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How Spotify Helps Their Engineers Grow - Chris Angove
1. August 20, 2014
Climbing off the Ladder, Before we fall off.
How Spotify Helps Their
Engineers Grow
2. 1
Who is this Chris Angove person?
Graduated with BS in CS from the University of Michigan
Spent 10 years as a C++ Developer
Started leading in 2005 (reluctantly)
Associate Director of Engineering at Amplify in Brooklyn in 2012
Joined Spotify as a Chapter Lead in 2013
Always been interested in engineering culture and career development
3. 2
Story begins with my father
Worked for 40 years as a machine builder in the automotive world
Quickly became a journeyman, but no interest in management
I used to see our worlds as different, blue collar vs white collar
I am pretty sure I was wrong….
6. 5
Began with Agile, but process got in the way
At beginning process was vital to creating the team
As we grow, teams tried to figure out how to remain agile
Implement new structure in 2012
Continuously tweaking process
7. 6
Alignment & Autonomy
Henrik Kniberg
Alignment
Do what I say!
Autonomy
Do whatever
8. 7
High
Alignment
High Autonomy
Build a bridge!
Micromanaging
organization
Indifferent culture
Entrepreneurial
organization
Chaotic
culture
Authoritative
organization
Conformist culture
Innovative
organization
Collaborative culture
We need to cross the river
Figure out how!
We need to cross the river
Low
Alignment
Low Autonomy
Hope someone is working on the river problem…
Aligned Autonomy!
Henrik Kniberg
9. 8
Not so original, original idea
PO
PO
PO
Tribe
Tribe lead
PO
PO
PO
PO
Tribe
Chapter
Chapter
Tribe lead
PO
Chapter
Chapter
Guild
10. 9
Reality is Messy!
PO
PO
PO
Tribe
Tribe lead
PO
PO
PO
PO
Tribe
Tribe lead
PO
Chapter
Chapter
Guild
11. 10
Aligned Autonomy - be autonomous, but don’t suboptimize - Spotify’s mission > Squad’s mission
Henrik Kniberg
23. 22
Reality is rarely simple, more often it’s messy
What’s wrong with the ladder
24. 23
We have usually preferred to keep structure flat, only defining positions based on role not seniority
What’s wrong with the ladder
25. 24
The only way to add value is predefined by structure and requires management
What’s wrong with the ladder
26. 25
May not have the skill set or interest for the next level on the ladder
What’s wrong with the ladder
27. 26
No way to try out things, moving down the ladder is difficult
What’s wrong with the ladder
28. 27
Creates a factory to eject people due to limited management positions
What’s wrong with the ladder
29. 28
May promote people beyond their abilities and thus out of the company
What’s wrong with the ladder
30. 29
Ultimately it provides simplicity at the cost of actual career development
What’s wrong with the ladder
31. 30
Assumes plateauing at a specific role is bad and that managers are more valuable then individual contributors, but why?
What’s wrong with the ladder
32. 31
There has to be a better way!
What’s wrong with the ladder
Right?!?!
62. 61
Roles defined by institutional need, not career advancement
A nonlinear model
63. 62
Moving to management is not a promotion
A nonlinear model
64. 63
Add-ons add both personal as well as business value
A nonlinear model
65. 64
Interest and skill-set define which add-on the individual contributor chooses
A nonlinear model
66. 65
It is engineer driven but supported by the company
A nonlinear model
Manager works with the engineer
Trainings, sessions, workshops provided as needed
Time off to participate in events approved
68. 67
Do things; tell people
A nonlinear model
You’re doing cool stuff that others would benefit from hearing about
You’re passionate about something and you’d like to see more of it
You’d like recognition for your efforts
69. 68
Try Something New
A nonlinear model
Work is great but getting a little bored
You’d like to try something new, but not stop what you are doing
Not sure you want to risk switching roles completely
70. 69
Get out of the Comfort Zone
A nonlinear model
You’d like to acquire new skills
You need to push yourself in a new direction
Shake things up to see what latent skills are there
71. 70
Employee chooses add-ons or creates a new one:
A nonlinear model
Define Goal
Define Success Metrics
Define Help Needed
72. 71
A Few Examples
A nonlinear model
Speaker
Trainer
Coach
Mentor
Writer
Architect
Evangelist
Road Manager
Open Sourcer
73. 72
This is a work in progress
A nonlinear model
Testing our hypothesis now
Initial steps in 2013 were a bit slow to adopt
But we’re refining, check back with us soon!
74. 73
This is not solved we need to innovate
Yes this is a call to action!
Email me cangove@spotify.com
What are your ideas?
75. 74
Check out spotify.com/jobs or @Spotifyjobs for more information.
Want to join the band?