Lower than 5 minutes after assembly with Todd Humphrey at a Seattle espresso store, the longtime tech exec is already sizing up the client. He shortly assesses how espresso drinkers work together with one another and their expertise units, and wonders why they’ve come to this explicit location.
Humphrey has spent a long time targeted on utilizing expertise to boost the client expertise — from his early days at Kobo engaged on e-reader providers, co-founding healthcare startup League, a CEO stint at mission administration firm LiquidPlanner, and extra lately as an exec with the Seattle Kraken, the place he was senior vp of innovation and fan expertise.
Humphrey left the NHL franchise earlier this 12 months to embark on a brand new journey: Highmark Sports activities Group, his personal consultancy geared toward serving to sports activities groups, leagues, and corporations increase their operations.
The Canadian native and former skilled hockey participant isn’t straying removed from Seattle’s hockey scene. He’s a senior advisor for the Seattle Torrent, the brand new girls’s professional hockey crew that performs its first-ever dwelling recreation tonight at Local weather Pledge Enviornment. He’s additionally working with the Hockey Corridor of Fame in Toronto.
We lately caught up with Humphrey to be taught extra about his strategy to serving to organizations enhance their buyer experiences and tips on how to stability new applied sciences like synthetic intelligence with important human touches. The interview was edited for readability and brevity.
GeekWire: Todd, thanks for talking with us. How are you eager about expertise and the client expertise in 2025?
Todd Humphrey: “I’m sufficiently old to recollect what the expertise was once like. You’d examine a recreation that was taking place that night time within the newspaper. You’d present up, you’d stroll in, it might odor like stale beer and popcorn, and there’d be peanuts on the ground. They’d play the nationwide anthem and the sport would begin.
The in-venue fan expertise has completely been revamped. Expertise performs an enormous a part of that. I take into consideration the door-to-door expertise, and all of the completely different contact factors. From the second somebody wakes up, they’re going to examine the app to see who’s enjoying. You possibly can inform them the easiest way to get to the sport and the place to park.
As soon as they stroll via the doorways, you’re eager about strains. The common NHL fan spends multiple hour standing in strains through the three-hour expertise. We tried to chop that by greater than half, and I feel we received there.
You wish to get individuals to, from, and thru the venue in a very environment friendly method. Expertise helps with a few of that — digital ticketing, way-finding, cell ordering, cell funds.
We actually used that Amazon strategy of the client expertise and dealing backward — on the finish of the day, what are all of the friction factors, and the way can we alleviate these?
There’s an enormous alternative for different groups and organizations to essentially rethink their expertise. And it’s not simply sports activities groups. It’s if you go to a live performance, if you go to the Hockey Corridor of Fame — what does that really feel like? How can we flip it right into a extra of a holistic, total expertise past the time you spend within the constructing?”
GeekWire: How do you thread the needle of incorporating expertise and automation — but additionally specializing in the human components of an expertise?
Humphrey: “Expertise is a vessel that it’s a must to use as a result of it’s anticipated and it’s actually handy. Everyone’s received a pc of their pocket, sitting of their hand, and if you should utilize it in the fitting method, it’s a terrific leverage level.
On the identical time, I don’t wish to see groups and leagues and corporations get too hung up on the tech, as a result of I feel little issues just like the human interactions matter.
If you stroll into an enviornment for a live performance or a recreation, you’re going have a contact level with ticketing and safety earlier than you get inside. If these interactions are superior, your occasion is off to a very good begin.
I feel that coaching the individuals who work there to greet individuals and interact with individuals and look them within the eye and get to know who they’re — it’s an enormous benefit.
After I go to QFC, I don’t wish to examine myself out. Typically it doesn’t work as effectively. And I’d miss that interplay with the cashiers. They’ve seen my youngsters develop up through the years. They know who I’m and what I do. There’s so much to be mentioned for that.
As a lot as expertise is superior and ChatGPT tells us all of the solutions, individuals nonetheless like human interplay. When individuals go to occasions, they actually wish to be seen, they wish to be heard. And after I see an usher at Local weather Pledge Enviornment high-fiving a Kraken fan throughout a celebration, it simply warms my coronary heart, as a result of that’s what it’s all about.
AI goes to supply extra effectivity for us and make issues simpler to do. However on the opposite aspect of that, as a result of there’s a lot bent towards expertise, I feel reside occasions, live shows, video games, theater — all of the locations the place individuals can collect are going to be extra vital. Folks simply have an innate want to be collectively and cheer collectively.”
GeekWire: What recommendation do you could have for startup leaders who might not be main a sports activities franchise, however nonetheless work together with prospects and wish to enhance their experiences?
Humphrey: Extra corporations have to take their buyer expertise and work backwards. You additionally have to have conviction in what you’re constructing and why you’re constructing it. And it’s speaking to extra prospects. Some corporations construct in silos. The extra you’ll be able to speak to individuals to listen to directionally the place you would possibly wish to go, the higher.
However on the finish of the day, you as an organization, as a management group, have to select your lane. I’d get conviction round that.
It’s additionally understanding what the entire journey goes to be for that fan or buyer, whether or not it’s a SaaS buyer or a cloud buyer or an AI-driven buyer. What’s that buyer going to really feel throughout the expertise? And might you construct a enterprise that delivers an unbelievable, top-tier expertise — and likewise drives income? It’s a tough factor to do.”
