Less than five minutes after meeting Todd Humphrey At a Seattle coffee shop, a longtime tech executive is already growing customers He quickly assesses how coffee drinkers interact with each other and their technology devices, and wonders why they’ve come to this particular place.
Former Kraken exec Todd
Humphrey has spent decades focused on using technology to enhance the customer experience — from his early days at Kobo working on e-reader services, co-founding the healthcare startup league, serving as CEO at project “Former Kraken exec Todd” management company LiquidPlanner, and most recently as an executive at the Seattle Kraken, where he was senior vice president of innovation and fan experience.
Humphrey left the NHL franchise earlier this year to start a new adventure: Highmark Sports GroupHis own consulting is aimed at helping sports teams, leagues and companies improve their operations.
The Canadian native and former professional hockey player isn’t shying away from Seattle’s hockey scene. He is a senior advisor to the “Former Kraken exec Todd” Seattle Torrents, a new women’s pro hockey team The first home game will be played tonight In the Climate Commitment Arena. He is also working with Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame.
Former Kraken exec Todd
We recently caught up with Humphrey to get his perspective on helping organizations improve their customer experience and how to balance new technologies like artificial intelligence with the necessary human touch. The interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
GeekWire: Todd, thanks for talking with us. How do you think about technology and customer experience in 2025?
Todd Humphrey: “I’m old enough to remember what the experience was like. You read about a game that night in the newspaper. You see, you walk in, it smells like stale beer and popcorn and there’s peanuts on the floor. They play the national anthem and the game starts.
The in-venue fan experience has been completely overhauled. Technology plays a huge role in this. I think about the door-to-door experience “Former Kraken exec Todd” and the different touch points. From the moment someone wakes up, they check the app to see who’s playing. You can tell them the best way to get to the game and where to park.
Once they walk through the door, you’re thinking about lines. The average NHL fan spends more than an hour standing in line during a three-hour experience. We tried to cut it by more than half and I think we got there.
You want to get people to, from and to the venue in a really efficient manner. Technology helps with some of this — digital ticketing, wayfinding, mobile ordering, mobile payments.
We really took that Amazon approach to customer experience and worked backwards — at the end of the day, what are all the friction points and how do we alleviate them?
There is a huge opportunity for other teams and organizations to really rethink their experience. And it’s not just sports teams. When you go to a concert, when you go to the Hockey Hall of Fame—how does that feel? How do we make it a more holistic, holistic experience beyond the time you spend in the building?”
Former Kraken exec Todd
GeekWire: How do you thread the needle of incorporating technology and automation — but also focusing on the human elements of an experience?
Humphrey: “Technology is a tool that you have to use because it’s expected and it’s really convenient. Everyone has a Former Kraken exec Todd computer in their pocket, sitting in their hand, and if you can use it in the right way, it’s a great leverage point.
At the same time, I don’t want to see teams and leagues and organizations get too hung up on technology, because I think the little things like human interactions are important.
When you walk into an arena for a concert or a game, you’ll find a touch point with ticketing and security before you enter. If those interactions are great, your event is off to a really good start.
I think that training people who work there to greet people and engage with people and look them in the eye and know who they are—that’s a huge benefit.
When I go to QFC, I don’t want to check out myself. Sometimes it doesn’t work as well. And I will miss being with the cashiers. They have watched my children grow up over the years. They know who I am and what I do. There’s a lot to be said for that.
As great as technology is and ChatGPT tells us all the answers, people still love human interaction. When people go to events, they really want to see, they want to hear. And when I see a Kraken fan high-fiving in the Climate Pledge Arena during a celebration, it warms my heart, because that’s what it is.
AI is going to provide more efficiency for us and make things easier to do But on the other side of that, as technology shifts so much, I think live events, concerts, games, theaters — all the places where people can gather are going to become more important. People just have an innate desire to be together and have fun together.”
GeekWire: What advice do you have for startup leaders who aren’t leading a sports franchise, but still want to interact with customers and improve their experience?
Former Kraken exec Todd
Humphrey: More companies need to take their customer experience and work backwards. You must also have strong convictions about what you are building and why you are building it. And it’s talking to more customers. Some companies make silos. The more people you can talk to to get directions on where you might want to go, the better.
But at the end of the day, you as a company, as a leadership group, have to choose your lane. I have to get around to that.
It’s also understanding what the entire journey is going to be for that customer or customer, whether it’s a SaaS customer or a cloud customer “Former Kraken exec Todd” or an AI-powered customer. What is that customer “Former Kraken exec Todd” experience going to feel all the way through? And can you build a business that delivers an incredible, top-level experience — and drives revenue, too? It’s a hard thing to do.”
https://www.geekwire.com/2025/former-kraken-exec-todd-humphrey-launches-firm-to-improve-customer-experiences-in-sports-and-beyond/