Adventures in Tubeland

I recently re-read an interview with Ted Weber written years ago. In it, he tells of his life and career up to that point. Something he said triggered a memory about Leo Fender and his approach to design and development.
Ted mentioned that his skills as a speaker designer were sharpened by participating in an early version of an online forum. There, he said, he received some of his best feedback and ideas about what was missing in the speakers currently offered. Armed with this feedback from friends and potential customers, he bought cones and frames and proceeded to teach himself how to build speakers. After many misses, he grew confident in his attention to detail and began to produce with consistency, a superior product. It was through constant contact and listening to his customers that the Webers (TA and Ted) built the products that bear their name. Lacking the immediate feedback of the impartial, but demanding end-user, companies labor from concept to product in the dark. The light shines on them when the product hits the shelves and sits...and sits... and sits....
Leo Fender was a fascinating personality study. Forrest White (his Factory manager) describes him as a quiet man but a man of strong opinion. It is said that Leo never learned to tune a guitar (much less play one) and he could, at times, be insensitive. But this man built some of the finest musical instruments this world has ever seen. How did he do it???
Leo had a network of professional musicians who served as his internet bulletin board to advise him on what worked and what did not. And very few of these people felt compelled to stroke his ego. Instead, they told him straight up when his experiments were failures and when they hit the mark. Leo had the real-world R&D team that modern manufacturers could benefit from. Many of the workers in Leo's Fullerton factory were professional musicians and helped immensely in the fine-tuning of many innovations. If it worked, they raved about it. If it sucked (and some of Leo's ideas did suck) these pros told him why and he made the necessary changes.
Sometimes I look at a "New" product and wonder how many people got a chance to demo this product before it went into production. What did "Real" musicians think of it? Where did they get their customer feedback from? Did they only ask yes-men about their opinions?
To be willing to ask for critical evaluation is a necessary skill. It is not easy or safe. Some folks will hurt your feelings and dump on your ideas. But if we can risk being wrong and be willing to be taught, we can discover the secrets to building quality products. It is a curious combination of openness to feedback and firmness of commitment that these two men shared.