Following the announcement of 200 job cuts last week, Sonos is headed in a fresh new direction, with interim CEO Tom Conrad promising a return to the company’s “scrappier” roots.

During the company’s latest Q1 earnings call, Conrad – who took over after Patrick Spence’s departure in January – laid out his vision for a “more focused” Sonos. The interim chief also did not mince words about the challenges ahead.

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“Despite recent progress, our core experience still needs significant improvement,” Conrad admits, citing the “complex and long-standing software problems” that plagued the company and frustrated its customers.

The admission comes in the wake of a disastrous app update last May that ultimately led to then-CEO Patrick Spence’s resignation. Conrad, a board member since 2017, says he has been working closely with the software team since last fall and expressed confidence in their commitment to “improving the Sonos experience to a place that exceeds the expectations of all of our customers”.

“I’m all in on reinvigorating and accelerating this essential work.”

“I’m returning Sonos to a scrappier and more focused enterprise,” Conrad says. “I’ve reorganised our product and engineering staff into functional teams for hardware, software, design, quality and operations and away from dedicated business units devoted to individual product categories.”

“This allows us to bring together rightsized cross functional projects that maximise our efficiency as we continuously evaluate, prioritise and focus on the highest value market opportunities.”

Despite these challenges, Sonos reported better-than-expected earnings for Q1 of 2025, with a revenue of $551 million.

In a message shared on its website last week, Sonos described the decision to let go 200 of its employees – including nearly 50 managers and executives – as a “very difficult” one: “There’s no way around the fact that this is a terrible outcome,” the brand said.

“Being smaller and more focused will require us to do a much better job of prioritising our work – lately we’ve let too many projects run under a cloud of half-commitment.”

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