Sonos
Bricking Speakers, Building Character
$2.1B
Value Extracted
8
Key Initiatives
The Story
Sonos had perfectly working speakers and a functional app. Then they decided to 'improve' it. The May 2024 app redesign became a masterclass in how to destroy $500M in market value while your CEO insists everything is fine.
Key Achievements
Released an app update that bricked thousands of speakers overnight
Shipped an app one engineer called 'worse than an alpha'
Removed basic features like alarm functionality and music queuing
Made accessibility so bad blind users called it 'not accessible at all'
Rushed the disaster to market to meet headphone launch deadline
CEO Patrick Spence lost his job (rare accountability achievement!)
Generated class-action lawsuit from customers seeking damages
Had to publish '7 commitments to quality' like a misbehaving child
We were confident this redesigned app was easier, faster and better. We were wrong about all three.
Former CEO
Ex-Chief Confidence Officer
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