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Mike H
Retired Sonos Staff
May 14, 2024
Interview

Sonos App Redesign AMA

  • May 14, 2024
  • 770 replies
  • 65987 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

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

So many questions about the Sonos Dev team and process…

Does the Product Owner actually use Sonos?  Or do they just use Spotify and stream AirPlay audio to their Sonos products?

Did they promise an Exec that the team would deliver an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by mid May, and were then obliged to just get something deployed at the expense of quality?  Did they get a bonus for delivering on time?

Did they not think that their MVP was non-viable without queue management?  Or did they just not care because, hey Spotify can do that, and AirPlay works just fine.

Has the Product Owner ever heard that people keep a music library on a NAS, and need to be able to search it?

(Pause to select some more music because the album I was listening to only had 9 tracks and I couldn’t add anything to the queue).

I have read that queue management may be delivered in July - how can that be so far down the prioritised backlog?

Was there any internal testing, let alone external testing? We are all just beta testers, on a product that should definitely not have been let loose on paying customers.

Does the PO still have a job?

 

Oh, and can I please have battery percentage back for my Roam and Move 2? Icons with 25% increments are not granular enough.

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

Will we be able to use products from Sonos in the future even if the Sonos servers are down?

Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

Is this a live streamed event or just a forum style event? I’m very confused right now.

Prominent Collaborator I
May 14, 2024

My favorite thing about the update is I can now ask my Sonos to play a song, album, genre, or artist using my voice. Thank you very much! 

This makes me happy!😃 

Lyricist III
May 14, 2024

How do you respond to customers who say they feel strongly that the new app is a step backwards and that it removes core functionality? Do you empathize with this position? 

jwedwards
Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

Will there be an opportunity to roll back on IOS while you get the app into proper shape?

Trending Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

This appears to be just a Q when I thought it was going to be a Q and A?

neilmcg
Enthusiast II
May 14, 2024

What was the logic to releasing an app that does not have functional parity with the previous version?

  • What was the consultation process?
  • Did it include external stakeholders?
  • Do you use usage metrics from the S1, S2 users base?
Lyricist I
May 14, 2024

What do you believe was the most courageous aspect of the new app release? 

Enthusiast I
May 14, 2024

How do I get to live event?

 

Starting to think this thread is it..