At threat of bouncing the rubble even additional, we have to speak about the place issues stand going into September with regard to the state of Sonos.
For a quick little bit of context, Sonos in May updated its app and the underlying system software program that controls its household of wi-fi audio system in preparation for the following technology of merchandise — together with the Sonos Ace headphones that arrived simply weeks later. That replace went poorly, and in any other case working (and not-inexpensive) Sonos programs had been left in numerous phases of disarray.
It was fairly obvious fairly rapidly that one thing had gone very mistaken, although it’s vital to keep in mind that everybody’s Sonos setup goes to be totally different, from the {hardware} itself, to the music providers in use, to the community situations that tie all of it collectively. (That it ever labored in any respect in addition to it did nonetheless appears somewhat magical.) And we are going to proceed to notice that Sonos was comparatively fast to acknowledge the problems within the Sonos subreddit. But that’s not the identical factor as a public acknowledgement, which didn’t come till about two months later when CEO Patrick Spence issued a public apology simply forward of an extra explanation during the company’s earnings call in August.
All the whereas, Sonos has been updating its app and its platform and fixing points each couple weeks. That’s an excellent factor.
Sonos must cease speaking about fixing issues and simply get them mounted.
But as I spent the Sunday morning of my Labor Day Weekend sipping espresso and dealing on the New York Times Sunday Crossword, two issues occurred. First, I received an e mail from Sonos warning that it was my final probability to avoid wasting 20% on {hardware} that, given the present state of the software program, will solely serve to frustrate me. And then I remembered that I’d ignored the “news” that Sonos had released a public Trello board in order that we will all see what’s being labored on.
While I applaud the transparency, it’s smoke and mirrors. Not all the pieces must be accomplished out within the open. Sonos for weeks and months had been maintaining people abreast of the rebuilding street map within the Sonos subreddit, and extra formally by itself web site. A public Trello board actually is superfluous, and maybe at greatest a low-key commercial for Trello. (I’ve used Trello loads of instances. It’s nice.) It’s additionally now yet another public-facing place that somebody at Sonos has to maintain synced with the inner documentation. (Sorry, intern!)
At this level I don’t actually care what Sonos has to say in regards to the fixes. I don’t care about street maps and timelines and Trello boards. I don’t actually expect to be delighted, as Spence stated clients in the future will probably be once more.
I care about the precise speaker group really activating once I choose it. I care about quantity controls not taking 10 or 15 seconds to work, if all of it. I care about search not sucking.
I care about what Sonos does. I care about it fixing issues. Anything else is a distraction.
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