CHAPTER 1

Introduction

User research is the process of figuring out how people interpret

and use products and services. It is used everywhere from websites,
to mobile phones, to consumer electronics, to medical equipment,
to banking services, and beyond. Interviews, usability evaluations,
surveys, and other forms of user research conducted before and
during design can make the difference between a product or ser-
vice that is useful, usable, and successful and one that’s an unprofit-
able exercise in frustration for everyone involved. After a product
hits the market, user research is a good way to figure out how to
improve it, to build something new—or to transform the market
altogether.
It may seem obvious that companies should ensure that people
will use their products or services. But even industry giants can
lose sight of this common-sense proposition. In a cross-industry
study of 630 U.S. and UK executives by the consulting firm
Accenture, 57% of the executives reported that “inability to meet
customer needs” had resulted in failures of new products or ser-
vices. Fifty percent further blamed the “lack of a new or unique
customer-perceived value proposition.”
As these executives learned the hard way, being first to market
with a new product or service isn’t enough. Companies need prod-
ucts that people desire, that fulfill human needs, and that people can
actually use. After a product or service fails, getting a company back
on track can take significant effort to reconnect with one’s audi-
ence and integrate those understandings back into standard business

3
4  CHAPTER 1  Introduction

processes. That means user research, as the iconic Danish toymaker

LEGO discovered.

Learning from LEGO

In the 1980s and 1990s, the LEGO Group expanded in all direc-
tions. It introduced products, such as computer games, action fig-
ures, and television shows, that veered away from its famous core
business of pop-together plastic pieces. It opened amusement parks
and licensed its name to other companies. And it encouraged unfet-
tered creativity in designer teams. One result was the futuristic
restyling of its classic flagship, the LEGO City product line, and the
creation of many complex new lines with specialized pieces.
Yet by the early 2000s, the LEGO Group was struggling.
Recessions in major markets had hurt overall sales. It also didn’t
help that competitors had taken advantage of the LEGO Group’s
recently expired patents. But one of the company’s biggest prob-
lems was that kids simply didn’t like the new designs. Notably, some
redesigned lines had crashed more than others. The City product
line, for example, had generated about 13% of the company’s entire
revenue in 1999. Only a few years later, it accounted for only 3%.
The line’s profitability had “literally almost evaporated,” an execu-
tive vice-president told business reporter Jay Greene. At the same
time, manufacturing costs had skyrocketed. Instead of doing more
with the components they already had, the new product lines had
multiplied the number of expensive new components. With sales
down and production costs up, the company was hemorrhaging
money. The LEGO Group was losing almost $1 million every day.
It was more than a crisis; it looked like a death knell for a beloved
institution.
In 2004, a new CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, took a “back to
basics” approach. He abandoned some of the new products—the
amusement parks in particular—and returned to the core product:
the plastic brick. Further, he demanded that designers cut the num-
ber of specialized components. But he also directed the company to
pay more attention to its core constituency: kids. Knudstorp told
Businessweek, “At first I actually said, let’s not talk about strategy,
let’s talk about an action plan, to address the debt, to get the cash
 Learning from LEGO  5

flow. But after that we did spend a lot of time on strategy, finding
out what is LEGO’s true identity. Things like, why do you exist?
What makes you unique?”
To find out what made LEGO unique, Knudstorp turned to user
research. Over the course of a year, LEGO sent user researchers—
who they called “anthros”—to observe families around the world.
These anthros focused on culture: the meanings that kids found in
favorite possessions; how, where, and why they played; and differ-
ences in parenting and play styles across the regions where LEGO
did most of its business: Asia, Europe, and the United States. They
went to kids’ homes and interviewed them, and then watched them
play—not just with LEGO products, but with all kinds of objects.
Through its research, LEGO arrived at a renewed understand-
ing of the meaning of play to children. Insights from the anthros’
visits had emphasized the way that toys fit into kids’ storytelling.
Fire trucks didn’t need to look outlandishly cool to be loved; they
needed to fit into kids’ existing stories about firefighters. Research
also led to an enhanced appreciation of cultural differences in play.
Japanese families, for example, tended to strictly separate education
and play; selling LEGO products as “educational” blurred that dif-
ference for parents, making them unsuitable either as toys or as
teaching devices. Boys in the United States, by contrast, were
highly supervised most of the time. For them, playing with LEGO
bricks was one of the few parent-approved activities that allowed
unstructured time alone.
Most importantly, the LEGO design team re-evaluated the
importance of difficulty. “You could say,” wrote Businessweek
reporter Brad Wieners, “a worn-out sneaker saved LEGO.” In the
early 2000s, the company had attributed its failures partially to the
popularity of electronic games. But what did kids see in these
games? For years, the company had believed that kids wanted a
“plug and play” experience: easier roads to speedy success. So they
simplified their models. The anthros came back from time spent
with kids telling a different story.
The head of LEGO Concept Lab told Businessweek, “We asked
an 11-year-old German boy, ‘What is your favorite possession?’
And he pointed to his shoes. But it wasn’t the brand of shoe that
made them special. When we asked him why these were so impor-
tant to him, he showed us how they were worn on the side and
6  CHAPTER 1  Introduction

bottom, and explained that his friends could tell from how they
were worn down that he had mastered a certain style of skateboard-
ing, even a specific trick.” The boys they had met, like the German
skater, were interested in experiences of “mastery”: learning skills
and, as with the worn-down sneaker, demonstrating that mastery to
others. Through observing kids play and talking to them about
their lives, LEGO designers realized that they had misunderstood
what computer games meant.
In response, the designers went back to the drawing board.
While obeying the mandate to reduce the number of different
pieces, designers also worked with researchers to support experi-
ences of mastery. Models might use fewer specialized components,
but they could still be satisfyingly challenging. Instead of aiming for
immediate gratification, the LEGO designers drew from notions of
progression built into computer games: winning points, leveling up,
and entering rankings. Designers also completely reworked their
LEGO City line. Out with the futuristic styling, in with fire trucks
that looked like, well, fire trucks.
But that’s not the whole story, though it’s a big part. At the
same time, LEGO also turned its attention to a large group of
devoted customers who hadn’t strayed: adults. Each individual adult
enthusiast spent far more on LEGO products in a year than most
kids would ever spend in a lifetime. However, the company’s reve-
nue overall overwhelmingly came from kids—boys ages 7 to 12, to
be exact. So most LEGO execs didn’t see any reason to cultivate
older customers (not to mention girls, but that’s a different story).
In fact, the company had notoriously kept adult fans at arms-length.
Communicating with older fans could inspire new product ideas…
and then invite lawsuits over the profits from those ideas. But the
problem with adult fans for LEGO management wasn’t just law-
suits. “The impression,” Jake McKee, a former LEGO Group com-
munity manager, bluntly told a conference audience in 2009, “was
that these guys are weird.”
“And yes,” McKee continued, “some of them were weird.” But
their exuberant love for LEGO kits, he pointed out, was bringing
the struggling company a lot of positive attention. On their own
initiative, adult fans built massive LEGO installations in shopping
malls, attracting attention from tens of thousands of kids. Their
efforts brought them stories on television and in newspapers. And
 Learning from LEGO  7

on the Internet, grown-up, big-spending fans had built a thriving

ecosystem of fan forums and marketplaces.
At first, the websites had taken the company aback. Tormod
Askildsen, Head of Community Development at LEGO, told Erics-
son Business Review, at first, “we didn’t really like it and we were
a bit concerned.” McKee and other members of LEGO’s commu-
nity relations group decided to change that attitude. McKee and his
group started by meeting adult fans where they were most com-
fortable: on online forums, at meetings, even at bars. They started
with no budget and no permission, doing “the smallest thing we
could get away with.” Over time, they built a pilot program, devel-
oping long-term relationships with a few “LEGO Ambassadors” as
eyes into the adult fan community. By 2005, they had come far
enough to post requests for product suggestions on popular fan
websites. In 2009,  Askildsen said, “People from my team communi-
cate with this group more or less on a daily basis, discussing differ-
ent themes, ideas or to brainstorm.” In the end, LEGO even hired
adult fans as designers.
While championing a “back to basics” approach for kids,
LEGO managers had learned enough from the adult fan commu-
nity to add special products for them. First came the $500 Star Wars
Millennium Falcon kit, which became extremely popular. In 2006,
the company added the Modular Buildings line, a set of complex
kits with sophisticated architectural details. Most importantly,
LEGO began to take their adult fans seriously as a source of ideas
and inspiration. “They realized they could use adults to influence
kid fans, and kids to excite adult fans,” said McKee.Today, the com-
pany even launches entirely fan-designed lines.
Besides controlling manufacturing costs, this strategy turned
sales around. After the redesign, LEGO the City line was responsible
for 20% of the company’s revenue in 2008—regaining its original
place and even exceeding it. The executive vice-president told
Greene, “It has refound its identity.” Between 2006 and 2010, com-
pany revenue increased 105%, growing even in downturns. “The
fourth quarter of 2008 was a horror show for most companies,” an
industry analyst told Time magazine. “And LEGO sailed through
like it was no problem.” Revenue continued to grow in 2009 and
2010. In 2011, LEGO made $1 billion in the United States for the
first time ever.
8  CHAPTER 1  Introduction

As the LEGO Group thrived, so did its commitment to user

research. As well as integrating desk research, field visits, and expert
interviews into their idea generation process for existing lines, the
company sent out the anthros again for another project—this time,
to develop new products for an audience the company had long
ignored: girls.
By carefully observing and engaging with its users, the LEGO
Group discovered ways to overcome its most daunting problems.
User research showed the company how to redesign its products to
delight its core audience of kids; how to build strong relationships
with adult fans and make use of those relationships in marketing
and product development; and how to control production costs
even as it introduced new products. The most expert toymaker or
management consultant in the world could not have told LEGO
designers how to do these things. They had to learn it from their
customers.

LEGO Lessons
The problems you and your company need to address might not
be as all-encompassing as those faced by the LEGO Group, but
the toymaker’s story includes some important lessons for user
experience research that we want to emphasize. The obvious
lesson, of course, is that knowing your customers is important,
and that it takes work! That shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s
gotten this far into this book. But there are other, less obvious,
points.

Don’t Take Your Core Audience for Granted

Neither the LEGO Group’s storied reputation as a children’s toy-

maker nor a knowledge of child development theory could guar-
antee success with kids. Instead, the company had to re-engage
with kids directly in order to revitalize its design strategy.

Look Beyond Your Mainstream or “Average” Users

The company gained inspiration from adult fans’ creativity and

enthusiasm. Moreover, they found new profits when they designed
 Learning from LEGO  9

for the specific tastes of their adult fans, an audience they had previ-
ously ignored.

Research and Design Innovation Are Perfectly Compatible

There are some persistent myths about user research: that it stifles
creativity; that it’s only good for incremental improvements; that
real advances only happen when technical innovation drives prod-
uct development. In the case of the LEGO Group, none of that was
true. After an investment into user research and outreach, LEGO
didn’t stop making new products—in fact, it continues to launch
new “brick” product lines and new digital products based on
research. The toymaker just systematically, and strategically, redi-
rected its design efforts.

Research Insights Are Most Transformative When They Are

Constructive

According to business reporter Brad Wieners, the company’s

research “shattered many of the assumptions” it had about kids’
desire for easy success—but also replaced it with a new paradigm,
that of “mastery.” Instead of leaving their corporate clients empty-
handed, the anthros introduced a new model of play to replace the
one they discredited.

User Research Can Have Systemic Consequences

As Wieners writes, “So while it didn’t take a genius or months of

research to realize it might be a good idea to bring back the
police station or fire engine that are at the heart of LEGO’s most
popular product line (LEGO City), the ‘anthros’ informed how
the hook-and-ladder or motorcycle cop should be designed,
packaged, and rolled out.” Then, to make sure that they stayed
connected to their customers, the company integrated early user
research into their Innovation Model, a company-wide sequence
of activities guiding new product development. User research
typically drives nuts and bolts decisions about the object being
made. But you get the most value from user research when all
parts of the company take part in interpreting it, so that it impacts
10  CHAPTER 1  Introduction

not just the design of the product, but also the design of the
­business itself.
And finally:

Research Needs Supporters

LEGO management didn’t just send out researchers once; they

integrated research activities into everyday business processes. The
fate of research insights isn’t under the control of researchers; it
takes collaborative relationships across companies, and support from
management, to influence product development.

In Conclusion
This book is about the knowledge that will help you create and
sustain great product and service experiences. It will help you avoid
situations like that faced by the LEGO Group while retaining and
cultivating the creativity that leads to innovative, exciting, unique,
and profitable products and services. It provides a collection of user
experience research tools to help you explore how products and
services can engage with people’s desires and abilities.
Our philosophy is not about following strict procedures to
predictable solutions. It’s about defining (and redefining) specific
problems and opportunities—and then creatively responding to
them.The ultimate goal of these tools is not merely to make people
happy; it’s to make successful products and services by making people
happy. With a set of tools to help figure out how people view the
world, you are much more likely to create things that help people
solve problems they really care about, in ways that delight and
­g ratify them.