Spotify uses squads grouped into tribes, with autonomy pushed close to the teams doing the work. Basically a Product Owner will work closely with the squad and the squad will build it out. Spotify describes squads as highly autonomous and responsible for features end-to-end. The PM role at Spotify is limited in its engineering and design authority. This was talked about in class where PMs have “total responsibility but no authority” and must work with UX and Engineers.
Airbnb is much more centralized. Brian C. organized Airbnb around “functions”, has 1 company wide roadmap. They don’t have the standard PM function and PM is combined with Product Marketing. Designers have equal say to PM. Product decisions come from design, engineering, product marketing, and senior leadership.
Zappos uses Holacracy, where authority belongs to defined roles and circles rather than your traditional managers. People can actually have multiple roles, and circles establish their own priorities. A PM can exist as a role, but the authority will come from the responsibilities that are defined.
I would choose Spotify. I like having a clear PM role with real prioritization responsibility while keeping decisions with the people that closely work with the product. I feel that it offers more autonomy than Airbnb without the complex redefining roles in Holacracy.
