3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Spotify Rhythm – how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) Posted on 2016-06-08 – 11:54 by Henrik Kniberg Here are the slides from my talk about Spotify Rhythm at Agila Sverige. The talk is about Spotify’s current approach to getting aligned as a company. It covers: • what problem we’re trying to solve, and how we’ve gone through two other models (OKR and Priorities & Achievements) before arriving at our current model • how we define “Bets” using the DIBB framework (Data-Insight-Belief-Bet) • how we prioritize bets using stack-ranking based on company beliefs and north star goals • how we visualize bets on a kanban-like company level board, and group them into Now – Next – Later columns • how different parts of the company visualize their own bets and align with higher level bets, using interlinked bet boards. • how we synchronize and prioritize our work using different cadences at different levels of the company. • how this model is used to support squad autonomy • our challenges and learnings with this so far Holy crap how did I manage to cover all that in 10 minutes?! Guess I talked fast Some sample slides below. https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 1/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 2/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Posted on 2016-06-08 – 11:54 by Henrik Kniberg agile alignment scaling slides Subscribe to Henrik's RSS feed 30 responses on “Spotify Rhythm – how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige)” Tom Suter 2016-06-09 at 13:32 Looks very interesting. Is the talk recorded? Reply Tanner Wortham 2016-06-09 at 17:35 I’d be very interested in that as well. Reply Gerald 2016-06-09 at 20:41 I have the same question, it will be very useful to have a record if it exists. Thank you very much for sharing your slides. https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 3/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Reply Joakim Sunden 2016-06-09 at 15:48 It is, but it’s in Swedish. https://agilasverige.solidtango.com/video/spotify-rhythm-hur-vi-skapar-fokus?qid=207350 Reply Gerald 2016-06-14 at 15:24 Thank you Reply Tom Suter 2016-06-14 at 21:49 Ai, too bad. That’s out of my league for now. Reply Pingback: Issue 65 - Agilean Weekly Pingback: Misalignment | Crisp - Get agile with Crisp Fabian Henzler 2016-06-10 at 15:40 Amazing article that really fits my intuition and believes Reply Tommy Tynjä 2016-06-13 at 20:02 Very interesting talk. I like the idea of the DIBB framework. The north star goals are important and should continuously be kept in mind. Reply https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 4/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Bas 2016-06-20 at 17:05 Mute the sound – watch the video. It still makes sense Reply Pingback: Organisation design and new ways of working Diana Larsen 2016-07-04 at 17:53 Looking at this from a Liftoff/Agile Chartering ( https://pragprog.com/book/liftoff/liftoff-second-edition) perspective, Bets could provide an effective way of clarifying the “product vision” every team/squad needs to understand its purpose and get focused on defining (and sticking with) its unique mission. I hope to get to hear your explanation in person sometime soon. Diana Reply Henrik Kniberg 2016-07-06 at 23:00 Yeah, hope to bump into you at some conference soon! It’s been a while Reply Geoff Webb 2016-08-04 at 01:50 Hi Henrik, thanks for the slides and the video. I (we) made an English transcript of your Swedish talk from from ‘Agile Sverige’ – are you OK for me to publish the English text? Cheers Reply Henrik Kniberg 2016-10-20 at 11:32 Sure. Send me a link though so I can fact-check. Reply https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 5/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Paul 2016-12-13 at 06:18 I’d be interested in a copy of this transcript if you’re okay with publishing is, Henrik! Thanks! Reply Geoffrey Webb 2016-12-07 at 02:25 Sorry, haven’t visited this page in ages so missed you reply :/ Here is a link to the google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xq4TElTwODiXYp1r02Gby8F6rOfk6wHAVNmPI_Z8LYU/edit?usp=sharing cheers Reply Jonathan Sides 2016-12-08 at 20:42 Thank you so much for the slides, Henrik. We’d like to implement the framework at our company. I saw Geoff Webb’s comment about having created an English transcript of your talk. I’d love to read the transcript whenever it is published. Regardless, thank you again for sharing the framework! Reply Jonathan Sides 2016-12-16 at 21:31 Thank you, Henrik and Geoffrey, for the video and subsequent transcript! Reply Victor Sollerhed 2017-03-23 at 19:11 Talk in English for this from Agile Africa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aQEbBGi_BM Reply Federico Casabianca https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 6/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog 2017-11-03 at 11:54 Hi Henrik, the link to the slides seems not being available. Could you send them over to may email please? focc@gft.com Much appreciated. Regards. Fede. Reply Henrik Kniberg 2017-11-29 at 04:05 Fixed now. Thanks for letting me know! Reply Pedro 2017-11-08 at 10:49 HI Henrik, it seems that the links included in this post (to the slides, and others) are no longer working. I guess this is the result of a reorganization of your dropbox!! The core of the presentation is included in the images from the post, but you may want to fix the links. Reply Henrik Kniberg 2017-11-29 at 04:04 Thanks, I’ve fixed the links now! Reply Tomas Jansson 2018-08-15 at 23:07 Really interesting post Henrik, like most of your post. One question though, has spotify gone back to OKR since you wrote this post? I found this online hinting that they have: https://blog.coda.io/meet-tracy-chan-and-thespotify-squad-goals-doc-61f9aeecea00 Or is this just part of spotify? If they did go back to a more OKR like approach, do you know why? Personally I find the process you describe here more interesting. Reply https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 7/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Henrik Kniberg 2018-11-14 at 13:40 Yeah, they reintroduced OKRs later, while also keeping the Rhythm. Not sure of the exact reason, but I’m guessing the two models were considered complimentary. Reply SafeBus 2021-03-22 at 10:58 Good to know about the framework. I hope it will give better results. Definitely, we will implement it for one of our products to test it. Reply Alan 2021-05-04 at 14:11 Thanks for the content. “Not sure of the exact reason, but I’m guessing the two models were considered complimentary.” OKRs & Bets are incommensurable. OKRs are strategic objectives (the effect we’re trying to aim for). Bets are outputs we’re hoping to create those effects (hit the OKR). I found it very odd that they were positioned as alternatives. Reply Jasdeep Sandhu 2021-10-19 at 07:46 The fantastic article which really suits my intuition and belief, keep working like this!! Reply Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 8/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Post Comment This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Misalignment 10 kanban boards and their context updated … ABOUT Crisp.se Consultants Courses Crisp AB Sveavägen 31 SE-111 34 Stockholm https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 9/10 3/29/22, 4:23 PM Show on map Spotify Rhythm - how we get aligned (slides from my talk at Agile Sverige) - Crisp's Blog Contact us FACEBOOK YOUTUBE https://blog.crisp.se/2016/06/08/henrikkniberg/spotify-rhythm?ref=https://product-frameworks.com 10/10
