Last year, Sonos released a rebuilt mobile app for iOS and Android. While the company thought the new software would improve performance and make the app better for upcoming new features, customers didn’t agree at all. The app had tons of bugs, it made Sonos speaker system performance worse, and it was missing several key features that many users relied on. There was tremendous backlash from users online, though the company refused to walk back the update.
After months of back-and-forth, the company eventually admitted it would cause more harm than good to return to the old app, so it couldn’t even if it wanted to. Now, the company has announced that its CEO Patrick Spence will step down. Former Snap executive Tom Conrad has been named Sonos’ interim CEO.
In its first public statement (via The Verge), Conrad addressed the Sonos app redesign fiasco and said the company has a “tremendous amount of work in front of us.” Here’s what he wrote:
“I’ve heard from many of you about your own frustrations about how far we’ve drifted from our shared ideals,” he said in the letter. “There’s a tremendous amount of work in front of us, including what I’m sure will be some very challenging moments, decisions, and trade-offs, but I’m energized by the passion I see all around me for doing right by our customers and getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonos’ incredible history.”
While Sonos will still have a difficult road ahead, it’s clearly taking action to address the issues. The former CEO was criticized for taking too long to apologize to customers. In addition, lackluster products, firing employees as it struggled to fix the software, and falling shares also contributed to the CEO’s firing.
Patrick Conrad says he’s already relocated to Santa Barbara to be in the office daily as he works to “reenergize employees after an ordeal that has cratered morale.” He said: “I think we’ll all agree that this year we’ve let far too many people down. As we’ve seen, getting some important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are remarkable products!) is just not enough when our customers’ alarms don’t go off, their kids can’t hear their playlist during breakfast, their surrounds don’t fire, or they can’t pause the music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.”
