Spotify, Airbnb, and Zappos all organize their product teams differently.
Spotify: They run the squad model. Each “squad” is like an isolated mini startup where they own a specific area of the product. The PM decides what to prioritize, but the team has a lot of freedom to decide how it gets built. “Tribes” coordinate multiple squads.
Airbnb: Takes a much more centralized role than Spotify. In 2023, the CEO combined the product management and product marketing roles. Teams are shaped around functions, like engineering or design or marketing. The direction of each product comes from the top of the company, with the CEO heavily involved. The more technical teams like design, engineering, etc have much more of a role in the product than the PM directly.
Zappos: They run a system called Holacracy where teams are grouped into “circles” that take on different areas of the company. Each circle has different roles inside of it. The decision making is spread amongst these circles, so PMs would not have control over the full product but instead on only what their role is eligible for.
I would prefer to work at Spotify. I prefer the ‘startup-like’ atmosphere, and would want ownership over my product fully, as if it were in fact a ‘mini start-up’
