Overview
Team
Design Director
3 Support Designers
Engineering Team
Tools
The challenge
The Outcome
Research
Prior to getting started on an MVP, we had to devise what an MVP would consist of.
In 2021, I joined the design team of 3 at Sonos Pro (Previously named Sonos Business). With the help of our research team, as well as getting our own hands dirty, we surveyed existing business-grade music management services, worked with GTM to better understand opportunities, and talked to multiple dozens of businesses to better understand their needs.
Our hands-on research included multiple guerilla studies, surveying businesses around Boston, Chicago, New York City, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Seattle, and meeting with individuals across business verticals.
Our findings uncovered that many businesses that currently use Sonos have 1-5 products, all controlled by the Sonos App or unlicensed streaming platforms. Businesses that do not use Sonos are either powered by TV audio playing unlicensed music or by old-school systems powered by CDs.
Personas &
target audience
Throughout this research, we found 3 key personas:
Business Owner
This persona acts as the Administrator, owns the brand, makes business decisions, and will be the potential purchaser of Sonos Pro. The Owner may set up on-site speakers in simple setups.
Onsite Staff
This persona works in the store or location. This persona may or may not have control over what is playing (decided by Business Owner), but they will be reacting to in-store decisions and responsibilities. More importantly, they will be the ones listening to what's playing all day. The Onsite Staff may set up on-site speakers in simple setups.
Installers
This persona is hired by businesses to set-up and manage complex in-store/in-location audio, lights, security, and more. This persona's set-up and management needs must be met, as they serve as a brand ambassador for Sonos Pro.
Target Audience & MVP Service Design
Based on our research, we decided our target audience for our MVP. This was primarily based on the audience type we could best-serve to validate Sonos Pro's opportunity.
MVP Features
The main idea behind our MVP was to utilize our existing technology within the App while powering our new Professional experience through a new web dashboard. This allows us to capture existing business Sonos users while opening our sales channels to new non-Sonos customers through the known installer community.
Based on our research, we solidified our 6 core features for MVP, ordered from most requested.
Design System Ideation
Between September 2021 and April 2023, our team worked towards our MVPs. With the help of our GTM team, we had a handful of businesses sign up for beta testing through this time, and together, we watched our product scale and grow.
Our initial product was used by a handful of businesses in Beta. Management was limited to three basic controls.
Our next MVP allowed us to display ongoing music data from all locations in one touch point. (Some content is blurred out in this image).
In addition to aiding the design team in work, I worked to help create and standardize our new design system, creating scalable UI elements to contain our upcoming features.
Example of a UI element I designed in the process of creating our design system (Some content is blurred out in this image).
Alongside design system work, I lead our MVP's three features: Music Service Provider (MSP) Management, Subscription Management, and Schedules.
Design Feature Ideation
Music Service Provider Management
Snippet from design ideation on how we surface MSPs through different edge cases.
Remote MSP View & Edit Specs (Some content is blurred out in this image).
Design Feature Ideation
Subscription Management
With any subscription comes a need to manage the subscription. In our case, this also demands the knowledge of the purchase process itself. Through my work in leading Subscription Management, I worked with GTM, Product, and engineers to design a management solution so only the purchaser (Business Owner) could remotely access and manage their subscription.
Initial purchase journey map to better understand internal + external stakeholders involved in the buying lifecycle.
Initial mid-fidelity journey map w/ UI to understand the Admin (Business Owner)'s process in buying and cancelling Sonos Pro.
Design Feature Ideation
Schedules
One of our most requested features for a business-grade music management system is to schedule music throughout the day remotely. As the lead designer for Schedules, I helped create our first experience milestone for this feature (as well as subsequent milestones following our MVP).
This required work around our information architecture, working in step with engineering to understand and account for all edge cases across a wide Sonos hardware portfolio, and user research to understand how can best create a scheduling service that works within business contexts.
Low-fidelity IA exploration to better understand potential routes on how Schedules may integrate into the Dashboard.
Leading initial iteration for Schedules in the Sonos Pro Dashboard (Some content is blurred out in this image).
Additional Work items
Integrating design across hardware and software touchpoints
Conducting diverse user research
Exploring & testing future concepts across platforms
Leading company-wide quarterly hackweeks
Post launch
We were covered by the Verge! Assets created by yours truly.
Work didn't end with the launch of our MVP. As thousands of locations join Sonos Pro, we are working daily on making our experience better and wider.
Feel free to reach out to learn more about my work in Sonos Pro.