Enabling Autonomy at Spotify

Enabling Autonomy at Spotify

Jason Yip

Agile Coach, Monetization Tribe, Spotify NYC

jyip@spotify.com

@jchyip

https://jchyip.blogspot.com

https://medium.com/@jchyip

What do you mean when you say “autonomy”?

Autonomy means the freedom to do what you

feel like.

Autonomy means the freedom to do what you

feel like.

Psychologically shallow

Autonomy means the freedom to do what you

feel like.Devoid of meaning and shared identity

Psychologically shallow

Autonomy means the freedom to do what you

feel like.Devoid of meaning and shared identity Probably leads to

depression

Psychologically shallow

Autonomy means feeling free to act, with all your

capabilities, to contribute toward a collective outcome.

Autonomy means feeling free to act, with all your

capabilities, to contribute toward a collective outcome.

Psychologically strong

Autonomy means feeling free to act, with all your

capabilities, to contribute toward a collective outcome.Contributes to a sense of capability and self-efficacy

Psychologically strong

Okay, I accept your definition of autonomy. How might I support it?

http://blog.crisp.se/2016/08/23/henrikkniberg/alignment-at-scale-agile-africa-keynote

What do you mean when you say “alignment”?

Alignment = Intent + rationale + constraints

Intent: WhatRationale: WhyConstraints: Any restrictions on How

Alignment = Intent + rationale + constraints

Intent: We need to cross the riverRationale: There is more food on the other sideConstraints: Please don’t kill any beavers

What does Spotify do to enable alignment?

Company BeliefsOur World

Our PlatformOur Company

Our TeamsTop-level rationale

North Star + 2 Year GoalsOur World

Our PlatformOur Company

Our TeamsTop-level intent

Company Bets (rank, WIP limit)Sponsor, Road Manager,

Key Stakeholders, Summary, DIBB (Data Insights, Beliefs, Bets), Impact, Investment,

Staffing, DependenciesIntent, rationale, constraints

Tribe Bets

Varies

Intent, rationale, constraints

Squad Missions and Roadmaps

Varies

Intent, rationale, constraints

TPD leadership

Tribe TPD leads

Company Beliefs

North Star / 2 Year Goals

Company Bets

TPD leadership

Tribe TPD leads

Company Beliefs

North Star / 2 Year Goals

Company Bets

Strategy Days

TPD Alignment

Taps

Other Tribe / Squad sessions vary

So that’s all I need to enable autonomy?

Well, no.

Alignment is not enough to enable

autonomy.

http://www.davidmarquet.com/our-story/

Autonomy is enabled by Alignment AND Competence

What do you mean when you say

“competence”?

Essentially, I trust that

1. You will decide things in a similar way to how I would

2. You have similar or better skill to do the work

Competence means shared work beliefs

AND technical excellence

What does Spotify do to enable competence?

Engineering Core Beliefs‣ Speed of learning and execution lead us to create a best in

class product‣ The fewer technologies we are world class on, the faster we get‣ Shorter iterations yield faster learning, quicker value and higher

quality‣ Small empowered cross-functional teams is the foundation of

fast paced product development and innovation‣ Strong teams always beat rock stars‣ Your ability to learn and adapt is more important than your

knowledge, merit and experience

“Get off to a flying start with backend development by following our step-by-step Golden Path tutorials:

they'll show you how to develop, build, provision, deploy, test, and monitor a backend service in our production environment. These tutorials are designed to get new

employees, boot camp squads – indeed anyone who is new to backend development at Spotify – to get up to speed,

fast!”

“The Chapter Lead is the line manager for his or her chapter

members, with all the traditional responsibilities such as

developing people, setting salaries, etc”

Not justTPD

‣ #tech-excellence‣ #fearless-development

Slack channels and unconferences

So Spotify is really good at enabling

autonomy?

Autonomy is a strong belief at Spotify… but...

Let’s say it’s a work in progress

Zombie projects Looser than I’d like on technical habits

Not a strong tradition of technically-oriented coaches

Experience skews

toward the young side

TPD / Business gap

Ability to absorb

rapid growth rate

So, that’s all I need to enable autonomy?

First, don’t just copy.

Think for yourself.

We are after all talking about enabling

autonomy.

Principles are probably generalisable.

Autonomy means feeling free to act, with all your

capabilities, to contribute toward a collective outcome.

Autonomy is enabled by Alignment AND Competence

Alignment = Intent + rationale + boundaries

Intent: WhatRationale: WhyBoundaries: Any restrictions on How

Competence means shared work beliefs

AND technical excellence

Beyond principles, you’ll need to

experiment with the specific mechanisms.

Who are you again?

Who was that guy?

‣ Jason Yip‣ Agile Coach at Spotify since Feb 2015‣ Previously Principal Consultant at

ThoughtWorks (started in February 2001)‣ First encountered Extreme Programming in

1998

My question to the audience:

What do you do to enable autonomy?