CEO Letter to Employees

Team,

It’s been six months since I stepped in as interim CEO. During that time, I’ve had the chance to see firsthand, everyday, how much you care about our customers, the work that we do, and about each other. Our collaboration has deepened my belief in what Sonos can be and how much further we can go. I’m incredibly honored and excited that the Board has asked me to lead us into this next chapter.

Back in January, we began by talking to our customers directly to take stock of just how far we’d drifted from their expectations and then quickly dove into the work of doing right by them once again. We built dedicated teams for performance, reliability and core experience with clear charters, roadmaps, and resourcing. And we committed to focusing on fewer but more meaningful initiatives – to do less better.

You’ve worked around the clock to ship hundreds of changes that make our products more reliable and responsive than they have been in years. We’ve restored features that had been missing for months. And people are noticing: our customer and dealer NPS scores are improving, listening hours per household are on the rise year over year and the conversation about our company is starting to shift from what-we’ve-broken to what-we-can-become.

All the same, we know there is more work to be done. When I think about everything we’ve learned from this chapter, first on the list for me is the absolute requirement that we deliver seamless experiences that simply work every single time. I’ll never forget the customer who months ago told me that we'd left his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary without music to mark the occasion. We can’t let that happen.

You’ve heard me say that what we do matters. That every day we get to be the literal soundtrack for millions of lives. What could be more profound than to accompany people as they make their way through the highs and lows of life? In a world in which so much in tech tilts toward the problematic, we have the chance to stand for something different and to be a source of comfort, energy and companionship.

So yeah, we make speakers, but we all know it’s much more than that: we amplify emotion, we ensure artist intent is heard, we bring entertainment to life. That’s the job. And it’s a good one.

Today isn’t about dropping the word interim from my title. Today is the day we turn the page to an entirely new chapter, today is the day we begin our reinvention, and today is the day we return to the absolute focus on excellence and the customer-first principles that were the founding values of our company 20 years ago.

See you live later today, where we’ll talk more about how we’ll enter this next chapter together. Thank you for all the support and patience you’ve shown me in my first six months. Can’t wait for all the adventures ahead.

Tom