative organization Conformist culture Micromanaging organization Low Alignment Henrik Kniberg Indifferent culture Low Autonomy We need to cross the river Figure out how! Innovative organization Collaborative culture Entrepreneurial organization Chaotic culture High Autonomy Hope someone is working on the river problem…
- 37. Leader’s job: Explain whatproblem needs to be solved. And Why. Henrik Kniberg
- 38.
- 39. How to measuredependencies Ask people! Henrik Kniberg
- 40. Open-source model A Squad A HenrikKniberg B Squad B
- 41. Minimum standardization Typical conversation: Howdoes Spotify X? Depends on the squad Henrik Kniberg
- 42.
- 43. So how dosquads actually work? Have a mission Sit together Own quality All squads Have an agile approach Most squads Do sprints and/or kanban Do retrospectives Have taskboards on the wall Do demos Have an agile coach Some squads Measure velocity Do ”scrum of scrums” (daily sync) Henrik Kniberg Have a PO in the team Estimate Use burnup/ burndown charts Do daily standups
- 44.
- 45. Mutual respect My colleagues areawesome! Ego Henrik Kniberg
- 46. Measure motivation &relentlessly focus on it Hi everyone,! ! Our employee satisfaction survey says 91% enjoy working here, and 4% don’t enjoy it here.! ! This is of course not satisfactory, and we want to fix it.! ! If you’re one of those unhappy 4%, please contact us.! ! We’re here for your sake, and nothing else.! ! ! ! ! Henrik Kniberg
- 47.
- 48. Squads are groupedinto Tribes Tribe Tribe Henrik Kniberg Tribe Tribe Tribe Tribe
- 49. Each Tribe isa lightweight matrix Tribe PO PO PO Tribe PO PO Tribe lead Tribe lead Chapter Chapter Chapter Guild Chapter PO PO PO
- 50.
- 51.
- 52. Organic structure emergent, dynamic HenrikKniberg If you need to know exactly who is making decisions, you are in the wrong place
- 53. Making release easy HenrikKniberg 01:39
- 54. Vicious cycle Releasing is hard Release seldom HenrikKniberg Virtuous cycle Releasing is easy Release often
- 55. Decouple as muchas possible First the Spotify client was a monolith… Now the client is a “container” Container squad Feature squads Henrik Kniberg
- 56. “Self-service” model Infrastructure squads Containersquads Enable & support IOS Android Feature squads Enable & support Henrik Kniberg Desktop Enable & support Web
- 57. Release trains &Feature toggles Release! A B D E C C A B E Week 12 Henrik Kniberg Release! G F H C E F G D H Week 15
- 58. Pushing for ContinuousDelivery Automatic Build Test & integrate Manual Code & commit Deploy to staging Deploy to prod Manual test Continuous Delivery Guild Commit-to-Deploy squad Henrik Kniberg
- 59. Trust > Control HenrikKniberg 01:39
- 60. We trust ourpeople to make informed decisions about the way they work and what they work on Politics Agile culture demands that there are NO internal politics involved! Henrik Kniberg Fear Agile at scale requires Trust at scale! When you give people the freedom to create without fear of failure, amazing things happen!
- 61. Fear kills motivation Evenin “agile” companies Turnover is so quick that it's almost unnecessary to unpack your bag. The reward for doing a good job today is having a job tomorrow They love firing people for things that aren't under the employees entire control % of employees that would recommend this company to a friend Henrik Kniberg Source: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Netflix-Reviews-E11891.htm http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardlawler/2013/06/24/netflix-we-got-it-right/
- 62. Failing = Learning HenrikKniberg Move fast and break things Screwing up is a great way to find out that your assumptions were wrong
- 63. Internal blog: Celebrate failure Howwe shot ourselves in the foot Asdf asdf asdf ddhffdd asdfsdfasdf s dfs ei lkjsdfkjh dkd ie kkd kdsflk sdi elk sdfkjh sdfkjhasdflkj dk dj wi dm chsdfjh wlkjsdm WTF? Slkdfoi clk sdil wkdkdk dk dkiwlslkj dlkh slkj sdflkj dpijslkjdlldk slkdflk sdflk sdlk kjsdf Sdflk sdfsdfasdf Internal blog: Celebrate failure! Asdf asdf asdf ddhffdd asdfsdfasdf s dfs ei lkjsdfkjh dkd ie kkd kdsflk sdi elk sdfkjh sdfkjhasdflkj dk dj wi dm chsdfjh wlkjsdm dfkj dfjh slkkd dj dflkj sdfkjh sdf Slkdfoi clk sdil wkdkdk dk dkiwlslkj dlkh slkj sdflkj dpijslkjdlldk slkdflk sdflk sdlk kjsdf Sdflk sdfsdfasdf Henrik Kniberg
- 64. Retrospectives & PostMortems Driven from below Supported from above Who’s fault was it? What did we learn? Henrik Kniberg
- 65. Failure Recovery ismore important than Failure Avoidance Failure Avoidance Henrik Kniberg Failure Recovery
- 66. “Limited Blast Radius”via decoupled architecture Henrik Kniberg
- 67. ”Limited Blast Radius”via gradual rollout Henrik Kniberg
- 68. 100% control =0% motion If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow! - Mario Andretti Henrik Kniberg
- 69. Servant leadership Manager’s job: • Telling people what to do • Having control • • • • Coaching Mentorship Enabling Solving impediments Henrik Kniberg How can I help?
- 70.
- 71.
- 72. Idea/Problem Narrative & Prototype “Radio you cansave!” Radio A/B stats Build MVP Deploy Tweak Analyze data Henrik Kniberg
- 73. Impact-driven development Backlog Developing Released Impact achieved Impact A/B test Henrik Kniberg
- 74.
- 75. 100% predictability =0% innovation Do what you need. Story points! Velocity! Burndown chart! Sprint “commitment” T ask hours! Focus on Focus on Innovation Spotify Henrik Kniberg Requirements Doc! Change Control Board! Gannt Chart! Predictability Typical Scrum Typical Waterfall
- 76. Unleash the innovation! Hackathon everyfew months Lab Day last Friday every month Henrik Kniberg 20% time Hack days Hack weeks 10%
- 77.
- 78. Experiment-friendly culture Vertical orHorizontal UI layout? Let’s A/B test Tool A or Tool B? Let’s try both and compare Ego-driven … Opinion-driven … Authority-driven … Data-driven decisions! What’s the hypothesis? What did we learn? What will we try next? Do we really need scrum-of-scrums? Let’s skip it and see if we miss it Should we merge these two tribes? Let’s try. Henrik Kniberg
- 79. Waste-repellant culture (=Lean) Keep • • • • • Try Retrospectives Daily standup Google docs GIT Guild Unconferences Skip/Dump • • • • • • • Henrik Kniberg Useless meetings PMO & PM role Timereporting Handoffs Acceptance test phase Task estimates Corporate BS If it works, keep it. Otherwise, dump it.
- 80. Improvement boards &“definition of awesome” What would Awesome look like for your Guild/Tribe/Squad/Project What would take you One Step Closer to Awesome? Henrik Kniberg Awesome architecture I can build, test, and ship my feature in a week. I use data to learn from it and my improved version is live in week two. Awesome autonomy Fully empowered to decide what to build & how. Never blocked on other squads. Always get help when we need it.
- 81.
- 82. What we’ve learnedabout Big Projects 1. Avoid Big Projects whenever possible. 2. When unavoidable, do: Daily sync Weekly demo (to resolve squad dependencies) (to evaluate the integrated product) Henrik Kniberg
- 83. Big Experiment: PersonalBonus system Dan Pink was right... Henrik Kniberg
- 84. Big Experiment: Tech-widehackweek • One whole week. • Everyone in Tech (≈300 ppl) • Build whatever you want…. • With whoever you want… • In however way you want. • Demo & party on Friday! Next experiment Spotify-wide hack week! All departments. > 1200 ppl! Henrik Kniberg
- 85. Spreading & reinforcing theculture Henrik Kniberg 01:39
- 86. Roles dedicated toculture & improvement People Operations (Pops) Agile coach group Henrik Kniberg
- 87. Story telling I mostlyjust go around talking to people - Chief Architect All-hands, demos, post-mortems Internal blog Henrik Kniberg
- 88.
- 89. We’re here tohelp you get to know each other better, and to make sure you have fun while doing it! Social group Board games Yoga Live bands Guitar lessons Parties ...etc... Henrik Kniberg Trips Movie nights
- 90. Challenges & painpoints Henrik Kniberg 01:39
- 91. Growth pain • Unstablesquads • Scaling breaks stuff all the time • Yesterday’s “brilliant solution” is today’s impediment • Cross-timezone collaboration • 50+ squads, 4 cities, 3 timezones • Technical debt • … etc, etc …. Henrik Kniberg
- 92.
- 93.
- 94. Culture > Process Shu-level Scrum canget you out a ditch, but won’t make you fly. • Learn the rules so you can break them Healthy Culture heals broken process. • Hack the culture, and process will follow Agile is Fragile. • It is only sustainable over the long term if all parts of the organization are committed to it. You are the culture. • Model the behavior you want to see Henrik Kniberg
- 95. Culture > Process Shu-level Scrum canget you out of a ditch, but won’t make you fly. • Learn the rules so you can break them Healthy Culture heals broken process. • Hack the culture, and process will follow Agile is Fragile. • It is only sustainable over the long term if all parts of the organization are committed to it. You are the culture. • Model the behavior you want to see Henrik Kniberg