Breaking the hierarchy How Spotify enables engineer decision making - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Breaking the hierarchy How Spotify enables engineer decision making - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Jun 15, 2023 114 likes •572 views

Breaking the hierarchy How Spotify enables engineer decision making Kristian Lindwall, Spotify Introduction 3 Section name Our employees are our most valued resource So where does it go wrong? 6 Section name Lets do this! 7

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Breaking the hierarchy

How Spotify enables engineer decision making

Kristian Lindwall, Spotify

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Introduction

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3

Section name

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”Our employees are our most valued resource”

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So where does it go wrong?

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Let’s do this!

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Yes… or maybe that! Let’s do this!

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Oh no…

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Section name

9

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3 ways to break the hierarchy

  • 1. Slice the pie and give people a piece of it
  • 2. Don’t tell people what to do
  • 3. Be intentional about how to distribute decisions
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#1

Slice the pie and give people a piece of it

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”We need teams of missionaries, not teams of mercenaries”

  • John Doerr
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App Integrations Home consumer electronics Team X Team Y

PPX TRIBE

Deepen relationships between artists and fans by extending Spotify into their favorite apps Filling homes with music that inspires every moment Tailor the Spotify experience to platforms and partners

CORE EXPERIENCE TRIBE

Define and evolve Spotify’s core experience Create the most delightful music experience

CONSUMER EXPERIENCE MISSION

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Squad Squad

TRIBE TECHNOLOGY TRIBE TRIBE TRIBE

TSG TSG TSG TSG TAG

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Principle #1

Build the org around autonomous mini-startups and enable them to align effectively

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#2

Don’t tell the organisation what to do, tell them what you want

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Plans Actions Results

Why didn’t people follow the plan? Why didn’t the plan work? Why can’t we plan better?

From: ”The art of action”, S Bungay (2010)

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Plans Actions Results

Allow people/teams to define HOW to do it Give people/teams freedom to adjust actions in line with intent Create alignment on intent: what & why

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Photo credit: Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge

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Spotify use ”DIBBs” to debate and decide

Objective point or set of points with information about the customer, product, world

Data Insight Bet Belief

A learning, theory, or conclusion drawn from one or more data points. A hypothesis built on one or more insights that offers direction to a team or teams. A decision to test a belief or set of related beliefs in practice by establishing it as a goal and dedicating resources to it.

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Example: Mobile free tier

  • Mobile sales increasing
  • Mobile streaming increasing
  • Mobile staffing low

Data Insight Bet Belief

  • Mobile is overtaking desktop
  • Our mobile team is disproportiantely small compared to desktop
  • We need to become mobile first
  • To be competitive, we need a free tier on mobile
  • Launch a new product, mobile free tier
  • Ramp up the mobile team
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RFCs: Common tool at Spotify to clarify intent, and debate your proposed solution

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Principle #2

Express intent, not actions. And get really good at arguing about what to do.

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#3

Be intentional about how to distribute decisions

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Decision making power Brain power utilization

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Decision making power Brain Power utilization

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Ideas on how to distribute decision making

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Farnam street blog: https://fs.blog/2018/09/decision-matrix/

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Farnam street blog: https://fs.blog/2018/09/decision-matrix/

CONSEQUENTIAL NSEQUENTIAL IN INCONSEQUEN CONSEQUENTIAL IAL IR IRREV REVER ERSIBLE IBLE REVERSIBL ERSIBLE

  • Should I be

pairing on this task?

  • Can I merge this

pull request?

  • Shall we hire this

person?

  • Shall I introduce a

new data processing framework?

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High consequence decision

Example 1 Crafting strategy

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High consequence decision

Example 2 Large scale reorg

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Section name

34

150 people

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High consequence decision

Example 3 What technologies should we use at Spotify?

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Java

Spotify tech radar

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Principle #3

Isolate and move fast on low consequence, distribute high consequence decisions.

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Summary

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Optimize for autonomy. Enable alignment across the

  • rganisation.
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Don’t tell people what to do, tell them what you need.

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Be intentional about how you make decisions and invest in the

  • nes that matter.
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Kristian Lindwall @klindwall

Thank you!