Learning from Strangers

One of my favorite things to do when I'm feeling a little stuck is to context shift completely and talk to someone in an unrelated industry or field about their job. This is incredibly easy to do when you live in a city like New York and you're constantly only a stone's throw away from a bar, restaurant, or cafe with strangers aplenty.

I'm often the one striking up a conversation with a total stranger, and I've formed real connections with restaurant chefs, Broadway directors, soccer coaches, and city officials this way.

Side note: I like doing this so much that I even started a podcast before the pandemic called "Everyday Experts" where I interviewed a dozen people from a variety of industries about the work they do. I never ended up publishing all of the episodes due to the fact that I recorded them pre-pandemic and the content didn't age well in a post-IRL world... but maybe I'll pull them out of the archives.

Last week reminded me how much I enjoy this idle conversational hobby when I stumbled upon a high-end custom audio shop and showroom on Friday. It's a place I must have walked past hundreds of times, but on that particular day (perhaps primed by thinking about audio and wearables), it caught my eye, so I decided to pop in.

Inside, the sound shop housed a collection of some of the highest end speakers and in-home audio setups that I've ever seen. Lowkey jazz played in the background and a myriad of cozy listening rooms with couches surrounded the showroom floor.

Eventually, the owner introduced himself and shared how it's been a family-owned business for over 50 years, started by his grandfather, then passed onto his father before his took command as next in line.

It must have been a slow day for them too because we ended up talking for 45 minutes. We covered everything from sales to user experience, customer support, design, and even onboarding. I gave him a demo of the app idea I'm kicking around and returned back to my office with a few fresh ideas about how to approach a couple of problems I've been thinking about recently.

Here are some lessons in leadership that I took away from my conversation.

Lessons in Leadership from a High-End Audio Shop

1. Audio is hard to explain. Introduce unfamiliar experiences through guided onboarding.

One of the things I've been noticing recently about introducing my app, MuseKat to parents, teachers, art gallery curators, and educators it that AI is still a black box concept to the general public.

In other words: We don't yet have a shared language around what makes "good" vs. "bad" AI. We don't know how to evaluate or assess different metrics or benchmarks. And we certainly don't know how (or when) to interrupt our typical, day-to-day workflows with AI-enhanced options. This makes it hard for me to know where my particular tool is intercepting a painpoint.

I had a feeling that the owner of this high-end audio shop would have a few good pieces of advice to share about how to effectively communicate and then sell experiences for another medium where most of us don't have a very sophisticated way of talking about it: Sound Design.

So, one of the first questions I asked was this:

In a world where most of us don't have a common vocabulary about how to talk about sound, how do you effectively communicate different nuances and sell people on a sound?

He showed me around the space and reminded me that the setup of their space as an immersive, meticulously design sound design experience was incredibly intentional. He emphasized the importance of controlling the first user experience and shared how he doesn't even let people know what speakers they are listening to (even the ones who come in with Internet reviews priming their behavior). Each step in the process is guided by him, structured with prompts to each person about what they are hearing, what they like, and what they don't like.

Notably, before playing any music, he also first asks the customers what type of music they like to listen to at home. After all, "If you start playing hip hop music, but at home all they listen to is classical, how are they supposed to reliably assess the sound of a system on their own terms?"

A good reminder to listen before you talk (or sell).

2. Listeners don't want infinite options. They want ease of use. Abstract away the complexities.

Another main friction point I notice with rolling out emerging technologies to consumers is our tendency to want to expose all of the incredibly cool tech to the users, then let them decide how to explore it. In crypto, this often tends to manifest as companies that lead with the intricate parts of how their blockchain technology works. But "Buzzword Bingo" isn't the best way to drive new user adoption for unfamiliar tech trends.

Of course, the over-correction is equally problematic too. .What we're seeing with a lot of these incredibly open-ended AI tools (like ChatGPT and Claude) is that people feel paralyzed by decisions with an open state. Left to their own devices, they default to the same limited set of question prompts and fail to take advantage of the full range of possibilities available to them. In that case, users actually need more structure.

At the audio shop, the owner told me a story about how he evaluates new speakers that really resonated. He mentioned a conversation with a technically advanced audio team that showed him all of the incredible ways that customers could control and customize their in-home theatre setups with their sound systems.

"That's not what our customers want," he told the speaker manufacturer. "People want to turn on a speaker, to push one button, and have it sound great. That's it."

In other words: Infinite options paralyze end user experience. Abstract away the complexities and keep it simple. Lead with the buttery user experience, not the cool tech that you're using to create it.

Let's be real: nobody wants this on their TV console (image source: Flux)

3. Don't compromise on design where it interferes with your user experience.

I love talking with high-achieving people because you can learn a lot about where they draw the line for designing and producing extremely high-quality experiences.

In a world where a person sells audio equipment for in-home environments, the sound of the space is paramount to everything else. That much is obvious. But one thing he recognized about where many other audio showrooms fall short is where the sound in their own spaces falls outside of their control. In New York City, this often means that when noisy air conditioners turn on, it completely distorts and perverts the sonic experience.

He refused to accept a version of their sound shop that would be distorted by the sound of loud fans and air conditioning blasts for 6 months of the year. To solve this dilemma, he sought out and hired a PhD level engineer to construct a specialized airflow system into the ceiling of their shop that would route air in a different way. This was costly, time-intensive, and incredibly complicated. But the result is proof: Crystal clear sound, 12 months of the year.

This example resonated with me as a great reminder to start with the desired, 10 out of 10 user experience, then do whatever it takes to make every step of that experience as seamless or invisible to the customer as possible. (And to not be afraid to invest a little extra money to do things the right way.)

4. Use other brands to signal to bolster your signaling to other customers.

The last thing I took away from the experience in this high-end audio shop was about how brand signaling can be a subtle but effective way of helping customers self-select in to your experience.

While obviously the space was an audio showroom first, the owner shared how important it was to make the space feel like a relatable home environment to their customers. Each listening lounge featured a different style of high-end furniture, and one room even included a fridge and sink setup, to simulate how audio experience might sound in apartments with open kitchen concepts.

It was the high-end wine fridge that first caught my eye.

"You won't find high-quality refrigerators like this in most sound shops," he acknowledged. "But we want to make this feel like a relatable home environment."

And for people who are prepared to spend upwards of $50k for a customized, in-home sound system, brands matter. That they meticulously filled each room with best-in-class furniture and other home appliances was really smart signaling.

You can't sell speakers in a vacuum; simulating the end user experience of what music would sound like in a high-end NYC apartment is a big part of the sale. (image source: Flux)

Step Outside Your Sphere of Influence

All in all, this was an incredibly therapeutic and helpful conversation that reminded me of the humans behind the user experiences. Sometimes when we spend too much time cultivating specialized digital experiences, we forget how this technology relates to the end user when they sit down to open up the app, use the software, or explain it to a friend. Being able to experience what a high-end, highly curated customer experience feels like (and sounds like) is a great way to learn by immersion.

Lessons in Leadership: What I Learned About Customer Experience from a High-End Audio Shop Owner