06: Hardware is hard

In this episode you’ll learn about Spotify’s journey into the painful complicated world of hardware. You’ll hear how we worked our way down to the very bottom of the stack in our quest to create the “perfect listening session” in the home, how we had to build a completely new media streaming protocol in the process and how we ultimately found a way for users to pass something called: “The Beer Test.”

Things you’ll learn in this episode:

- How do you get a company to sustain a risky multi-year bet with high uncertainty?

- How do you partner well (and not so well!)

- How do you go about introducing a new standard in an industry?

The episode features interviews with Thomas Cullen, Sonos co-founder, and Spotify insiders, Sten Garmark, VP User Experience, and Nicole Burrow, Senior Director of Design.

Check the episode transcript here and Spotify Connect site here