Spotify is one name that we all have heard with 286 million users presently. Among the many reasons for the company’s success is the company’s approach to team dynamics and organizational workflows. As sociological, political and economic pressure transformed the company's kinetics, the traditional structures and practices became outdated. As a result, this model was found and executed by Spotify’s engineers to fulfil the organizational goals. They found out the best practices that were working for them and documented them for the world to practice. With this blog, I will explain more about the Spotify Model and how teams can use it for scaling agility across organizations: inter and cross-functional teams. The company dynamics change as it is impacted by social, political, or economic factors.
Elements of the Tribe and Squad Model
The Spotify model is flexible and unique for scaling Agile development among multiple teams. Its elements are designed to promote collaboration, autonomy, and continuous improvement. Here is the explanation of each component in detail:
1. Squads:
These are fundamental building blocks of the Spotify model. They are cross-functional teams, similar to Scrum teams, that work on specific features or components of a product. Each squad is responsible for a particular product area and has all the skills necessary to design, develop, test, and deliver it. Squads are autonomous and self-organising, allowing them to work independently and decide their workflow.
Squads are small, autonomous teams consisting of 6-12 members who focus on a specific feature area. Each squad is supported by an Agile coach who helps them refine their Agile practices and a product owner who guides them in prioritising their work. What's unique about squads is that they have the flexibility to choose the Agile framework that best suits their needs, allowing them to work in the most effective way for their team and project. This autonomy enables squads to respond quickly to changing requirements and deliver high-quality results.
2. Tribes:
Tribes are squads that work on related features or products in the Spotify model. They are designed to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing between squads working on similar areas of the product. Tribes provide a framework for squads to share knowledge, resources, and best practices and align their work with the overall product strategy. Tribes are typically led by a tribe lead who facilitates coordination and communication between squads. A tribe usually comprises 40-50 people working towards a common goal.
3. Chapters:
Chapters are communities of practice or special interest groups that focus on specific skills or areas of expertise in the Spotify model. They are designed to promote knowledge sharing and professional development across squads and tribes. Chapters allow individuals with similar skills or interests to share knowledge, best practices, and experiences. In the Squad-based Agile Model, chapters can also provide training and mentorship opportunities to help individuals develop their skills. While squads operate independently, specialists within those squads need to stay connected to ensure technical excellence.
4. Guilds:
These are interest groups that revolve across tribes and focus on specific areas of interest or topics. Guilds are designed to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing across the entire organisation. Guilds provide a platform for individuals from different tribes and squads to come together and share knowledge, best practices, and experiences. Guilds can also influence the overall direction and strategy of the organisation.
5. Trio:
A trio is a collaborative leadership structure that brings together three key roles to guide and support a squad in the Spotify model. The Trio typically comprises a Product Owner, a Chapter Lead, and an Agile Coach or Scrum Master. The Product Owner is responsible for defining and prioritising the product backlog, ensuring that the squad clearly understands the product vision and requirements. A Chapter Lead who focuses on technical expertise, and an Agile Coach or Scrum Master who facilitates the Agile process. Together, they keep the tribe's work on track, aligned with the product goals, and continuously improving.
6. Alliance:
An alliance is a grouping of tribes that work together to achieve a broader business objective or strategic initiative. Alliances bring together multiple tribes, each with their own squads and expertise, to collaborate on complex projects or products requiring a high degree of coordination and alignment. By forming alliances, organisations can leverage the collective strengths of multiple tribes to drive innovation, share knowledge, and deliver high-impact outcomes. This structure enables the organisation to scale Agile practices while focusing on key business priorities.
Benefits of the Squad-based Agile Model
Here are the key benefits:
1. Autonomy and Flexibility: In Spotify models, Squads can choose their Agile framework and approach, allowing them to work in a way that best suits their needs.
2. Improved Collaboration: Tribes and chapters facilitate communication and knowledge sharing across different squads, promoting a culture of collaboration and innovation in the Squad-based Agile Model.
3. Scalability: The Spotify model is designed to scale Agile practices across large organisations, making it suitable for complex projects and products.
4. Faster Time-to-Market: The Spotify model empowers squads to make decisions and work independently, enabling organisations to respond quickly to changing requirements and deliver value faster.
5. Increased Employee Engagement: The Model focuses on autonomy, mastery, and purpose, which can lead to higher employee engagement and motivation, as team members are given more freedom to work on meaningful projects.
6. Better Alignment: The Trio (Product Owner, Chapter Lead, and Agile Coach) ensures alignment between business goals, technical expertise, and Agile practices, promoting a balanced approach to product development.
7. Continuous Learning and Improvement: In the model of spotify, chapters and tribes promote a continuous learning and improvement culture, helping teams stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices.
8. Boost Innovation: It emphasises autonomy and collaboration, which can lead to increased innovation, as teams are encouraged to experiment and try new approaches.
Challenges of the Tribe and Squad Model
1. Complexity in Implementation:
The Spotify model requires significant coordination, planning, and cultural shift, which can be challenging to implement, especially in large enterprises.
2. Communication and Coordination:
As the Spotify model scales, communication and coordination across various squads and tribes might become increasingly complex, leading to potential barriers and delays.
3. Role Clarity:
With multiple responsibilities and roles, such as tribes, squads, guilds, and chapters, it can be difficult to avoid confusion and maintain definitions.
4. Cultural Alignment:
The Squad-based Agile Model requires a culture of autonomy, trust, and continuous learning, which can be challenging to establish and maintain, especially in organisations with traditional hierarchical structures.
5. Governance and Oversight:
Balancing autonomy with governance and oversight can be a challenge. Squads must ensure that they have the freedom to make decisions while still aligning with organisational goals and standards.
6. Scaling Challenges:
As the organisation grows, scaling the Spotify model can be challenging, requiring ongoing adjustments to structures, processes, and roles.
7. Resistance to Change:
Implementing the model of spotify may face resistance from employees accustomed to traditional working methods, requiring effective change management and communication.
8. Measuring Success:
With multiple squads and tribes working on different products or features, measuring success and aligning metrics with organisational goals can be challenging.
What is the Spotify model in Agile?
As I discussed before, the Spotify model is developed by the Spotify team that works towards achieving agility across teams. It is a people-driven, autonomous approach that enhances innovation and productivity by focusing on factors like communication, accountability, and quality.
It was introduced to the world in 2012, when Spotify coach, Henrik Kniberg published a whitepaper on how the company looks at agility and practices it through a very simple model. This model gained popularity immediately as it was different from all the other models that came into the market before. It majorly focused on organizing around the work rather than working as per the set of guidelines. The framework suggested that all the teams in the Spotify framework can choose the agile framework of their own choice and complete the work as per the guidelines set by it.
- Benefits: When Spotify moved forward with the model, they wanted to move things faster and ship the software faster with minimum pain. They realized certain benefits of the model, which are as follows:
- Less formal processes and ceremonies: Instead of requiring squads to work similarly, they are given the freedom to work and it should align with each other.
- More self-management: The autonomous behaviour of the project resulted in better-performing self-management teams. The employees are trusted to complete their work on time and work together towards a single goal. This gives a sense of accountability to them.
- Transparency: The model offers better productivity as well, wherein the work is built on trust. Everyone is aware of the tasks done and to be done that will result in better products and happier customers.
Scaling Agile @Spotify - Henrik Kniberg and Anders
Henrik and Anders were part of the team that helped Spotify scale to a big company. They proposed the Spotify model in 2012 and shared the learning in a whitepaper. The Spotify model is based on the autonomous scaling agile at Spotify, it is primarily based on an agile model and specifications tailored to the needs of Spotify company. It became popular and was invented by Henrik Kniber. But later on, Henrik cleared the fog by mentioning he is not an inventor of the framework but merely a messenger for the same.
As I researched, I found out that in the article, published by Henrik himself he is stating how the internet is passing on wrong information and he did not invent the method. Model of spotify is the result of a lot of people collaborating and experimenting over time, and many aspects of the model were invented without my involvement at all. Mentioned Henrik
How is the Spotify Agile Model helpful?
In the short timeframe, the Spotify model was able to help the organization fulfil the tasks at hand. The method is proven to be helpful in many ways including:
1. Scalability: This model is scalable which means it can be implemented in any kind of team and project.
2. Cross-functional teams: The team helps the members to make quick decisions effectively which is essential for any project's success. Moreover, it helps in building cross-functional teams with a different set of skills and capabilities to accelerate collaboration and enhance productivity.
3. Scope for improvements: As the model is not rigid, it helps you to do experimentation. It allows you to fail and learn from the mistakes made allowing, imposing a growing environment.
Does Spotify use the Spotify Model?
Spotify currently doesn’t use the Spotify Agile Model and there have been controversies that it was never used. These are the primary reasons why the Spotify model was discarded by the company:
1. Relabaling of structures: It was believed, that the Spotify model was the renaming of most of the existing matrixes followed in an organization. This led to confusion among employees and demolishing of the model.
2. Challenging management: Each squad has different functional managers for the chapters. If any disagreements arise, it has to be resolved between multiple managers and then go to the tribe managers. It will create unnecessary complications within the team.
3. Team autonomy: Spotify works on the concept of team autonomy, it works well for the fast-moving startups but will be poor for big organizations. As the Spotify company grew, the company needed better alignment to manage rapid growth and avoid duplication and complexity.
4. Agile knowledge: There are agile coaches to guide the squads, but when there is a transition happening, there are not enough agile coaches to guide the team on how to implement agile into the workspace. These things collectively impacted the model negatively and were discarded by Spotify.
Here’s what you should learn from Spotify’s mistakes:
1. Lack of engineering managers: One of the major drawbacks of the Spotify model was the TDE team saw an absence of an engineer manager. The Spotify Agile model has chapter leads but they are not accountable for any work deliverables which sets unrest in the team dynamics.
2. Cross-team collaboration and autonomy are hard to balance: Different squads didn’t have the bandwidth to collaborate and contribute to other people's work. If there were some roadblocks, the team itself had to create tools and perform tasks efficiently.
3. Unnecessary complexities: The name structuring of the processes is only according to Spotify's requirements, it is not aligned with your company's requirements.
4. Shifting responsibilities: The model is criticized for shifting the responsibilities of the project to complete the targets.
5. No clear hierarchy: Another lacking issue in the Spotify model is no clear hierarchy and the projects fall apart without a clear leader. many believed as it was too rigid, it lacked innovation, responsiveness, and creativity.
6. Only for small-scale: The model is a complete flop for larger organizations as there is no hierarchy and without it is very difficult to keep large groups of people working efficiently.
Is the Spotify Model still used?
Big companies like Lego and ING implemented the Spotify Model in their organization. The companies who opted for the Spotify Model are struggling and will continue to struggle due to the many loopholes the framework has. Leaving behind the Squad-based Agile Modeling, many companies moved forward to more detailed agile methodologies like those mentioned below to drive more success, better results, and also better productivity:
- SAFe
- Kanban
- Scrum
- XP or Extreme Programming
- Learn
- DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method)
- FDD or Feature Driven Development
- Crystal
Conclusion
I will conclude by saying that If you’re looking for an agile framework that will suit a fast-moving environment, then the Spotify model can be a good choice. But copying and pasting the methodology as it is in your organization will do no good, you need to tailor it as per your requirements. Spotify is not a destination, it is more of a pathway to learn what suits the company best. Ironically, the Spotify company itself doesn’t use the Spotify Agile model right now, and not many companies follow it at present. You can start with the Squad-based Agile Model and work your way up to agility further.
As the Agile Spotify Framework is refrained by the big names, people are switching to SAFe as a primary agile methodology. If you’re interested in learning SAFe and becoming an expert in it, then SAFe Certification should be an ideal choice for you. StarAgile’s SAFe Certification is chosen by 300k+ students to transition into a more successful career. You can also join fellow participants and take your career ahead.
