Background
In 2017, the organizational growth at Spotify was massive. Teams that used to work side by side now found themselves scattered around the world. The pending introduction on the American stock exchange introduced new compliance requirements. The organization experienced growth pains, and the need for company-wide policies and common ways of working increased.
Olingo Consulting was contracted to support part of the organization in striking the right balance between
control and agility, including the financial systems (FS) support team, which was highly impacted by the regulatory requirements.
The Olingo consultants were brought in to act as agile coaches, and their mission was to gently guide each team by leading them in the right direction. Olingo worked closely with other agile coaches within Spotify on this assignment.
A key message within Spotify is speed. Making deliveries flow is paramount to maximizing resource utilization. The underlying drive is the need to deliver and improve faster than the competition. In the words of Jack Welch, ‘if the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is near’.
The importance of speed, together with a culture of continuous improvement and autonomy, has a profound impact on the way that processes are designed and improved at Spotify. The focus lies on the purpose and objective of the process rather than on the process activities.
Spotify
An ITIL® case study
by Ola Källgården