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

Breaking the hierarchy How Spotify enables engineer decision making Kristian Lindwall, Spotify

Introduction

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” Our employees are our most valued resource ”

So where does it go wrong?

6 Section name Let’s do this!

7 Section name Let’s do this! Yes… or maybe that!

8 Section name Oh no…

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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

#1 Slice the pie and give people a piece of it

” We need teams of missionaries, not teams of mercenaries ” - John Doerr

Deepen relationships between artists and fans by Filling homes with extending Spotify into their music that inspires favorite apps every moment CONSUMER EXPERIENCE MISSION Home consumer App Integrations electronics CORE EXPERIENCE TRIBE Team X Team Y Create the most delightful music PPX TRIBE experience Define and evolve Tailor the Spotify Spotify’s core experience to experience platforms and partners

TECHNOLOGY TAG TSG TSG TSG TSG Squad Squad TRIBE TRIBE TRIBE TRIBE

Principle #1 Build the org around autonomous mini-startups and enable them to align effectively

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

Results Why can’t we plan Why didn’t the plan work? better? Actions Plans Why didn’t people follow the plan? From: ”The art of action”, S Bungay (2010)

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

Photo credit: Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge

Spotify use ” DIBBs ” to debate and decide Data Objective point or set of points with information about the customer, product, world Insight A learning, theory, or conclusion drawn from one or more data points. Belief 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 Bet goal and dedicating resources to it.

Example: Mobile free tier • Mobile sales increasing • Mobile streaming increasing Data • Mobile staffing low • Mobile is overtaking desktop Insight • Our mobile team is disproportiantely small compared to desktop • We need to become mobile first Belief • To be competitive, we need a free tier on mobile • Launch a new product, mobile free tier • Ramp up the mobile team Bet

RFCs: Common tool at Spotify to clarify intent, and debate your proposed solution

Principle #2 Express intent, not actions. And get really good at arguing about what to do.

#3 Be intentional about how to distribute decisions

Decision Brain making power power utilization

Decision Brain making Power power utilization

Ideas on how to distribute decision making

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

CONSEQUENTIAL NSEQUENTIAL - Shall we hire this - Shall I introduce a person? new data processing framework? REVERSIBL ERSIBLE IR IRREV REVER ERSIBLE IBLE - Can I merge this - Should I be pull request? pairing on this task? INCONSEQUEN IN CONSEQUENTIAL IAL Farnam street blog: https://fs.blog/2018/09/decision-matrix/

High consequence decision Example 1 Crafting strategy

High consequence decision Example 2 Large scale reorg

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High consequence decision Example 3 What technologies should we use at Spotify?

Spotify tech radar Java

Principle #3 Isolate and move fast on low consequence, distribute high consequence decisions.

Summary

Optimize for autonomy. Enable alignment across the organisation.

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

Be intentional about how you make decisions and invest in the ones that matter.

Thank you! Kristian Lindwall @klindwall