Download - Kristian Karl
Working in a fast growing company
Kristian Karl, Spotify
1983 Started programming1994 Testing and automation @Ercisson1998 Consultant2010 Test Manager @Spotify
●Subscribers: Over 30 million●Active users: Over 80 million●Revenue paid to rightsholders: $3bn●Number of songs: Over 30 million●Number of playlists: Over 1.5 billion●Available in 58 markets
Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, Uruguay and USA.
Fun Facts
Åsa Ranneby - Chapter Lead
Technology Produc
tDesign
The Chapter Lead Responsibilities
INDIVIDUALMake sure the
individuals are in a good place, have what they need to deliver great stuff
and that they continuously grow
both skills and behaviors.
HR STUFFMake sure that we
are fulfilling our responsibilities as an employer and
that each individual is getting the support and
compensation they should have.
SquadMake sure the
squads have what they need to do great things and
help them improve their ways to be
functioning as high performing squads.
STAFFING & HIRING
Make sure that we have the right
staffing and that the hiring process is
working like clockwork and doing the right
thing.
CHAPTERMake sure we share knowledge within and outside the
chapter and that we support each other in our growth and
daily work.
ORGANIZATIONMake sure we are
following our company values
and that we always improve our way of working in the org
and grows our leadership skills.
I give regular
feedback and I am happy to receive it
My actions inspire trust
I am clear and open and not afraid to speak my
mind
I give my squads
space to grow and
solve problems
I help create an
environment that
encourages development
and innovation
●Make sure the individuals are in a good place.
●Have what they need to deliver great stuff.
●That they continuously grow both skills and behaviors
Supporting the IndividualThe goal is that the individual should:
Things I do
Receive good feedback that supports their growth
Be empowered in the workplace
Have a clear view of the expectations on them
Have the right skills and challenges, and the right workload
Have a development plan aligned with their career path
Be coached to grow at a sustainable pace
Delivering value to Spotify, and enjoy doing that
Have a clear picture of where the company is going and why
I work in the squadsAttend standups, planning and retrospects
Coaching
Participate in POCLAC
Weekly 1:1s
Fika!
●Make sure the squads have what they need to do great stuff.
●Help them improve their way of working to be functioning as high performing squads
Supporting the SquadsThe goal is that the squad should:
Have a good feedback culture
Feel empowered to take the necessary decisions
Feel ownership of their stuff, and know what is expected
Deliver great stuff, enjoy working and collaborating on their things Continuously improve the
quality and state of their systems and their way of working
Have a clear view of where we are going and why
Have the right competence and size to do the work and actively work on sharing knowledge in the squad
Attend standups and planning (overlap AC)Attend roadmap sessions (overlap PO) Help
prepare/facilitate offsites, planning, roadmap sessions, ...
Attend/facilitate retros (overlap AC)
Make sure we have the right staffing for the holidays and on call
Drive initiatives in the org to improve the working environment for the squad
Work in the POCLAC to make sure the squad has what it needs to be high performingThings I
do
Enabling Chapter Collaboration
●Make sure we share knowledge within and outside the chapter.
●Make sure we support each other in our growth and daily work.
The goal is that the chapter members should:
Get help and to learn from each other by opportunity to discuss engineering problems and practicesIncrease collaboration between squads in the daily work by knowing each other in the chapter
Get inspired around things and ways to learn more like new technologies conferences, trainings
Drive initiatives in the company to make sure we are having the right architecture, platform, engineering practices
Increase and share knowledge and good practices in the chapter
Chapter meetings
Arrange lunch & learns and tech talks
Initiate/drive stuff like test conferencesShare information about company stuff (email, fikas, …)
Things I do
The HR Stuff●Make sure that we are
fulfilling our responsibilities as an employer
●Make sure that each individual is getting the support and compensation they should have
The goal is that the individual should:Get expenses and vacation approved (or being authorized to approve them themselves)Get on-call reports approved (or being authorized to approve them themselves)Get equipment approved (or being authorized to approve them themselves)
Get answers to questions regarding their employment, rules, compensation, ...
Have the right contract, amendments, job title and step
Have the right compensation
Have the right working environment (working hours, on-call setup, ...)
Onboarding/offboarding
Salary reviewApprove expenses, vacation, on-call, equipment, ...
Make sure we have enough staffing during holidays
Search for answers to different questionsAdjust steps, job title and contracts when needed
Drive improvement issues regarding working environment like on-call setup
Things I do
Staffing & Hiring
●Make sure that we have the right staffing.
●Make sure that the hiring process is working and doing the right thing
The goal is that the organization should:
Have an interview process that checks for the right things as unbiased as possible
Have a hiring pipeline that consists of good and diverse candidates
Have a hiring pipeline that moves at the right speed
Spend the right amount of time in interviews in relation to the work in the squads
Have good profile descriptions for the open headcountsContinuously evaluate the hiring process to learn and improve
Have the right amount of trained interviewers conducting interviews
Have the right staffing according to the needs
Keep track on pipelineRouting candidates to right rolesHelp sourcing for candidatesDoing 1st interviews
Do culture part and shadow 2nd interviews
Prepare interviews (2nd and onsite)Make sure we have enough trained interviewers
Drive initiative to design a new tech interview
Participate in onsites (do cultural)
Drive improvements of the hiring process, make sure we are diversity friendly
Work with staffing together with pal and POCLACs
Things I do
Supporting the Organization
● Make sure we are following our company values.
●Make sure that we always improve our way of working in the org and grows our leadership skills
The goal is that the organization should:
Remove impediments that prevents us from doing great stuff in a great way
Uphold the culture of empowerment, transparency and trust
Have great leaders going in the same direction
Make sure everyone in the tribe knows where we are going and why
Make sure we are and continue to be a great place to workMake sure we are sharing knowledge and practices within and outside of the tribeContinuously improve the way we work and support the members of the tribe in their improvements
Active participation in lead meetings of the tribe (and emails)
Supporting other leads including mentoring
Active participation in my tribe leads offsites
Initiate, drive and participate in initiatives like better on-call
Drive changes in org when needed
Share knowledge and practices that I use, to others
Things I do
References
● https://labs.spotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/● https://labs.spotify.com/2014/09/20/spotify-engineering-culture-part-2/● https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1018963/Articles/SpotifyScaling.pdf
Q&A