SONOS HARDWARE
I joined Sonos in 2010 as the sole UX designer for their first home theater offerings. The PLAYBAR (2013) and SUB (2012) were challenging design and development projects (I still have the specs to prove it) but they became tremendously successful, driving a doubling of company revenue and establishing Sonos' lucrative home theater portfolio.
Over time, I have designed or led UX work on many other hardware products across home theater, plug-in speakers, portable speakers, audio components, and headphones. Each posed interesting creative challenges, both in the physicality of the device and its interactions within the wider ecosystem.
Working closely with colleagues in Industrial Design, Product Management, and Engineering, we have also driven three evolutions of the Sonos on-product UI, each designed to drive more engaging interactions with the physical product and to optimize time to music.
CORE SOFTWARE EXPERIENCES
From its inception, Sonos’ magic has resided in its sophisticated software ecosystem, seamlessly integrating content, control, and configuration functionality to meet user needs. I’ve contributed to every dimension of this SW ecosystem across mobile, desktop, web, and voice experiences.
When I first joined Sonos I redesigned the entire configuration workflow in support of wireless 5.1 setup for home theater products. Over time, I grew a dedicated team to further evolve the configuration experience with new user interactions and rich visual aesthetics.
I have overseen numerous experiential updates to both the consumer and professional applications, grounded in customer understanding and known pain points, and have driven comprehensive visual updates in collaboration with the Sonos Brand team and external agencies such as Pentagram.
PARTNERSHIPS
I have a deep record of building and developing design teams, nurturing careers, establishing creative culture, and driving company strategy
MY APPROACH
The product and process of successful design are centered around three things: people, a sense of direction, and the impactful application of creative thinking.
My approach to leadership draws from this. Hire and nurture the right people, drive clear targets, and build an environment and culture in which the team can do great work.
MY VALUES
EMPATHY
Lead with a deep empathy of customers and colleagues alike. The product and the process are always about people, so you need to know them
VISION
Lead with a clear and informed perspective for where the product, experience, and design team should be headed, and how to get there
INNOVATION
Lead with and cultivate an attitude of creativity around the problems to be solved, the products that are made, and the processes that are used
INTEGRITY
Lead with honesty, authenticity, and trust. Avoid any gap between what you say and what you do, because it will eventually be filled by cynicism
ACCOUNTABILITY
Lead with accountability for both quality and deadlines. Empower your team, but always guide and never abdicate responsibility
WHERE I FOCUS
PEOPLE LEADERSHIP
Growth Build and evolve the team to support company needs, with a clear charter and a crisp framework to support individual career growth
Culture Create an inclusive, respectful, and collaborative culture, grounded in data and creativity, and balancing execution with ideation
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Strategy & Roadmap Drive the customer and design perspectives in company strategy, and in the roadmaps that support company goals
Advocacy Advocate for design, research, and the customer, and for the fundamental importance of cross-functional collaboration
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
Creative Vision Establish a creative vision that is inspiring, actionable, and firmly grounded in the needs of the customer and the business
Quality Ensure space for creativity, and use principles, critiques, and metrics to hold the bar on frictionless ease of use and emotional appeal
OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Communication Share regular communication to provide context, feedback, and inspiration for the design team and wider org
Tools Use flexible, visible, and collaborative design processes, and embrace the opportunities that new technologies enable
BUILDING A TEAM
Over the past decade, I have transformed Sonos’ UX team from a tiny startup crew into a sophisticated 50-member experience organization spanning design, research, creative direction, PM, content strategy, design ops, and creative technology.
This was much more than a hiring exercise. It was multi-phased, long-term growth that had to flex with company needs and practical realities.
It involved recruiting and developing new leaders. It required establishing new disciplines like creative direction and design ops, and it rested on successfully integrating existing teams from user research and product management.
It was built on robust good practice around on-boarding, crisp role definitions, consistent career planning, and acting with empathy, integrity, vision, and accountability.
And a little humor certainly helped too.
COMPANY STRATEGY
To drive a more customer-centric strategy at Sonos, I developed the Experience Journey framework.
By combining existing research with an extensive new diary study, this framework captured our target customers’ behavioral profiles and critical listening moments - what we called the “Faces, Places & Use Cases” of Sonos.
The Experience Journey has since guided multiple product roadmap iterations, sharpened focus on current projects, inspired new product explorations, and built consensus during high-level strategic discussions with executives and our Board of Directors.
EXPERIENCE PRINCIPLES
During the pandemic I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about creativity. It started from curiosity, evolved into inspiration for the team at a challenging time, but became a conviction that the UX team, product org, and wider company needed better guidelines on how we created experiences.
In collaboration with other product leaders, I established a set of experience principles that guided the emotional and practical intent of the experiences we sought to create. These informed creative work across many roadmap and exploratory projects and provided a common language and quality bar for product definition and design.
WHAT I SAY ABOUT ME
WHAT OTHERS SAY
“Neil is a one-of-a-kind leader — intelligent, effective, creative and compassionate… I witnessed Neil elevate the UX discipline from a key function in product development to an indispensable voice in both product and business strategy. ”
“He has been a highly impactful leader for me, and a huge advocate and support for my personal and professional growth during our time together. I am better at what I do because of the mentorship I’ve received from Neil.”
“Neil was both supportive and inspiring - he created space for his team to grow, take ownership, and excel in their fields.”
“Neil is a world-class design leader. He contributes a strong sense of creativity and passion alongside his pragmatism and real world experience in getting products out to customers.”
John Hurr - Senior Manager, UX
