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Spotify Model

October 24, 2023 by Mark Levison

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The “Spotify Model” is often misunderstood and misapplied in organizations. It consists of Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds. Squads are like Scrum teams, owning specific parts of a product. Tribes are groups of squads that collaborate in related areas. Chapters consist of people with the same skills in a tribe, and Guilds are larger communities of interest. However, merely adopting this structure without a cultural shift is ineffective.

Many organizations make mistakes when implementing this model. Don’t copy and paste another company’s Agile approach. Remember, no model is perfect for all time and all organizations. Being truly Agile means evolving and adapting to each unique need. Create a custom Agile model based on your culture and people. Focus on key principles underpinning Spotify’s success, such as: delivering value, product experimentation, autonomy, alignment, cross-functional teams, engineering culture, psychological safety, continuous improvement, morale, and optimizing workflow. These principles are crucial for long-term success.

The Spotify Model of Scaling – Spotify Doesn’t Use It, Neither Should You

Resource Links:

  • “Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters & Guilds” by Henrik Kniberg & Anders Ivarsson – the original paper
  • Failed #SquadGoals
  • My critique of “the Spotify Model” – by Jason Yip
  • Spotify Doesn’t Use the Spotify Model
  • The ‘Spotify model’ is not a model. Here is why.
  • There is No Spotify Model
  • There Is No Spotify Model for Scaling Agile
  • The top 3 points you should have paid attention to in the Spotify Engineering Culture videos that aren’t Squads, Chapters, Tribes, Guilds
  • Tribes and Squads. How adaptive is that?
  • You want to adopt the “Spotify Model”? I don’t think it means what you think it means!’
Mark Levison

Mark Levison has been helping Scrum teams and organizations with Agile, Scrum and Kanban style approaches since 2001. From certified scrum master training to custom Agile courses, he has helped well over 8,000 individuals, earning him respect and top rated reviews as one of the pioneers within the industry, as well as a raft of certifications from the ScrumAlliance. Mark has been a speaker at various Agile Conferences for more than 20 years, and is a published Scrum author with eBooks as well as articles on InfoQ.com, ScrumAlliance.org an AgileAlliance.org.




*Thank you for visiting the World's Largest Opinionated Agile Reference Library. This content is created and the links are curated through the lens of Agile Pain Relief Consulting's view of what is effective in the practice of Scrum and Agile. We don't accept submissions and emails to that effect are marked as spam. Book listings may use affiliate links that could result in a small commission received by us if you purchase, but they do not affect the price at all. From experience, this won't amount to anything more than a cup of coffee in a year.« Back to Glossary Index

About Mark Levison

Mark Levison has been helping Scrum teams and organizations with Agile, Scrum and Kanban style approaches since 2001. From certified scrum master training to custom Agile courses, he has helped well over 8,000 individuals, earning him respect and top rated reviews as one of the pioneers within the industry, as well as a raft of certifications from the ScrumAlliance. Mark has been a speaker at various Agile Conferences for more than 20 years, and is a published Scrum author with eBooks as well as articles on InfoQ.com, ScrumAlliance.org an AgileAlliance.org.

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