As part of our Interconnection Between People, Process and Technology book, produced in partnership with Tanium, we spoke to Hosanna Ouellette, Director of Global Program Management, Spotify.
Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has grown rapidly in terms of users, revenue and advertising, and currently has over 600 million users and 263 million paying subscribers worldwide. Perhaps inevitably, when start-ups scale rapidly, the internal systems that have evolved organically become inefficient or redundant. Indeed, Hosanna explains that at one stage, Spotify had 17 different tools in use that were creating business silos and complexity.
Hosanna believes in taking a design-driven approach to solving user challenges, and with this mindset, implemented a centralised work management platform to consolidate these 17 different tools into one. The initial implementation brought immediate wins, like a shared language across teams and a single source of truth accessible by leadership and global teams. But Hosanna concedes that it’s an ongoing journey with room for refinement and optimisation. The benefits of a centralised platform have been far-reaching. Armed with measurable metrics, leaders are able to continuously refine or shift their approach from speed to efficiency or better forecasting.
Another powerful outcome from the new centralised system is the ability to validate assumptions about time-consuming tasks and to move beyond developer productivity to measure the efficiency of shipping products to market.
“We found that while we were effective at executing smaller, innovative projects, we struggled with large-scale, multi-product initiatives. Identifying this allowed us to have strategic discussions at a leadership level about refining our product development process for speed.”
Hosanna believes that the most important consideration when driving change is always to lead with business challenges or goals first to avoid being, as she describes it, “a hammer looking for a nail”. This approach, she believes, ensures traction particularly in large-scale transformations. Hosanna believes that hiring great people can help organisations to hone the vision and optimise the process, but if there aren’t clear outcomes for them, they are being set up for failure. Unsurprisingly therefore, she says that if she had access to an unlimited budget, she would choose to invest it in processes first.
“Oftentimes, processes get a bad rep because they are an afterthought or bogged down by organisational debt. Invest time up-front to be clear on outcomes and instrument your process with success metrics so you’ll know if you’ve got it right.”
Technology also plays a role, but it can be a distraction and must be fit for purpose, and the tools aligned with business needs, and the long-term costs considered.
“Too often, I’ve also seen leaders invest in the latest technology, at great opportunity cost, without a clear value proposition in mind.”
Spotify has invested in automation “where it makes sense”, particularly for repeatable processes, but as their processes are constantly evolving they tend to avoid large-scale automation that might become too costly to maintain. Instead, the focus is on incremental improvements that provide ongoing efficiency gains. Hosanna takes a very optimistic view of developments like AI and the impact these tools can have on people’s roles.
“AI can lower the bar to entry for innovators, democratising and accelerating the technology learning curve. Now employees with other forms of expertise like compliance, security, etc don’t have to also be technical experts. They can combine their expertise with AI to discover new approaches to our biggest technical and security challenges. Those who are investing in learning with AI, especially non-technical ones, will be the ones leading the vanguard of the next technology innovation boom.”