Sonos CEO steps down after smart speaker app upgrade hit bum note

Smart speaker outfit Sonos has parted ways with CEO Patrick Spence, who oversaw the release of an app that was billed as an upgrade but instead made the company’s products worse and riled customers.

Sonos teased the software in an April 2024 announcement headlined “Sonos Unveils Completely Reimagined Sonos App, Bringing Services, Content and System Controls to One Customizable Home Screen.”

Spence’s canned quote about the app stated: “After thorough development and testing, we are confident this redesigned app is easier, faster and better. It once again raises the bar for the home music listening experience, and sets up our ability to expand into new categories and experiences.”

He was wrong.

When the app emerged in May 2024, we reported, immediate and vociferous complaints that the app was buggy, offered a degraded user experience, was almost impossible to work with for the vision impaired, and omitted features that users liked.

Sonos even admitted it did not intend to remove those features and missed some other bugs that riled customers as they wrestled with a disappointing app.

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On its fiscal 2024 earnings call, Spence shared news that annual revenue had gone backwards by four percent, and admitted one reason for that result was “we mishandled the rollout of our new app.”

He promised that Sonos would henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks at the outset of product development and not launching products before meeting these criteria”, do more testing, introduce major changes more slowly, and even appoint a “quality ombudsperson”.

“We are confident these [actions] will ensure that we never make a misstep like this again,” he told investors, and would result in “regaining the trust of our customers.”

Those fine words were put on the record on November 13th. Two months later and it appears Sonos’s board doesn’t think Spence could turn them into reality as the company on Monday announced the CEO had stepped down, effective immediately, and would be replaced by interim CEO and current director Tom Conrad.

Board chair Julius Genachowski’s said Conrad has a mandate to “improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance.”

Which sounds a lot like the software situation was still hurting Sonos, although the announcement of Spence’s departure states it was “unrelated to the Company’s fiscal first quarter results”, which will be announced on February 6th,

A filing [PDF] reveals that Spence will be paid $7,500 a month until June 30th, and will offer strategic advisory services to ensure a smooth handover until that date. He’ll walk away with a $1,875,000 severance payment too, and keep his stock options.

Conrad will be paid $175,000 each month, and $2.65 million in stock. His canned quote includes a pledge to “focus on delivering extraordinary experiences for our customers and strong results for our shareholders.” ®