Sonos continues to clean house with departure of chief commercial officer

In a third shakeup within the company’s leadership ranks, I can report that chief commercial officer Deirdre Findlay is also stepping down. Sonos’ not-yet-updated corporate governance page says Findlay “oversees all marketing, revenue, and customer experience organizations at Sonos. She is responsible for integrated brand strategy, geographic expansion strategies, and all go to market execution.”

By now, there’s no arguing that Sonos’ go-to-market strategy for its rebuilt mobile app was deeply flawed and rushed. Before he lost his job, Spence eventually conceded that the company should’ve taken a far more cautious approach and offered the new software as a beta release while keeping the previous, more stable version in place. Instead, Sonos pushed a buggy experience on all customers and has spent the months since dealing with the resulting fallout.

Do you know more about what went wrong at Sonos under Patrick Spence?

In my time at The Verge, I’ve covered Sonos more comprehensively (and I’d like to think fairly) than any other company. Yes, that includes a long list of product leaks, but I’m far more interested in shining a light on all the frustrations caused by the new app — both for customers and staff — and the bad decisions that led Sonos off the tracks. Those choices have had repercussions for ordinary employees who gave their best to the brand.

If you have more to share about the last year at Sonos, please reach out to me confidentially and securely over Signal at (845) 445-8455 or chriswelch.01. I can also be reached via DM on Bluesky, X, or Instagram.

As it relates to marketing, some Sonos employees have expressed their dismay to me over just how much money the company dumped into advertising last year. The big spends included an expansive New York City subway campaign for the Sonos Ace headphones and a holiday elves campaign that cost a staggering amount. The Ace headphones, which I maintain are a very good product, were quickly forgotten when the gravity of Sonos’ app problems came into focus, so the marketing had little effect. None of that sat well internally — especially after layoffs in the summer.

But that was then. In the span of 48 hours, interim CEO Tom Conrad has demonstrated a clear objective to get Sonos back on the right path. I’m told that the moves have immediately boosted morale inside the company, with employees sensing that the new regime is serious about getting back to doing what Sonos does best.