In Episode 27 of It Depends: Lessons in Technology Leadership, Kevin Goldsmith explores the process of creating a management training curriculum at Avvo. Reflecting on his journey as a manager and lessons learned from his early days at Microsoft and Adobe, Kevin highlights the importance of intentional training for engineering managers. This episode delves into the innovative approach used at Avvo, including collaborative exercises to identify training priorities and designing tailored development programs to support technology leaders.

Discover actionable insights on fostering a strong management culture, balancing technical and managerial responsibilities, and creating effective learning experiences for teams. Whether you're an aspiring manager, an experienced leader, or part of a team looking to improve, this episode offers practical guidance and inspiration. Tune in to learn how to build a management training framework that elevates your organization!

• Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/JVeKHsHJKhEM3dvK6
• The book: It Depends: Writing on Technology 2012-2022
• Your host: Kevin Goldsmith
• This chapter in the newsletter: https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/building-a-management-training-curriculum

In this insightful episode of The It Depends Podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith, seasoned CTO and author, takes listeners behind the scenes of his first CTO role at Avvo, a legal tech company. Kevin shares his real-world experience in transforming the organizational structure by introducing journey teams—an innovative approach influenced by, but distinct from, Spotify’s model. He discusses the challenges of managing small teams, the necessity of fostering team autonomy while maintaining accountability, and the crucial role of leadership in balancing top-down constraints with bottom-up ownership.

Kevin dives into the process of moving from a traditional hierarchy to a matrix organization and ultimately to journey teams. He explains how self-selection played a key role in empowering teams, fostering engagement, and driving sustainable growth in a fast-scaling company. Listeners will gain practical insights into building adaptable organizational structures tailored to company culture, evolving leadership styles, and scaling strategies for tech teams.

If you’re a technology leader navigating team scaling, culture transformation, or thinking of adopting self-selection and journey teams in your organization, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways.

• Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/JVeKHsHJKhEM3dvK6
• The book: It Depends: Writing on Technology 2012-2022
• Your host: Kevin Goldsmith
• This chapter in the newsletter: https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/using-self-selection-to-create-journey

In this episode of It Depends, host Kevin Goldsmith, a seasoned technology leader and CTO, explores the intricacies of Spotify's famed matrix organization model and its applicability to other companies. Drawing from his firsthand experiences at Spotify during its formative years, Kevin delves into the successes and challenges of implementing the Spotify model, addressing common misconceptions and the cultural nuances that influence its effectiveness.

Kevin recounts how the model's flexibility and autonomy transformed team dynamics and how its structure has been adapted (or misapplied) by other companies. He also discusses how the U.S. workplace culture, rooted in individualism, impacted the adoption of Spotify’s collaborative team-oriented practices. The episode is filled with insights on organizational scaling, the benefits of full-stack teams, and the pivotal role of company-specific cultural alignment in applying the model.

• Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/JVeKHsHJKhEM3dvK6
• The book: It Depends: Writing on Technology 2012-2022
• Your host: Kevin Goldsmith
• Interviews with Kevin (about the Spotify model and other things): https://www.kevingoldsmith.com/resume.html#interviews
• For your start of year planning: The Personal Strategy Off-site, Own your Calendar
• The newsletter issue with the text of this chapter: https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-emulating-spotifys-matrix
• The Spotify Model Whitepaper: https://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SpotifyScaling.pdf