We don't write case studies on the hundreds of companies that failed while trying similar playbooks. We incorrectly attribute success to the visible strategies of survivors (like an org model) while ignoring luck, timing, and funding, which are often the real differentiators.

At Spotify, when people moved teams, they often kept their original manager. This created a chaotic web of reporting lines, making it impossible to establish clear accountability, consistent performance management, or unified team direction, ultimately undermining the model.

Despite posters championing collaboration, a company's real priorities are revealed through promotion decisions. When individuals who manipulate metrics or undermine teams are advanced, it proves those behaviors are what the organization actually rewards, rendering official values meaningless.

Before emulating a company like Spotify, leaders should examine its entire business. The Spotify model that underpays creators to achieve profitability reveals a culture that might not be worth replicating, regardless of its internal structure.

The success of any org model is tied to preconditions like executive backing and a collaborative culture. Simply renaming teams to "squads" and "tribes" without changing underlying behaviors is just "installing a new set of jargon" and leads to failure.

The famed organizational design was merely an aspirational "wishlist" that Spotify never fully adopted. Companies copying it are chasing a fantasy primarily used for recruiting, not a proven operational model that the company itself ever ran on.

Unlike companies where recruiting is a support role, Uber founder Travis Kalanick elevated it to a frontline function, on par with operations. He dedicated an hour each week to the recruiting team, signaling its importance and making the function more effective and motivated.

A former Spotify agile coach admitted they focused too much on autonomy, which created "really dumb problems." Teams lacked standard tooling like a common version control system, proving that autonomy requires strategic guardrails and alignment to be effective at scale.

The narrative of scrappy innovation via the Spotify Model is revisionist history. The company had access to over $2 billion in cheap capital, allowing it to burn money, absorb costs, and outlast competitors—a luxury most companies attempting to copy its structure do not have.