(2020-04-19) Lee Spotify's Failed Squad Goals

Jeremiah Lee: Spotify's Failed #SquadGoals. Spotify doesn’t use “the Spotify model” and neither should you.

I joined the company after it had tripled in size to 3,000 people over 18 months. I learned the famed squad model was only ever aspirational and never fully implemented. I witnessed organizational chaos as the company’s leaders incrementally transitioned to more traditional management structures.

Spotify tried a long-lived matrix team structure with unusual word choices. It did not work well.

Without a single engineering manager responsible for the engineers on a team, the product manager lacked an equivalent peer—the mini-CTO to their mini-CEO role.

Spotify did not define a common process for cross-team collaboration. Allowing every team to have a unique way of working meant each team needed a unique way of engagement when collaborating. Overall organization productivity suffered.

Mythology is difficult to change

if we remove the unnecessary synonyms from the ideas, the Spotify model is revealed as a collection of cross-functional teams with too much autonomy and a poor management structure.

Less than 200 people? Shape Up by Basecamp is how I intend to structure my next startup. (I disagree with that.)