Looking at Spotify, Airbnb, and Zappos made me realize how different the PM role can be depending on how a company chooses to organize its teams.
Spotify’s famous “squads and tribes” model stood out to me the most. Small, cross-functional squads include people from product, engineering, and design and are given a lot of autonomy. The Product Owner helps prioritize what the team should focus on, but they aren’t necessarily the “boss” of everyone else. Instead, the squad is trusted to figure out how to solve the problem together. Spotify’s actual structure has evolved since this model was introduced, but I still really like the philosophy behind it.
Airbnb takes a much more centralized approach. The company moved toward a functional structure with a single company roadmap, and CEO Brian Chesky is very involved in product and design. PM responsibilities are also more distributed across product marketing, design, engineering, and program management. To me, it seems like PMs can still have a lot of influence, but they have less independent authority over what ultimately gets built.
Zappos went in almost the complete opposite direction with holacracy. Instead of a traditional management hierarchy, work was organized around “circles” and specific roles. Authority came from the responsibilities assigned to your role rather than your job title, meaning being a PM alone wouldn’t automatically give you control over the roadmap.
Out of the three, I’d want to work in Spotify’s model. I like the idea of having ownership without needing complete authority. I wouldn’t want to be a PM who just writes requirements and hands them to engineers and designers. I’d rather bring the user and business perspective, have everyone else bring their expertise, and actually debate and figure out the best solution together.
