The speaker asks about the challenges of measuring onboarding in a project called Golden Paths. The team has tried various methods, such as measuring onboarding time and time to first pull request, but realized that these metrics are not enough for a person to feel fully onboarded. They now focus on qualitative factors, like how the person feels onboarded and when both the person and the manager agree that onboarding is complete.
This week we spoke with Nils Loodin, Platform Product Manager at Spotify. Nils describes how his role in platform product management works, including unique challenges, approaches, and career considerations. Nils also discusses some of the recent changes within Spotify's platform organization, including shifting teams from tech-centric to journey-centric.
Discussion points:
- (1:30) How Nils came into his role
- (3:59) How “developer experience” came into the picture at Spotify
- (5:30) How the Platform team is structured
- (8:52) Unique challenges of the Platform PM role
- (12:51) Defining the Platform PM’s focus
- (16:39) Staying close to their customers
- (21:09) Optimal background for someone in this role
- (24:43) Attracting PMs into Platform roles
- (29:40) How it is that Spotify’s leadership invests in developer experience
- (31:19) How a recent reorg shifted Platform’s focus
- (41:29) Improving onboarding for mobile engineers
- (47:33) Measuring onboarding
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