People-first systems change and T-shaped shift

Tyson Singer (Head of Tech & Platforms @ Spotify) joins us to unpack how Spotify is transforming its product development lifecycle across creation, experimentation and maintenance to shift from "localized speed" to "systematic speed." We explore why the industry’s current obsession with the "Build It" phase of development is shortsighted, and how Spotify is aggressively deploying AI in the "Think It" (prototyping/strategy) and "Maintain It" (fleet management) phases. Tyson also details the internal tools driving this shift, including AiKA and Honk, and shares why the future of engineering relies on moving from I-shaped specialists to T-shaped generalists.

ABOUT TYSON SINGER

Tyson Singer is the SVP of Technology & Platforms at Spotify, where he leads technology infrastructure, developer experience, cybersecurity, and finance IT. Tyson is the executive behind Spotify’s internal developer portal, Backstage, and Spotify’s experimentation system, Confidence, which are now both commercially available. He has a background as an engineer, architect, and product lead, and he holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University. Tyson is also an avid outdoor adventurer.

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SHOW NOTES:

• Tyson’s 9-year journey @ Spotify: From the "crucible" of hyper-growth to leading Tech & Platforms (3:46)
• The pivot from "localized speed" to "systematic speed" (7:27)
• Core principles of Spotify’s Platform org: Partnering with customers & "Taking the pain away" (10:37)
• The "Think it, Build it, Ship it, Tweak it" lifecycle framework & why the industry obsession with "Build It" (coding agents) is missing the bigger picture (14:57)
• How Spotify is investing in the "Think It" phase: AI prototyping with deep business context (16:49)
• AiKA (AI Knowledge Assistant): Context engineering for humans and bots (18:47)
• "Honk": Spotify’s internal framework for large-scale automated code changes (22:17)
• Addressing the decline of code quality and the bottleneck of human PR reviews (25:50)
• Probabilistic vs. Deterministic code reviews: A new approach to quality checks (29:43)
• Identifying bottlenecks to company value outside of R&D (Legal, Licensing, etc.) (32:12)
• Why systems change is fundamentally about people and identity shifts (35:57)
• Rapid fire questions (38:49)

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

Jerry Li - Co-Host

Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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