The Lego Recycling Machine

The Lego Recycling Machine is a fun, relatable, and fictional story that adults can use to teach children how technology and circular thinking will inspire the earth-friendly product designs of the future.

Last week, I drove twenty-two miles to pour two Home Depot buckets of random Lego blocks into the eager mouth of a Lego Recycling Machine.

The Machine was located at the end of a nondescript stripmall, right next to an In-N-Out burger. The entire storefront was occupied by a huge Lego logo, a collection chute (the mouth), an exit hole (for boxes and envelopes), and a locked service door.

I never saw an employee. The machine was exclusively operated through the Lego Loop app that I downloaded to my phone.

Nine minutes after pouring ten gallons of mixed Legos into the machine, using the Lego Loop app, I paid for an organized box that included: 1,830 blocks from our bucket, 315 Lego Next Life (LNL) blocks, and three new Lego Building Instruction Booklets.

I left 986 [unneeded] blocks in the machine for resale to others as LNL blocks. Every LNL block sold converts to fractional Lego Coin [crypto] that I can use within the rapidly expanding LNL economy.

91 missing blocks were mailed to me from machines located elsewhere, as these machines are each capable of autonomously preparing packages for shipping.

Even more fun, students from my son’s school used the Lego Loop app to form a club. Using the app, members voted on projects by pledging blocks and Lego Coin to an array of designs. The first build completed, a huge Battlestar Cruiser, used 9,002 blocks pledged by eighteen members. Using the pledged Lego Coin, blocks needed to complete four additional designs are being purchased from others.

Lego Recycling has become so popular that billions of abandoned Legos have been sourced from yard sales, flea markets, basements, and attics the world over.

Lego Group, the company that makes the machines, now earns more profit per year from recycling Legos and reselling designs than they do from manufacturing. Moreover, the machines are adept at detecting and rejecting counterfeits; this feature has almost wiped out the Lego black market.

Lego’s Director of Regenerative Initiatives, Hans Swedman, attributes the success of the Lego Recycling Machine and the Lego Loop app to artificial intelligence and machine learning. “The machine is able to sort, size, organize, and assemble boxes of Legos and new Building Instructions in ways that could not be imagined, and at speeds that could not be matched, by an army of engineers!”

The Lego Loop app is not only enabling a new social recycling and construction experience, it’s also fostering a generation of Lego recycling entrepreneurs. One eleven-year old boy, alias Joe Cakes, has reclaimed and is reselling nearly a million blocks; his mother told me that Joe and his father visited several hundred yard sales last year, and that Joe has earned enough LNL crypto to almost pay for his first year of college!

The Lego Recycling Machine has become so important to the Lego Group that the company has been able to cut its use of virgin plastics over the last three years by more than 50%.

Lego Group, a company which has produced over 400,000,000,000 plastic bricks since 1958, is showing the world that circular thinking, machine learning, and blockchain technology can create a profitable, regenerative, niche economy that is far more reliant on preexisting product than new.

Who would have thought that the top selling toy of 2022 would be a bucket of your old blocks and a couple of machine-generated Building Instruction Booklets?

This post was inspired through conversations with my son (age 11) about AI and ML; by the nine years I spent innovating in the Auto Recycling industry; by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation; by The Paperclip Maximizer; and by a post in the Wall Street Journal titled “Lego Struggles to Find a Plant-Based Plastic That Clicks”.

After reading about Lego’s noble effort to engineer plant-based blocks, I thought, with 400Bn Legos on earth, why bother? We don’t need more, we just need a smarter way to recover and recycle the nature-resistant bricks that already exist.

The Haley Pitch Every Founder Should Know

Prior to spending a ton of time on a business plan or an investor deck, create a simple Haley Pitch.  It's the most efficient way to obtain valuable feedback from advisors, mentors, and the critics you respect.

You don't need to nail it.  

However, you should be able to demonstrate that you have invested at least one hundred hours discussing prototypes, mockups, storyboards, or wireframes with potential users and/or customers.

Meet Haley

While creating pitches for my last four ventures, we used a fictional character called Haley as our ideal user. 

Depending on the venture, Haley has been a mom, an event planner, the CEO of a non-profit, and a bride. 

Once you've got it down, you'll be able to deliver the Haley Pitch in three minutes.  

Here’s how:  

Slide One (above):  Backstory & Problem

Start with a story.  Quickly describe Haley, her situation (context), and her acute problem.

When using pictures, you don't need demographic details.  

“Haley is a bride.  She’s marrying Jeff.  Haley needs to discuss and obtain feedback on cakes, venues, bands, dresses, food, and a myriad of other details from her bridesmaids, her mother, her in-laws, from Jeff, and even from Jeff’s friends!  Coordinating all this using email will create a clustercluck.  Clusterclucks are hard to manage.”

Clustercluck defined: “Any set of circumstances in which massive disorganization has the potential to cause serious damage, or a disastrous situation that results from the cumulative errors of several people or groups.”

Please also read “It’s Not What You Said, It’s How You Made Them Feel” by Tyler Crowley.

Slide Two (above):  Product Scaffolding

Similar to construction scaffolding, entrepreneurs can use 'scaffolding' to construct the concept of their venture.

In one sentence (see template below), combine the job-to-be-done (by your product or service), your brand name, and your unique value proposition.

This is also where you show a screenshot(s), storyboards, an early demo, and/or paint (over the phone) a clear, concise picture of your product or service.

Template: “When Haley wants to X, she'll use Y to get Z.”

• X - job-to-be-done / pain to be eliminated

• Y - your brand name

• Z - unique value proposition

“When Haley wants to privately coordinate her wedding plans with everyone who matters, she'll use StackChat to simply manage a related stack of issues and input [i.e.: prevent a clustercluck}."

Below are some additional examples that combine a job-to-be-done with a brand and a value proposition.

• When Haley wants to be transported across town, Haley uses Uber to obtain inexpensive on-demand transportation.

• When Haley wants to remember a song, Haley uses Shazam to rapidly acquire essential song information.

• When Haley wants to consume a lot of information, Haley uses Instapaper to transform distracting web pages into a uniform stream of curated information.

• When Haley wants news, Haley uses the Boston Globe website to obtain current, reliable, genuine information.

Watch:  a short video related Jobs-To-Be-Done featuring Clayton Christensen.

Read:  The Few Sentences You Need to Dominate Your Market

Read:  David Cancel talking about his “No Ands” rule.  

Read:  my post on Product Scaffolding

Slide Three (above):  More Scaffolding.

For those who can't relate to your first job-to-done example (e.g.: coordinating wedding plans), quickly outline additional examples.  

"Travel planning, housing decisions, big ticket purchase, repairs, group dining, health, and healthcare decisions...all have potential to become clusterclucks.  When Haley wants to privately coordinate these things with everyone that matters, she'll use StackChat to simply manage a related stack of issues and input."

Slide Four (above):  Mobile App:  Job-To-Be-Done

If your mobile app only had ONE button (think Shazam), what would it do for users?  If your answer contains the word ‘and’, be prepared to defend the clarity of your product vision.  Your mobile app should be the one-click, one-button manifestation of your product scaffolding, and not a feature cacciatore.

"When Haley launches StackChat, she will be able to quickly respond to her clustecluck messages by subcategory."

Learn more about Jobs-To-Be-Done on Medium

Slide Five (above):  Instant Onboarding Ideas

Do you have any ideas that will enable a user to get up and running quickly?

It’s really hard to move users from being curiously interested to becoming committed users. Enable users to experience maximum value for minimal effort.  Avoid complex signups, forms, data capture wizards, upload requirements, unnecessary this-before-that roadblocks, and pre-use instruction manuals/videos.  Give visitors dead-simple ways to try your product...instantly.

"By enabling anyone to enter a Pinterest or YouTube URL, anyone can instantly start a private or public StackChat."  

Slide Six (above):  From None to Huge

You might be creating a product that will eventually have broad appeal and become a billion dollar business.  However, I would like to hear about the first customer segment you intend to target, and how that segment will lead to related exposure opportunities.

Using round numbers...

“Annually, there are 3.5M brides and grooms like Haley and Jeff, and another 16M bridesmaids and groomsmen; during the wedding process, all these people combined will have 100M conversations with 20M different businesses.”

For any given product or service, there are often multiple segments you could initially target.  Pick an entry point (segment) that is easy to define, easy to reach, and most importantly, one that exposes (through usage) your product to a broader audience.

Slide Seven (above):  User Acquisition

Tell me about some of the ideas you have for reaching and acquiring users.  For example:

• ads and articles in bridal magazines

• search advertising

• a partnership with a company that already reaches brides (e.g.: The Knot)

• blogging and social media

• influencer marketing

• direct selling

• by creating value for a related party (e.g.: event planners as a conduit)

Slide Eight (above):  Business Model

Outside of selling banner ads, do you have any unique ideas for generating revenue?  In the simple example above, regular humans (like Haley) will use StackChat for free, while business users interested in 'stack commerce', routing and queueing controls, and more, will pay $100 per-seat (annual).

Now I get it! 

For your product or service, if you can outline the job-to-be-done, your unique value proposition, a brand concept, some go-to-market and onboarding ideas, combined with a product demo, storyboards, or wireframes, we can have a productive conversation.  I'm never interested in long resumes, slides filled with text, tables, charts, and (initially) projections.  After we get through your product vision, we can talk about plans, strategies, numbers and metrics. 

StackChat Status

I worked on StackChat with Daniel Clarke.  I invested a small amount of capital and created the storyboards; Dan interviewed potential customers; and we both spent a lot of time in coffee shops discussing strategy.  At this point, StackChat is not a fully-baked idea.  For the job-to-be-done, StackChat's value proposition overlaps with Slack's, and 'clustercluck prevention' is not a slogan we can go to market with.  However,  there's a bunch of things here, including Haley, worth recycling.

Product Scaffolding

Similar to construction scaffolding, entrepreneurs can use 'scaffolding' to construct the concept of their venture.

I frequently get into discussions and debates with friends and founders about the viability of new products and services.  Product scaffolding makes it easy for me to rapidly evaluate the opportunity size, branding, and believability (is it possible).

In my experience, if you can’t describe your product or service using simple, harmonious product scaffolding, your venture will struggle.

Product scaffolding is ONE sentence:

• When Haley wants to be transported across town, Haley will use Uber to instantly obtain inexpensive, on-demand transportation.

• When Haley wants to remember a song, Haley will use Shazam to rapidly acquire essential song information.

• When soccer enthusiasts want to play, they will use Rocket Soccer to instantly schedule a convenient, competitive match.

• When artists want to record a music video with their fans, they will use FanStudio to effortlessly schedule a live, professionally orchestrated recording.

Use This Template:  When A wants to B, A will use C to get D.

• A)  a character, actor, persona, or segment  

• B)  the job-to-done by your product or service

• C)  your brand name (actual or under consideration)

• D)  the value proposition you intend to deliver

Erecting Your Scaffolding

1. Choose a segment to target.

2. Nail the job-to-be-done.

3. Settle on a value proposition.

4. Come up with a brand that fits.

1)  Choose a Segment.  You should know, and be willing to love, your customers.  Anything less creates an uphill battle.  When choosing customers to serve, I rely on this simple metaphor:  Don’t back a hip hop artist when all you listen to is rock and roll.  

2)  Nail the Job-To-Done.  The ‘want’ or desire to get a job done causes people to contemplate and/or seek a product, service, or solution.  (See “want” in the sentences above.)  Consumers then HIRE (with their time or money) a product or service to do the job.

The best ways to determine true ‘want’ are to ask and observe.  Set aside biases, preconceived notions, your habits, and your rituals.  Ask: What do you want to do?  Observe:  What are they trying to do?  Dig deep.  Repeatedly ask and observe.  

When someone is hanging a picture on a wall, are they decorating a room, hiding a hole, sharing memories, or showcasing art?  What are they hiring the picture to do?  Ask and observe. Ask and observe. Ask and observe.

Nailing the job-to-be-done is the only way to deliver the right value proposition.  If your observations reveal that people ‘want’ more art in their busy lives, do you ‘want’ to sell empty picture frames?  Learn more...

Avoid Run-On Jobs-To-Be-Done.   For new ventures, I am a huge believer in the “No Ands Rule”.  Avoid the word “and” in your product scaffolding.  Get a foot in the door, a wedge in the market, or a prominent slice of mindshare by picking a SINGLE job-to-be-done.  

Here’s an example of bad, run-on scaffolding (using “ands”): “When artists want to record a music video with their fans, and acquire new fans, and build a simple website, they will use FanStudio to….[to get lost and confused]”

3)  Settle on a Value Proposition.  A value proposition is the reason humans ‘hire’ your offering.  Peter Sandeen has the best definition of ‘value proposition’ on the web:  “A strong value proposition is a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons your target customers should do what you’re hoping they will do.” 

I am going to add: if you can’t deliver it on day one, don’t say it.  For example: you can’t deliver a “global network of passionate fans” to user number ONE.  However, you could pitch (to early adopters), your product’s capacity to simply enable: paid, private showcases, or fee-free, online tipjars, or some other “believable collection of persuasive reasons”.

To sum up: the WANT or desire to get a job done causes people to contemplate and/or seek something; while your value proposition is the reason WHY humans HIRE your offering.

4)  Come Up With a Brand That Fits.  I like adaptable brand names that you can pour meaning into (e.g.: Google, Mint, Twitter, Square), or harmonious brand names that conjure the embodiment of WANT + WHY (the ‘want’ or desire to get a job done + ‘why’ humans will hire your offering), (e.g.: Facebook, Salesforce, Linkedin, Travelocity).  

Adaptable brands make it easy to pivot, while harmonious brands make it easier to communicate value.  If you really think that you have uncovered true ‘want’, and if you know with unflinching certainty that you can deliver a unique value proposition, consider a harmonious brand name.

A final word on brand names:  It’s often hard to secure the .com for harmonious brand names.  However, if you can get the .com (recommended), you probably don’t have to worry about trademark infringement.  Alternatively, secure the best, pure (no hyphens), adaptable .com name that you can imagine.

Also read:  The Haley Pitch Every Founder Should Know