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Many years back, when some of us at LEGO were building the community team, we dreamed over beers one night about what the future might hold. We chatted about what each of us would consider "success".
Personally, my goal was to see the adult LEGO hobbyists featured on the cover of a major publication.
In January 2006, days before I left the company, that dream was realized when Wired magazine ran a cover story about the development process of the new LEGO Mindstorms product.
Mindstorms launched in 1998 and has had a rich history of hacking, collaboration, and usage around the world and with people of all ages. Mindstorms was one of the best selling products in LEGO history.
After more than 7 years without a major update to the system, it was time. In late 2004 and early 2005, I started working with the product development teams to convince them that they should include fans in the process as early as possible.
More than a year before the announcement and more than a year and a half before the launch, four fans were invited into the project team, and acted as virtual product designers.
The wired article gives much more background and will be linked from the show notes.
I recently had a chance to sit down with 2 of the original 4 fan participants to chat with them about the project. While you may not understand all the details, there are some real gems for how to best work with fans on YOUR next product design project.
Related Links
LEGO Mindstorms (Wikipedia)
Official Mindstorms site
Wired Cover Story
Jake's story of the story
HiTechnic (John Barnes' company)
David and SMART interview
Moral Rights
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