Spotify - the unproject culture - (+ failure story "how to burn €1 billion") Consultant
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Spotify – the unproject culture
(+ failure story ”how to burn €1 billion”)
Passion for Projects keyote,
May 21, 2013
Consultant
www.crisp.se Henrik Kniberg
henrik.kniberg@crisp.se Father
@HenrikKniberg
Agile & Lean coach
Author
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Purpose of this presentation
Show that projects aren’t the only way to get stuff done
Henrik Kniberg
Success = ?
01:32
Henrik Kniberg
What is a successful project?
Scope
nah....
Budget Schedule
Henrik Kniberg
What is a successful project?
Project A Project B Project C
Scope Scope Scope
Budget Schedule Budget Schedule Budget Schedule
Customer Customer Customer Happy
Happy
stakeholders! stakeholders!
Users Users Users
Development team Development team Development team
Henrik Kniberg
Measure the stuff
Measuring success Happy
that really matters!
stakeholders
Proxy
metrics
Happy
Happy development
Do they
come back users team
more often?
Surveys
Do they
stay longer? Do they share
Do they listen to more music?
more music?
Henrik Kniberg
A unique & expensive
experiment
01:32
Henrik Kniberg
Experiment: Build the same product twice, in different ways
Project 1 Project 2
Mission Improve society Reduce maintenance cost
Requirements Unclear Clear
Delivery Agile (= Iterative/incremental) Big bang
User involvement Continuous None
Team’s influence High None
over technology
choices
Tech platform Java Siebel
(programming language) (CRM system)
Hypothesis: second version will be cheaper (and better).
Henrik Kniberg
PUST – ”polisens utredningsstöd” Henrik Kniberg
Nationwide
Project 1: PUST Java release
pilot releases
2010 2011Rebuild the whole
thing using Oracle
Siebel Huh? We just spent 100 Mkr
building a working product.
Shouldn’t we keep improving on
that?
Oracle says Siebel
will be cheaper and
better But it won’t work! PUST
is UX critical, and it’s not
a CRM system!
Oracle says Siebel
will be cheaper and
better
Well then let’s build a
small pilot version, to see
if that is true
No time for that.
Build the whole thing in
one go, and release
nationwide when done.
Henrik KnibergProject 2: Pust Siebel
A train wreck in slow motion
Henrik KnibergProject 2: Pust Siebel Nationwide
release @#?
!
2012 2013
Henrik KnibergResult of experiment ”build the same product twice”:
PUST Java PUST Siebel
Mission Improve society Lower cost
Requirements Unclear Clear
Delivery Iterative Big bang
User involvement Continuous None
Team’s influence High None
over technology
choices
Tech platform Java Siebel
(programming language) (CRM system)
RESULT PUST Java PUST Siebel
Stakeholder Mostly positive Outrage
response
Cost ≈100 Mkr ≈200 Mkr
+ estimated damage 10 Bkr
Measured impact 2-8x faster processing time Police blocked several hours
for simple crime investigations per day. Error rate increased.
Henrik KnibergLessons learned
Nationwide Nationwide
release release
Pust Java Pust Siebel
2010 2011 2012 2013
• Focus on solving user needs, not cost
• Deliver iteratively & incrementally
• Involve real users
• Beware of ”standard platforms”
• They’re not as standard as you think
• Listen to your tech people more than to the
external vendor trying to sell stuff to you
Henrik KnibergWhat makes a project
succeed?
01:32
Henrik Kniberg15,000 person-years of experience
Communication
User involvement
Small steps
Henrik KnibergDo projects help us
succeed?
01:32
Henrik KnibergA bucket of
people, time, and money
Project = ?
X-mas
Temporary Defined Beginning and
End in time
People who don’t
Not a routine normally work
Henrik Kniberg operation togetherWhat do people REALLY mean when they say ”project”
This? Or this?
Something we
are working
on
Temporary Defined Beginning and
End in time
People who don’t
Not a routine normally work
operation together
Henrik KnibergAll products start with a Great Idea! Henrik Kniberg
Big Bang = Big Risk
Cumulative
RISK Value
Henrik KnibergBig Projects usually fail. Regardless of process.
”The Standish Group has categorically stated with
much conviction—backed by intense research—
that the secret to project success is to strongly
recommend and enforce limits on size and
complexity.”
”These two factors trump all other factors.”
< $1 million
> $1 million
Henrik KnibergProject model invites Big Bang thinking
Big Bang Project
Temporary Defined Beginning and
End in time
People who don’t
Not a routine normally work
Henrik Kniberg operation togetherAgile = Iterative + Incremental
Don’t try to get it all right Don’t build it all at once
from the beginning
cost value
cost
value
RISK
Henrik KnibergNot like this....
1 4
2 3
Like this!
1 2 3 4 5
Henrik KnibergSlice the elephant!
Region
Östergötland,
Uppsala, etc
1.0
Crime types 1.1
1.3 1.4
(weapon,
drunk driving, 1.2
shoplifting, etc)
1.5
PUST Java
Integrations
Henrik KnibergProject model doesn’t fit well for IT product development
Big Bang approach Deliver
Do Stuff
Project
Deliver
Agile approach Deliver
Deliver
Deliver Deliver
Do Stuff Do Stuff Do Stuff Do Stuff Do Stuff Do Stuff
Project = ?
• A project is a temporary, non-routine operation.
• Product development teams are long-lived,
and they deliver routinely.
Temporary Defined Beginning and
• Projects have a fixed end. End in time
• Product development is continuous
People who don’t
Not a routine normally work
operation together
Henrik KnibergImproving the Value Curve
RISK
Big Bang Big increments Small increments Highest value first
Value
Henrik Kniberg EffortMaximize Value, not Output Henrik Kniberg
Project Model vs Agile Model
Project Model Agile Model
PUST Siebel PUST Java
Henrik KnibergWhat is Spotify?
01:32
Henrik KnibergPlay Everywhere!
• Revolutionizing the music industry
Like a magical music player in which
• Popular product that spreads virally
you’ve bought every song in the world! • Happy employees
• Stable revenue model
Henrik KnibergUser growth
30M
24 million
active users
20M
6 million
Paying
10M
subscribers
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Employee growth
1000
1300+ employees
30+ countries
750
500
250
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Henrik Kniberg≈400 people in tech
Stockholm
250
Gothenburg
30
San Francisco
10 New York
100
37
Henrik KnibergHow Spotify works
01:32
Henrik KnibergThe Spotify ”unproject”
2008 Timeline 2013
Henrik Kniberg> 60 squads Henrik Kniberg
Autonomous Squad Cross-functional, co-located, self-organizing team Henrik Kniberg
42
Squads are grouped into Tribes
Tribe Tribe Tribe
Tribe Tribe Tribe
Henrik KnibergEach Tribe is a lightweight matrix focused on delivery
Vertical = Delivery.
Horizontal = knowledge sharing & personal development
Tribe Tribe
Chapter Chapter
Chapter
Guild ChapterReality is messy Henrik Kniberg
Community > Structure Face-2-face communication
How do we align 60+ mini-startups? Henrik Kniberg
Alignment & Autonomy
False
d ichot
omy
Alignment Autonomy
Do what
I say! Do
whatever
Henrik KnibergAlignment enables Autonomy
Build a
Aligned Autonomy!
We need to
cross the river bridge! We need to
cross the river Figure out how!
High
Authoritative
Alignment organization
Innovative
organization
Conformist Collaborative
culture culture
Hope someone is
working on the
Entrepreneurial river problem…
Micromanaging
organization organization
Indifferent Chaotic
Low culture culture
Alignment
Low Autonomy High Autonomy
Henrik KnibergLeader’s job:
Explain what problem needs to be solved.
And Why.
Henrik KnibergAligned Autonomy
- be autonomous, but don’t suboptimize
- Spotify’s mission > Squad’s mission
Henrik KnibergFastest learner wins!
Delivery frequency = Speed of learning
Stakeholders, Users
Feedback, Demos,
Requests, Releases
Data
Development team
Henrik KnibergRelease = Drama!
Release must be REALLY easy!
Release!
Req Code Test
Releasing is Release
hard seldom
Release = Routine
Releasing is Release
easy often
Henrik KnibergDecoupling to enable
frequent releases
Client App squad
!#?
Feature squads
Henrik KnibergSelf-service model
Client App squads
Infrastructure squads Enable &
support
IOS Android Desktop Web
Enable & support
Feature squads
Enable &
support
Henrik KnibergRelease trains & Feature toggles Henrik Kniberg
Failure Recovery is more important
than Failure Avoidance
Failure Avoidance Failure Recovery
Henrik Kniberg“Limited Blast Radius” via decoupled architecture Henrik Kniberg
”Limited Blast Radius” via gradual rollout Henrik Kniberg
Trust > Control
100% control = 0% motion
If everything’s under control,
you’re going too slow!
- Mario Andretti
Henrik KnibergHow Spotify builds
products
01:32
Henrik KnibergOur product philosophy
1: We create innovative products while managing risk by prototyping
early and cheaply.
2: We don’t launch on date, we launch on quality.
3: We ensure that our products go from being great at launch to
becoming amazing, by relentlessly tweaking after launch.
Henrik KnibergIdea/Problem
“Radio you
can save!”
Narrative & Metrics
& Prototypes
Impact
Backlog Developing Released achieved
Build MVP
Minimum Viable Product
Tweak Deploy
to X% of users
Impact A/B stats
Analyze data
Henrik KnibergThink It Build It Ship it Tweak it
5% shipped 100% shipped
MVP 1% shipped
Prototypes
Narrative
Henrik Kniberg100% predictability = 0% innovation Focus on Focus on Innovation Predictability Henrik Kniberg
You already have innovators! Hack days
Hack weeks
Just unleash them.
Hackathon
10%
every few
months
Lab Day
last Friday
every month
20% time
Henrik KnibergCompany-wide hackweek • One whole week. • Everyone at Spotify • Build whatever you want…. • With whoever you want… • In however way you want. • Demo & party on Friday! Henrik Kniberg
”Projects” at Spotify
01:32
Henrik KnibergA Spotify ”project” is...
....a focused and coordinated effort of severals squads for several months
We are organized to minimize the need for projects.
But sometimes a project is unavoidable.
We aren’t very good at doing big projects
- but we will keep experimenting and learning!
Henrik KnibergSome things we’ve
learned about how to do
”projects”
01:32
Henrik KnibergFind the balance
Agile
Chaos Bureaucracy
Culture
Henrik KnibergAll involved squads
Daily sync • What do you need from another squad right now?
• What is your progress since yesterday that affects the other squads?
- resolve dependencies
• What do you plan to do today that will affect the other squads?
Henrik KnibergWeekly demo • Triggers tight integration and collaboration
• Gives a sense of progress
- evaluate the integrated product
• Triggers decisions & reprioritization
Henrik KnibergVisual management Plans are useless.
& Light-weight adaptive planning Planning is essential.
Focus on impact!
Not dates or deliverables.
Eisenhower
Henrik KnibergRetrospectives – during and after the ”project” Henrik Kniberg
Leadership needed
(...but how?)
Leadership is an activity, not a role.
Emergent leadership
> Appointed leadership
Experiments:
- RM (road manager)
- Leadership duo/trio
(tech + product + design)
Henrik KnibergWhat about project managers? Debate
We do value (most) PM skills. in prog
ress
But we’re not sure we need a PM role.
”Project managers are change agents.
They make project goals their own and use
their skills and expertise to inspire a sense
of shared purpose”
We call this Road Manager.
... work well under pressure and are
comfortable with change and
complexity in dynamic environments
... can shift readily between ”big
picture” and small-but-crucial
details
We try to build this
competence into each squad
... resolving complex,
interdependent activities into We coach squads to do this themselves,
in a just-in-time decentralized way.
sub-tasks that are documented,
monitored, and controlled Sometimes they need support though.
Henrik KnibergWrapup
01:32
Henrik KnibergAsk the right question
How can we run How can we
big projects minimize the need
for big projects?
How can we minimize
the size of projects?
(and how do we run
projects when we
can’t avoid it)
Henrik KnibergTake-away points
Projects aren’t the only way to get things done
• The standard project model is a tool
• Like any tool, it is suitable for some situations but not all.
• It is often unsuitable for IT product development
Success = happy stakeholders. Not time/budget/scope.
• Minimize the size, deliver iteratively & incrementally
• Focus on solving real user needs,
and involve them continuously
Experiment!
• You can always improve. So keep trying new ways.
Henrik KnibergYou can also read
