Over on the LEGO® Ambassador Network, it has been announced that the LEGO Group are preparing to lead something called the Lead User Lab. It’s taken a couple of days to get my head around it, but I think I get it now. This new venture will be a way to help collate various ideas, which can be used to compliment the LEGO experience. These can cover various aspects of LEGO building, from what I gather this could mean a LEGO fan has created a lighting system for LEGO sets. This is something LEGO do not provide on a wide scale, but it’s something many LEGO building would like. The exact nature of the program will become more apparent once the LEGO Lead User Lab launches in August. Until then these are the currently available details
The Lead User Lab will aim to capture new-to-the-company ideas, evaluate their potential and bring them to life in new ways.
Planned to start in August, the Lead User Lab pilot project sets out to build a unique innovation model for the LEGO Group, capturing, evaluating and nurturing ideas from the brilliant and creative minds of LEGO fans and Lead Users among adult LEGO users.
Co-creating these future innovations will set the ground for developing investigate new opportunity areas which might include complimentary add-ons to the LEGO building system, digital experiences and even marketplaces, imagined by the Lead Users, and brought to scale by the LEGO Group.
Kari Vinther Nielsen, Head of Lead User Lab at the LEGO Group said:
“Innovation is often something you don’t know you need. Lead Users often create this future – they react to trends and come up with ingenious solutions to problems we perhaps didn’t even know we had! We want to capture this brilliance and ingenuity of Lead Users in a systematic way, explore the high potential ideas and co-create to expand the LEGO idea in ways we haven’t yet imagined.”
The Lead User Lab will focus on breakthrough ideas on a wide spectrum of future application ranging from new experiences, services, channels and audiences, while keeping the Lead User front and center.
What’s a Lead User?
Lead Users are at the starting edge of future market and consumer trends – they experience latent needs that often haven’t been crystalized yet and tailor innovative solutions that are well ahead of the market.
The LEGO Group currently benefits from AFOLs’ (Adult Fans of LEGO) amazing talents in many ways. Whether as loyal consumers of LEGO products and experiences, as highly creative producers of content, experiences and many other LEGO knowledge areas, or as amazing brand advocates – and some of them can turn out to be the future Lead Users.
Over a third of AFOLs self-report that they have developed a LEGO related innovation – with Lead User Lab, we will explore a unique opportunity to get closer to the breakthrough ideas pipeline, capture the best and turn them into reality together with Lead Users.
How will it work?
The Lead User Lab will take in ideas on two simultaneous fronts. A dedicated innovation portal will be launched, where all potential Lead User candidates can submit their radical innovation ideas and keep track of the intake and evaluation process done by the LEGO Group.
Simultaneously, the Lead User Lab team will also approach various existing Lead Users who are extremely motivated in finding ingenious solutions to a LEGO related need, and who have developed a prototype, solution, or have an established business, and are eager to co-create on taking their idea to the next level.
If you already have a breakthrough idea, we encourage you to keep an eye out for the Lead User Lab innovation portal launch. And if you can’t wait, please send us a note to kvn@lego.com Please expect a delay in getting an answer. The LUL team will not be onboard until August
The lead user Lab is planned as a two-year pilot and the LEGO group will ongoingly evaluate the potential of scaling this initiative.
