The Collapse of Sonos: How Leadership Drift and Ignoring Risk Ruined a Great Brand

In this episode of Lighthouse Leadership, Evan Hickok breaks down the slow, public unraveling of Sonos—a brand once synonymous with seamless, multi-room audio. What began as a visionary pursuit of whole-home wireless music degraded into a cautionary tale of leadership drift, neglected risk, and a product update that shattered customer trust. This is more than a postmortem—it’s a case study in how companies fail when they abandon their infinite goals in favor of short-term wins.

What you'll learn:

1. Risk management is not optional—it’s leadership.
   Sonos had publicly disclosed the risks they eventually triggered for seven straight years. They didn’t fail to predict the collapse—they failed to act on the risk.
2. Infinite goals sustain culture; finite goals can break it.
   Sonos began with a powerful infinite goal: “Any song, any room, great sound, no wires.” In 2024, they traded that for a finite one—ship new headphones—and broke their brand in the process.
3. Technical brilliance becomes technical debt if not maintained.
   Legacy innovations like SonosNet and SSDP were brilliant in their time, but became liabilities when the platform failed to evolve with the modern home network.
4. Proactive testing is part of risk mitigation.
   Building test environments that mirror real-world complexity isn't extra work—it's the work. Treat backward compatibility and customer trust as first-class deliverables.
5. Vision isn’t just for launch—it’s for continuity.
   A company’s founding vision must remain a north star. When the CEO stops communicating and aligning teams around it, the entire organization loses direction.

TL;DR – Core Insight

Companies don’t collapse when they take risks. They collapse when they ignore the risks they can see. Sonos knew their app update could backfire. They wrote the risk down. And then walked right into it. Sustaining an infinite goal means making risk management and technical debt part of the core work—not a side task. That’s the leadership lesson.

Have you ever seen a product or company you loved lose its way?
What signs did you notice—and what do you think the leadership could have done differently?

👉 Share your thoughts on LinkedIn and tag @Lighthouse Leadership to join the conversation.

Resources & Mentions

• Sonos 2018 S-1 Filing – SEC.gov
• Reddit Sonos Feedback Megathread – r/sonos
• Digital Trends Interview with Sonos CLO Eddie Lazarus (Oct 2024)
• Mashable profile on Sonos setup simplicity (2011)
• Evan's Peloton profile

If you found this episode valuable, subscribe to the Lighthouse Leadership podcast wherever you listen—and don’t miss the companion article available now at evanhickok.com.

Sign up for the Lighthouse Leadership Newsletter for weekly deep dives like this one—covering risk, leadership, systems thinking, and what it takes to build a company that lasts.