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Mike H
Retired Sonos Staff
May 14, 2024
Interview

Sonos App Redesign AMA

  • May 14, 2024
  • 770 replies
  • 65992 views
Sonos App Redesign AMA

Today is the day of the AMA!

The new app design has been out for a week, and most of you have had a chance to get used to the new UI.

Some of you might have questions when you have had a week to get to know the new Sonos App interface. Because of that, we want to give you all a chance to ask some of the people who were integral in its creation and design, the questions that have come to mind while you have used the app.

As we mentioned in the event.

Our panelists will be:

  • Diane Roberts, Senior Director of Software Development
  • Kate Wojogbe, Senior Director of User Experience
  • Tucker Severson, Director of Product Management

It will be hosted on the 14th of May from 11:00 until 14:00 GMT -07.

But instead of me telling you what they do and what their role with the app update has been, here are their own introductions:

 

Diane

Diane Roberts is the Senior Director of Software Engineering and Product Management at Sonos responsible for the Sonos Apps. Her group of cross-disciplinary teams build Configuration, Control, and Content experiences on a foundation of Core mobile application technologies. She received dual Bachelors’ of Science in Computer Science and Music from WPI. Diane holds 6 granted patents as a co-inventor.

 

Kate

As Senior Director of User Experience, Kate leads the UX team responsible for Sonos’ home audio hardware, software, and app user experiences. This includes user interfaces on speakers and soundbars, setup for hardware and services, first and third party content experiences, and a variety of methods of control of the Sonos system. Kate graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design.

 

Tucker

Tucker Severson is the Director of Product Management and leads the PM team responsible for the Sonos Apps. Tucker received his BA from Bates College and his MBA from the University of Vermont.

 

We will do our best to answer as many of your questions as possible within the 3-hour window, but we can’t promise to answer every question, especially those you know we can’t discuss.

But if we see a question repeated or a reply getting a lot of likes, don’t worry. We will prioritize those to ensure that many people get the answers they seek.

 

Remember, we can’t talk about things on the roadmap - but if you have questions or feedback about the app redesign, want to know more about our panelists, like their background or favorite band, then the sky is the (cough cough.. NDA) limit!

Thank you, everyone, for participating. We covered as many of the most asked questions as possible. We know tracking the responses wasn't as easy as we had hoped. But we wanted to let the community air frustrations and have their questions answered.

I got a lot of DMs during the AMA, and I will be sure to answer them when I can. Thanks for reaching out!

Keith and I will work on recapping all the questions and feedback we have responded to, and we will update the post here when that is complete. If we didn't get to your question, don't worry. Keith and I are grabbing all the feedback from this thread, even the things we didn't respond to, and ensuring the right people will see the message. This was the first time we created a live AMA in the community, and we learned a lot for future AMAs.

We appreciate all the feedback and questions you gave through this AMA. It helps us understand your most significant feedback and your reasoning. We hear you, and we will ensure the right teams get your feedback. They are listening.

We look forward to rolling out the updates with features (new and old) as soon as they are ready. Keith shared an overview of the timeline for expecting these features to return to the app. Today was the first update, reintroducing alarms and improving the iOS voiceover.

We look forward to seeing your reactions to our future app developments. We hope you all appreciate the work our developers are putting into making the app as fast and easy to use as possible for the general user.
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770 replies

Contributor I
May 14, 2024

 

Today is the day of the AMA!

The new app design has been out for a week, and most of you have had a chance to get used to the new UI.

Some of you might have questions when you have had a week to get to know the new Sonos App interface. Because of that, we want to give you all a chance to ask some of the people who were integral in its creation and design, the questions that have come to mind while you have used the app.

As we mentioned in the event.

Our panelists will be:

  • Diane Roberts, Senior Director of Software Development
  • Kate Wojogbe, Senior Director of User Experience
  • Tucker Severson, Director of Product Management

It will be hosted on the 14th of May from 11:00 until 14:00 GMT -07.

But instead of me telling you what they do and what their role with the app update has been, here are their own introductions:

 

Diane

Diane Roberts is the Senior Director of Software Engineering and Product Management at Sonos responsible for the Sonos Apps. Her group of cross-disciplinary teams build Configuration, Control, and Content experiences on a foundation of Core mobile application technologies. She received dual Bachelors’ of Science in Computer Science and Music from WPI. Diane holds 6 granted patents as a co-inventor.

 

Kate

As Senior Director of User Experience, Kate leads the UX team responsible for Sonos’ home audio hardware, software, and app user experiences. This includes user interfaces on speakers and soundbars, setup for hardware and services, first and third party content experiences, and a variety of methods of control of the Sonos system. Kate graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design.

 

Tucker

Tucker Severson is the Director of Product Management and leads the PM team responsible for the Sonos Apps. Tucker received his BA from Bates College and his MBA from the University of Vermont.

 

We will do our best to answer as many of your questions as possible within the 3-hour window, but we can’t promise to answer every question, especially those you know we can’t discuss.

But if we see a question repeated or a reply getting a lot of likes, don’t worry. We will prioritize those to ensure that many people get the answers they seek.

 

Remember, we can’t talk about things on the roadmap - but if you have questions or feedback about the app redesign, want to know more about our panelists, like their background or favorite band, then the sky is the (cough cough.. NDA) limit!

Hello and welcome everyone,

Before getting started I’d like to thank you all for RSVPing and attending. This is the first of many events going forward where members of our Community can talk directly to members of the Sonos team and learn about the development and design behind our products. Keep in mind that@Mike R. H.  and myself will be heavily monitoring this topic to ensure we keep this train on its tracks. Please keep the conversation respectful and constructive.

It’s not lost on me (or the team) that this most recent Sonos app update has caused a torrent of feedback topics here on the Community and across the web. We want to make sure you get the most out of the next three hours, so we’ve decided to focus our efforts on the questions with the most likes. Please use likes to “upvote” the question you want answered. By combining similar topics and questions, we will be able to cover more and hopefully cover the wide breadth of conversation you are looking for.

Note: Be sure to check out our most recent update to the Future Feature Update post where we will continue to update you on the road going forward.

Thank you and see you around the Community!
Keith

This quote is the best example I can think of, showing the arrogance behind this new version. Tucker, this is Not Us against Them!…. Were your users, were the people who built up an amazingly loyal Sonos Community, and the arrogance your team showed in the manner in which this whole sad chapter of the conp@ny’s history is staggering.

 

It’s not courage to release a poorly designed app that reflects appalling assumptions about what your user base wants. It’s not courageous to spend all that money on promoting this new version when you spent zero in showing users why it was so good, and HOW it is supposedly better. It is not. This is New Coke.

 

Show some real courage and allow users to roll back to the old version. That will show you just how badly your team misjudged this new version. It is New Coke. Admit you got it wrong. Show some humility.

Lyricist II
May 14, 2024

I posted on the subreddit that my hope was you guys would do a good enough job of being honest, admitting the mistakes and that people wouldn’t come away from this AMA angrier than before.

That didn’t happen.

You guys really need to iron out how you communicate with your consumers.  As somebody who works in the corporate office of a Fortune 100 company this is our nightmare.  Whoever is making the calls to handle this in this way is doing all employees and all shareholders an incredible disservice right now.  This is bordering on case study catastrophe right now.  Somebody grab hold, accept responsibility or this is going to get worse.  

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Hi,

I use a NAS with all my music in directories. When can I select all in a directory as a playlist and then (or immediately) get it to shuffle?

Can I get the next / previous track buttons back in the miniview?

Are you going to make things cloud dependent? I want to be able to continue to run my Sonos environment in a secure VLAN with no internet connection at all.

Thanks and here’s hoping you can make my music equipment play music again.

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

Two hours in and here we are (numbers in brackets are the count at 1 hour)

@DianeRobertsApps - 4 (0)

@KateW - 5 (3)

@tuckerseverson - 3 (2)

 

One has to wonder if they have to run every response past corporate laywers given the amount of time it seems to take them.

 

And some stats of my own counting:

Respect shown to customers - 0

Horrific discoveries - 2

  • Data corruption issue in alarms didn’t stop a release.
  • All speakers now available on the public internet protected only by a users password.

Feedback/suggestions actually taken by Sonos - 0

Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

 

…. damit ...

 

The only word I recognized - but very well put.

Contributor I
May 14, 2024

Will there be an “order album by release date” option in artist pages?

bstephens16
Contributor I
May 14, 2024

Hey Team, loving the app refresh so far! I use Apple Music primarily and love Dolby Atmos. I have 3 Atmos capable rooms, and 4 non Atmos capable rooms (hallway/Bathroom/office etc with One/Roam/Move).

 

When I listen to Atmos through Apple TV and group all rooms, it works great as Atmos plays in Atmos rooms, and I still hear great quality music through the 4 non Atmos rooms. Playing through the Sonos App does not allow this which means I can only have Atmos on 3 of 7 rooms. Can you explain why this decision was made and if there’s any change of changing in the future? Maybe poll the users? Thank you!

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

Any time we change an experience or delay a feature, we know that some people will have negative sentiments...

 

 

‘We just simply don’t care! Our overpaid arrogant CEO wants a bonus for deploying a product in a new category and we needed to push this new version to support that upcoming hardware. The executive bonus structure is obviously more important than “users” getting what they “paid for”.’

Enthusiast I
May 14, 2024

What has been the general mood of the Sonos team/staff since the new app was released? Was the team surprised at the negative reception or was it expected?

@GuitarSuperstar

Thanks for asking. We have all been deeply invested in this project for a long time. We are all Sonos owners. Many people on the team had Sonos in their homes before they joined the team. We all use the experience every day. 

Any time we change an experience or delay a feature, we know that some people will have negative sentiments. We also saw in our usability testing that people appreciated the new user interface, adaptability, and faster time to music. 

We have been reading your posts and seeing your feedback.

Once the release went live, the mood could be described as “energized.”  The activity on the team is high as people share what they’ve built for the next releases. We are excited that we can bring these continuous regular updates. It’s easier and faster now for us to share what we’ve built with you. That started with today’s release and will continue on May 21st with releases to follow.



@DianeRoberts and @tuckerseverson -

Your responses aren’t the best. You seem to avoid directly answering questions posed.

What about the part of the question asking if the team was surprised by the negative reception?

Prominent Collaborator I
May 14, 2024

Hi,  the app just feels like it’s for a whole different product now; I would’ve thought you wanted to have your hardware be the center of it all, now it’s just so visually crowded that I cant bother opening it..

So very much this. 
 

The missing features thing is annoying and pathetic. The UX is gross, spiteful on a phone, and their vision for the future on SONOS. A future I want no part of.

AMPx2, One SLx6, Play5x2, SUBx2, Play1x2, Move, Roam (Yuck), ARC, PlayBar, Beam, SYMFONISKx2, Awful New App.