At Sonos, we are focused on intentional flexibility as the cornerstone of how we work. Intention, as in being deliberate, planned, focused, and purposeful. And flexible in recognition that we are all unique with different needs and preferences, and with continually changing circumstances — and that it is precisely this diversity that makes us better. Like our products, our culture is connected, which means it works best when we intentionally think about how we do our best work individually and collectively. Creating an environment where we are supporting one another in this new way of working is at the heart of a collaborative, living document we call the Sonos Guide to Intentional Flexibility, which you can find excerpted here.

1. Guide to
Intentional Flexibility
How to use this guide
In the next evolution of working at Sonos, we are focused on intentional flexibility as the cornerstone of
how we work. Intention, as in being deliberate, planned, focused, and purposeful. And flexible in
recognition that we are all unique with different needs and preferences, and with continually
changing circumstances — and that it is precisely this diversity that makes us better. Like our
products, our culture is connected, which means it works best when we intentionally think about how we
do our best work individually and collectively.
This is a living document and we invite you to add your comments/perspectives and help us build on to
this over time. We imagine this will become a meaningful collection of crowd-sourced tips, new way we
work norms, and guides to facilitate further discussion at the team level. This guide will reiterate what we
already know and invite us together to explore possibilities and solutions for what we are still figuring
out.
Our Behaviors⼁Ways We Work⼁Where We Work⼁What Guides our Work⼁Our Rituals⼁
Communication Guidelines⼁Meeting Guidelines⼁ Team Gatherings⼁Helpful Information⼁

2. Our Behaviors
Respect Collaboration Transparency Ownership
We show up on-time,
listen attentively, and
contribute. We speak
with caring candor. We
assume good intent.
Leaders foster a
culture of respect
within and beyond
their teams.
We favor productive
debate over consensus,
and commit when
decisions are made. We
proudly ask for help, and
freely give it. We seek
out diverse viewpoints.
Leaders build teams,
break down silos, seek
out diverse viewpoints,
and influence without
authority.
We put issues on the
table. We share
motives, decisions,
data and knowledge.
We seek out those
who need to know
something. Leaders
understand the power
of full disclosure and
over-communicate.
We do what’s best for
Sonos. We embrace the
task no matter the size.
We prioritize long-term
value over short-term
results. Leaders set the
example, develop
leaders, and take their
role coaching them
seriously.
Ways We Work
Adaptable Intentional Connected
We have a growth mindset and
appreciate that adapting to
change is a part of our DNA. As
we evolve and grow, every
employee understands what
makes them most effective as an
individual (wellness, workload,
communication, belonging etc),
is able to articulate that to their
manager/peers, and hears what
their team needs from them.
Employees and teams share the
responsibility of both exploring
what it is and adapting to be the
best version of themselves and
the best version of Sonos.
We make decisions that are
deliberate, mindful, and
long-lasting. We create space
to be thoughtful about what
makes each of our individual
employees and the whole
Sonos system most effective.
We adapt on purpose.
We’re all connected through the
Sonos Community. Our culture is
understood not as a set of
principles, but as the sum of the
behaviors, motivations, and
contributions of every employee.
Sonos is a place where people
feel welcome and included, no
matter their location, designation,
or demographic. Virtual
inclusivity is muscle memory,
and we have established rituals
to bring our virtual community
together.
02

3. Where We Work
Office-Based
Employees spend most of their working time (3+ days per week) in a Sonos office. Employees are
office-based if they live within commuting distance of a Sonos office and any combination of the
following is true:
● Their role requires specific office equipment (like a hardware lab), and/or
● Their role requires them to conduct Sonos business in an office, and/or
● They need frequent access to zoom rooms (for joining calls with groups of colocated
employees), and/or
● The office environment is key to their effectiveness in role, and/or
● They prefer to work in a Sonos office, for professional or personal reasons
Home-Based
Employees spend most of their working time (3+ days per week) in a non-office location. There are
home-based employees who live within commuting distance of a Sonos office who may choose to work
in the office from time to time when it makes sense for them to do so, and there are home-based
employees who do not live within commuting distance of a Sonos office (sometimes referred to as
“remote” employees). Some employees designated as home-based might actually work from a partner
or manufacturing location, and that location would be considered their work “home” for the purposes of
understanding the ways we work. Employees are home-based if any combination of the following is true:
● Their role does not require working from an office
● Their home office environment allows them to work effectively
● They prefer to work independently and/or need extended periods of “flow”
● They prefer working from home, for professional or personal reasons
We have the same commitment to home-based employees as we do office-based, and that is to support
you effectively doing your best work, collaborating and connecting with Sonos employees, which we will
work to accomplish through the lenses of “virtual-inclusivity”, and, to the extent possible,
location-agnosticism/neutrality.
03

4. Our Rituals
Sonos Sessions: Regular all-hands meetings to
come together with intention, share context,
celebrate successes, provide transparency, and
keep us focused on what matters. We strongly
encourage all employees to attend and reflect on
what each session means for you. Sessions are all
recorded, played back in different timezones, and
available on Panopto. Post questions or feedback
on #talk-sonos-sessions.
Slack Communities: On top of office and
geo-based (NEW) slack communities, you can find
ERGs and affinity-based groups on slack to
connect, ask questions and find support beyond
your working team. We’ll be experimenting with
weekly team-sonos-all conversations, and
#Ask-patrick is a direct link to our CEO to ask
questions or make suggestions.
External Perspectives: As a part of continuous
learning, we regularly host experts, out-of-the-box
thinkers, and inspirational speakers to teach us
about their experience and philosophy and help us
better understand our own. Recent speakers have
included: Tina Knowles-Lawson, Adam Grant, Blair
Imani and Deirdre Findlay.
Virtual Concerts: Virtual, live music events hosted
by #Musicians-at-Sonos and open to musicians of
all levels or for those wanting to enjoy live
performances and support our aspiring musical
talents right here at Sonos.
Virtual Block Parties: We’ll periodically repurpose
Sonos Session time to split off into smaller groups
and connect on things unrelated to work. This is a
chance to get to know each other as humans and
build meaningful cross-functional communities.
We’ll provide a prompt before every block party to
get conversation started and ensure every
participant knows what to expect and has the
space to join in.
Global Gathering: In January of 2023, we will kick
off a new ritual by gathering every Sonos employee
in person for the first time. More info to come!
ERG-Led Events: Our Employee Resource Groups
(ERGs) are voluntary, employee-led groups joined
together by common interests, backgrounds, or
characteristics. On occasion, our ERGs lead
Sonos-all in celebration of identity, history and
justice through events like Latinx Heritage month,
Pride Month, or Mental Health Awareness month.
New Hire #Intros: All new hires at Sonos are
encouraged to introduce themselves on the #intros
channel and meet other newcomers. For the
longer-tenured, this is your chance to give our new
members a warm welcome, make new connections
& even give an intro of your own.
Anniversaries: We celebrate 1, 5, 10 and 15 year
anniversaries with custom awards and public
recognition because celebrating meaningful
milestones is important at Sonos.
04

5. Communication Guidelines
Be and speak human, be inclusive, empower flexibility through documentation and ‘async’.
01
Slack for simple, fast
or actually urgent
Use slack for a quick & easy answer
/ heads up or for something mutually
urgent.
If a Slack is not urgent, write “not
urgent” or “don’t need until X” so the
recipient can choose to attend to it
later, when it works for them.
Following a Slack exchange,
consider who else needs to know
about updates or decisions made.
02
Email or google docs for
complex/asynchronous
Use email or google docs when
sharing/requesting information that is
complex and doesn’t need real-time
attention or when providing context to
a large group.
If you’re about to send the 4th email
in a thread, consider whether it
would be more effective to discuss
the topic live.
03
Meet for collaboration
& hard-to-get decisions
People’s time should be “taken” only
when there is a required interactive
discussion to be had on a specific
topic or a “ritualized” connection
point that has meaning for the
attendees. Even then, consider what
can be done asynchronously or as
pre-work so the time is used most
effectively.
04
Confluence, Backstage and
Docs for future access
Before you send an email, consider
whether the message might belong
in a document, Backstage or
Confluence for future reference or
broader dissemination, esp. for
cross-functional efforts.
Document program information (ex.
briefs, minutes, schedules & status,
decisions) in one place for easy
anytime access by others.
05
Use your calendar & Slack
status to communicate
You are empowered to and
responsible for managing your
accessibility. Help others understand
and respect your personal priorities
& working hours using the tools we
have. Make your calendar visible,
use your Slack status to indicate
focus time or offline / personal time
(try turning off notifications during
those times), and set your working
hours. Set an auto message when
you’re OOO + an alternative contact,
and add your return date to your
slack status.
06
Consolidate messages
Avoid repeatedly pinging people if
you can. Consolidate Slack
messages, and be specific about the
urgency level. Avoid slacks that just
say “are you there” or “hi” or
cross-posting identical content
across multiple channels.
Aim to write emails that can be read
in a few minutes or less, and put the
most important content or call to
action in the first few sentences.
07
Schedule sends
Both Gmail and Slack allow
scheduled sends. Take advantage of
these features to avoid sending
late-night or early morning messages
that imply false urgency. Consider
the recipients’ timezone in addition
to your own, and notice if they are
offline or marked as busy.
08
Reread for tone
Studies show it’s human nature to
interpret a neutral tone in written
communication as negative. Reread
your comms to ensure your tone isn’t
misconstrued and, as the recipient,
check your own potential negativity
bias. If you find, in retrospect, your
tone was off, own it. If you’re the
recipient of a questionable tone, ask
for clarity.
09
Use the right [scalable]
support channels
Our support teams are doing their
best to operate with efficiency, to
support as many Sonos employees
as possible. Help them by doing your
own quick search for information
before asking for it and opening a
ticket or slacking the support
channels instead of reaching out to
“your friend in IT”.
05

6. Meeting Guidelines
Design your meetings around the need, which means identifying the need FIRST.
01
Think first. Does this need a
meeting or can this be done
asynchronously?
Understand what actually requires
“interactivity”. Cancel meetings if
they aren’t needed, and check in
quarterly to make sure recurring
meetings are still serving their
purpose.
Be clear when you're intentionally
using async modes in lieu of a
meeting (ex. "This email is intended
to avoid scheduling another meeting.
Please email back with thoughts.")
02
Be intentional on the meeting
title, attendees, agenda &
outcomes
Title the meeting appropriately to set
expectations. Limit attendees to who
needs to be there, and mark optional
if it’s discretionary. Send out an
agenda in advance including the
purpose and goal(s), pre-reads,
attendee’s roles, and any decisions
to be made.
If you’re invited to a meeting it’s
because you’re important to the
meeting topic. Respond to the invite,
and show up on time.
03
Assign meeting roles
(then rotate them)
Questions to ask & answer: Are you
using Chat and, if so, who is
moderating it (someone other than
facilitator or presenter)? Are there
people in a room together and on
Zoom? Who in the room is making
sure the people on Zoom have an
equal chance to participate and who
on Zoom is responsible for keeping
the people in-room aware of when
Zoom participants are being
ignored? Is there a note taker?
04
Agree on how everyone will
engage in the meeting
Most likely your meeting will have
attendees in multiple locations.
Create structure to include everyone.
Decide how you’ll manage in-person
and virtual attendees simultaneously
and if you’ll require everyone to be
on a laptop (ex. webcams on / audio
off for folks in a room together).
05
Take space. Make space
(Thank you ReadySet for this line.)
Take the space to share your
perspective and make the same
space for others. Generally, listen at
least as much as you speak.
Pause fast-moving discussions to
hear from quieter participants.
Respectfully step in when
teammates interrupt.
06
Utilize the chat and reactions
Zoom Chat and reactions can be
great equalizers to ensure all
attendees get to participate in the
meeting. Invite the group to
participate through both. If it’s a
large group, utilize the “raise hand”
feature to ensure people aren’t
talking over each other.
07
Respect opt-outs
Part of respect at Sonos is
respecting people’s time and
priorities. If you’re a meeting owner,
always offer a no-guilt way for
people to opt out of the meeting,
before or during (ex. #exit in chat),
and make it easy for them to stay up
to speed on what happened. If
you’re an attendee, be honest if
you’re not adding/getting value in a
meeting.
08
Accessible documentation
Make it easy to understand what
happened for those unable to
attend. Capture and share coherent
meeting notes, including decisions
that were made and why, how
decisions will be shared beyond the
team, and action items with owners
& deadlines. Store meeting notes in
one consistent place for easy
access (ex. A running google doc or
confluence page)
09
Play music to set the tone
while people join or during
silent reflection
To open the meeting like a pro, play
music and start an icebreaker in
chat to get conversation going while
you wait for people to join. To play
music, click “share screen” >
“advanced” > “computer audio”.
Make sure your music isn’t too loud
and sets the right mood.
06

7. Team Gatherings
Team gatherings (aka offsites) are effective mediums to accelerate innovation and build community,
especially in a highly distributed environment. “Offsite” doesn't always mean changing location,
especially in today's context; it means going "off" your regular day to day to make space for gathering &
connection. In order to get the most out of team gatherings under the current circumstances, it’s
important to acknowledge and intentionally work through the complexities of distributed locations and
different risk tolerances.
At Sonos, Team Gatherings:
Are intentional, with meaningful objectives.
We share objectives and agendas in advance, articulating what we want to get out of our time together
and translated into a structure that enables them. When possible, we split up facilitation across the
group to elevate different voices and increase co-ownership. We invest ample time in the high impact
subjects. We dedicate time in our gathering to aligning on takeaways and follow up actions to sustain
the positive impact.
Are virtually inclusive.
We make sure that every in-person event comes with a meaningful virtual option (apps like Lucidchart or
Miro enable live collaboration), and we may even select a well-connected senior member of the team to
join virtually as an ambassador for the virtual experience. If building community is an objective of our
gathering, we plan virtual community moments. We consider the set up of our physical space to give
equal voice to virtual participants. We design social occasions to be broadly inclusive and provide
everyone with moments to connect.
Prioritize the safety & well-being of participants
We make sure our in-person team gatherings comply with local health & safety guidance. In the US this
means employees need to be vaccinated in order to participate in person. With that said, we know that
well-being extends beyond safety from the pandemic. Our leaders consider what team members need to
give up in order to attend and ensure they have the space (lighter workload, air cover on deliverables,
personal time etc.) to do so. Team members are able to exercise their choice to participate or not in
social/networking activities without being penalized for leaving early or opting out.
Model Sonos behaviors
Whether we are gathering onsite in our own offices or at an offsite venue, we model the Sonos behaviors
of respect, ownership, transparency, and collaboration. We represent Sonos wherever we go. We know
that eating and drinking together is a great way to reconnect, but we use alcohol responsibly and
appropriately for a work setting, and we stop using it before it impacts our behavior. We hold ourselves
accountable to Sonos Code of Conduct.
07