Spotify’s Failed #SquadGoals

Spotify marketed its squad model as a shortcut to startup speed, but the reality was a half-built matrix that never delivered accountability. Lee recounts joining a three-thousand-person Spotify, seeing squads advertised as autonomous mini-startups while engineers were managed by chapter leads and product managers lacked an engineering counterpart. The resulting escalation paths required product managers to chase multiple chapter leads, slowing delivery and creating conflict.

The matrix structure gave engineers freedom to move between squads without changing managers, but it also meant no single engineering leader owned a team's outcomes. Without a clear engineering owner, product managers could not negotiate trade-offs, and disagreements escalated to several managers and eventually to the department director. This diffusion of responsibility crippled decision-making and hurt team performance.

Autonomy was prized without the necessary alignment. Each squad invented its own processes, so cross-team work became a maze of custom hand-offs. Spotify never defined a company-wide way to coordinate, leaving leadership without metrics to prioritize work across squads. The lack of shared processes eroded productivity as the organization grew.

Compounding the problem, many teams lacked basic Agile competence. Coaches were scarce and their engagements short, so teams tweaked processes in the dark without a common language. The result was chaotic, unstructured iteration that resembled waterfall more than true Agile.

Lee's takeaway for leaders is practical: give engineering teams a single accountable manager, pair product managers with an engineering peer, define clear cross-team collaboration processes, and align autonomy with company-wide priorities. Avoid the seductive jargon of "tribes" and "chapters" unless they map directly to well-understood roles.