Collaborating with Customer Communities: Lessons from the Lego Group
SPRING 2012
V O L . 5 3 N O. 3
Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen
Collaborating With
Customer Communities:
Lessons From the
Lego Group
REPRINT NUMBER 53316
i n n o vat i o n
Collaborating With
Customer Communities:
Lessons From the Lego Group
The leading question How can companies collaborate effectively with their customers? Findings
Companies need to
By tapping into the knowledge and enthusiasm of thousands of longtime users of its products, Lego has been able to enhance its product offerings — without increasing long-term fixed costs.
By Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen
open lines of communication through programs that users of the products see as valid.
Collaboration with
customers is most effective when companies provide several platforms for interaction.
Since the company
Customer-oriented companies pride themselves on their ability to understand the experiences and insights of the marketplace and then integrate the best ideas into future products.1 But what would it be like if you found that you had hundreds if not thousands of knowledgeable users of your products ready and eager to spend nights and weekends acting as extensions of your research and development department? For the Lego Group, a maker of children’s creative construction toys based in Billund,
Denmark, this close bond with the user community — not just children but a large coterie of adults who have been using its products for years — is not a pipe dream but a reality.
Lego users have a long tradition of innovation and sharing their innovations with one another — activities that the
Internet has made much easier. As Lego managers became more aware of innovations by the company’s adult fans, the managers realized that at least some of the adult fans’ ideas would be interesting to the company’s core target market of children. In 2005, Lego created
the
V O L . 5 3 N O. 3
Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen
Collaborating With
Customer Communities:
Lessons From the
Lego Group
REPRINT NUMBER 53316
i n n o vat i o n
Collaborating With
Customer Communities:
Lessons From the Lego Group
The leading question How can companies collaborate effectively with their customers? Findings
Companies need to
By tapping into the knowledge and enthusiasm of thousands of longtime users of its products, Lego has been able to enhance its product offerings — without increasing long-term fixed costs.
By Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen
open lines of communication through programs that users of the products see as valid.
Collaboration with
customers is most effective when companies provide several platforms for interaction.
Since the company
Customer-oriented companies pride themselves on their ability to understand the experiences and insights of the marketplace and then integrate the best ideas into future products.1 But what would it be like if you found that you had hundreds if not thousands of knowledgeable users of your products ready and eager to spend nights and weekends acting as extensions of your research and development department? For the Lego Group, a maker of children’s creative construction toys based in Billund,
Denmark, this close bond with the user community — not just children but a large coterie of adults who have been using its products for years — is not a pipe dream but a reality.
Lego users have a long tradition of innovation and sharing their innovations with one another — activities that the
Internet has made much easier. As Lego managers became more aware of innovations by the company’s adult fans, the managers realized that at least some of the adult fans’ ideas would be interesting to the company’s core target market of children. In 2005, Lego created
the
References: no. 3 (April 2007): 81-84. 4. Jake McKee, “Behind the Curtains - Lego Factory AFOL Project Team,” November 16, 2004, www.lugnet Sharing Among End-users,” Research Policy 32, no.1 (2003): 157-78. Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012.