He Scaled BlackBerry to $20B. Then He Rebuilt Sonos from the Inside Out.
Here’s a question every tech CEO should sit with: what if your most powerful competitive advantage costs nothing, and is the opposite of what you’re doing today? That’s the provocation behind Patrick Spence’s playbook.
Patrick helped drive BlackBerry’s meteoric rise, culminating in $20B in annual revenue, then spent eight years at Sonos, where he took the company public and rewired it for sustained product velocity. His core message is disarmingly simple: hire with intention, design for clarity, and treat recruiting as a trusted-advisor relationship, not a transaction.
Quality of Fit Beats Speed to Fill
Most companies optimize for speed. Patrick’s scars say don’t. At BlackBerry, a burst of rapid hiring lowered the bar and bloated the organization. The lesson he carried to Sonos: resist the urge to “just get someone in the seat.” Instead, step back and ask the harder questions:
- What does the team look like today?
- What will it need 12-24 months from now?
- Which strengths do we keep, and which gaps must we deliberately fill?
Patrick recalls waiting for the right external partner instead of grabbing an available one. “The goal isn’t the fastest outcome. It’s the best outcome,” his CEO told him.
Recruiting Is a Product-Design Experience
At Sonos, the candidate journey signaled culture before day one. First conversations weren’t hard sells; they were transparent deep dives into mission, challenges, and the real work. Interview panels were curated across disciplines. Candidates met future peers and, where appropriate, direct reports.
Two details worth stealing:
- Sell before you buy. Early interviews orient candidates to vision, strategy, and standards. Only then do you evaluate. You’ll learn who’s genuinely drawn to the work vs. the logo.
- References are strategy. Not a checkbox; an investigation. Leaders personally ran listed and backchannel references to understand how to enable success if the person joined.
Organizational Clarity Is a Force Multiplier
When Patrick took the CEO seat at Sonos, product velocity had stalled. The fix wasn’t a war room; it was ruthless simplification. Clarify who decides what, collapse committees, and put the right leaders in the right chairs. That cleanup unleashed a steady rhythm of two-plus launches every year without dropping the quality bar. Clarity is the engine of speed.
Try this exercise: pick one critical initiative and write down, on a single page, the DRI (directly responsible individual), the top three outcomes, and the decisions that don’t require a meeting. If you need more than a page, you don’t have clarity yet.
The Three Mistakes That Cost BlackBerry Its Crown
Patrick doesn’t dodge the hard part of the BlackBerry story. He calls out three unforced errors that leaders still repeat:
- Letting the innovation muscle atrophy. BlackBerry stopped doubling down on its enterprise strengths while the market shifted underfoot.
- Hiring too fast, lowering the bar. Scale doesn’t equal quality. Scale with quality, or you’re compounding your problems.
- Protecting today over building tomorrow. BBM had ~80M DAUs while WhatsApp was tiny. Instead of going cross-platform and owning messaging, the internal fear of cannibalizing hardware blocked the pivot. Classic innovator’s dilemma.
Good vs. Great Leadership
Patrick looks for two traits that never go out of style: humility and curiosity. Great leaders assume they’re missing something, then go find it. They ask how AI changes their functions, not whether. They’re learners with taste, not just experts with tenure. His high-leverage interview move: “Tell me your story.” Then, “Why did you choose your university?” It’s less about the right answer and more about thoughtfulness, self-awareness, and the ability to explain choices.
Final Thoughts
Patrick’s journey is a reminder that enduring companies aren’t built on hype cycles, headcount milestones, or rapid-fire hires. They’re built on clarity, intention, and the courage to slow down when it matters most. Whether you’re scaling your first startup or steering a thousand-person organization, the principles he champions are deceptively simple: hire deliberately, design for trust, build teams like systems, and never let today’s urgency eclipse tomorrow’s opportunity.
Patrick’s Background
Patrick Spence is an accomplished technology executive and board leader, best known for his tenure as CEO of Sonos from 2017 to 2025, where he guided the company through global expansion, major product innovation, and a successful IPO. Before joining Sonos, he spent 14 years at BlackBerry, rising to Senior Vice President and helping scale one of the most iconic consumer technology brands of its time. Patrick currently serves on the boards of Snap. and the Canadian Shield Institute, advising organizations at the forefront of consumer technology and digital experiences. He holds a B.A. in business administration from the Ivey Business School at Western University.
Listen now: Signal to Noise Episode 9: He Scaled BlackBerry to $20B. Then He Rebuilt Sonos the Inside Out.
