Thoughts on “How LEGO Caught the Cluetrain”
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Jake McKee, former Community Development Manager at my favorite toy company, LEGO®, recently talked about the company’s several-year process of opening up and listening to its biggest fans; grown-up builders, collectors, and hobbyists. Whether you’re a LEGO fan, a community manager for a consumer brand, or both, this video is both entertaining and well worth the watch:
Having experienced what Jake speaks of from the fan side, I thought I’d share a fan’s perspective in light of two of the Cluetrain’s 95 theses:
#34 To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.
#35 But first, they must belong to a community.
How it all began…
Right about the time some people were stocking up for Y2K, Brad Justus announced LEGO Direct, the new direct-to-consumer division at LEGO, by posting to the LEGO fan site LUGNET. This was a big deal. Until that time, the only LEGO employees who had “acknowledged” us adult fans were lawyers. Brad’s announcement was the first ray of light that our beloved company would talk to us.
Trust was a factor in the early days. Many of us were hopeful, but just didn’t buy the idea that the skies had parted and all would be right in the world. 
LEGO’s early communications to us were mostly announcements. Brad’s Q&A sessions at conventions like BrickFest overflowed with passionate fans questioning company decisions as LEGO was over-simplifying their product line. These same people expressed their enthusiasm for the product by demanding access to purchase greater varieties of parts in bulk quantities. Brad’s terse answers in these were so seen as PR speak that they even inspired this hilarious comic by Brendan Powell Smith, the artist behind illustrated LEGO Bible “The Brick Testament.”
Possibly the most brilliant hire Brad Justus made was Jake McKee. Jake came to LEGO in 2000, having already established his street cred among fans as an avid builder. He positioned himself internally to be the advocate for fans and an ambassador to the company for the fans.
While a LEGO employee, Jake made it a point to visit club meetings and displays throughout the country. He also actively participated in his local club (TexLUG), not as an employee but as a builder, because LEGO was his hobby. He also wrote the book “Getting Started with LEGO Trains” as a fan with an interest in sharing train building with others.
Jake brought more conversational, two-way style to fan-company relations while communicating the company’s priorities in a way that fans could respect. In short, Jake exemplified both #34 and #35 above. Even in the face of very unpopular moves on the part of the company, he never lost that street cred within the community at large.
Steve Witt, a former intern of Jake’s, took his place in 2006 as community liaison, while Jake moved on to new opportunities. I wasn’t very involved with the LEGO community during Steve’s first couple years, but I did have the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Steve at BrickWorld 2007. Compared to Brad and Jake, Steve is the most casual of the three. From my limited exposure, he strikes me more as “one of the gang” than a corporate representative, though he still fielded the dodgeball questions in the convention’s Q&A session expertly.
Lessons Learned
- Break Bad News First: One key to “first belonging to the community” that got overlooked was the keen ability to anticipate what would be interpreted as bad news and preemptively acknowledge it to the community. This is best exemplified when LEGO slightly changed the tints of their gray and brown bricks in early 2004, sparking nothing short of an uprising in the online community. While Jake handled the aftermath expertly, nothing LEGO did could have made the fans happy in this situation. Announcing it first along with plans to make favorite bricks available in the old colors for a while longer would have lessened the blow. Takeaway: If you have bad news to give your core fans, deliver it first instead of letting them discover it.
- Trust Your Fans (skip the NDAs): As the company has reached out to fan groups for input into new product developments and initiatives, more often than not fans would be required to sign an NDA before LEGO revealed their plans. This has caused, and continues to cause, mistrust between NDA’ed fans and the general fan public; either that they aren’t representing the group’s interest well, or that they’re being bought off with privileged information. While I don’t personally subscribe to those thoughts (disclaimer: I have been under LEGO NDA in the past but am not currently), I understand why they occur. My thoughts are simply this: If you’re coming to your biggest fans for input into your products, realize that they only want to help your company, assuming there’s something in it for them. Give them enough incentive to participate and show them that you trust them by ditching the NDA while simultaneously communicating the sensitivity of the information being discussed.
All in all, it’s been a wonderful experience seeing the LEGO company open up to its fan community. It’s amazing how far things have come in just eight short years. The company that before sent their lawyers after domain names and logos now invites these same people to help design products, decide bulk parts offerings, and display at public shows worldwide. LEGO hasn’t been perfect about their interactions, but this is uncharted territory for all of us.
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