1) How should LEGO manage and reward outside inventors?

Revitalizing the core product lines and inventing new ones would require a better sense of what
LEGO stood for, that is, establish a clear brand image. Any new product family from the LEGO
Group had to be true to this identity- “obviously LEGO, but never seen before.” Moreover, the
product should be more realistic that are more relevant to the children’s daily experience.

2) How should LEGO manage and reward outside producers of complementary products?
LEGO can generate income by licensing the LEGO brands to external partners. These partners could
produce books, movies, computer games, T-shirts and other products around brands such as Bionicle,
Exoforce and LEGO Star Wars™. It needed to ensure that the products generated were consistent
with the brand image of each product line, and were delivered to the market at the same time as the
products they were designed to complement.
3) How should LEGO leverage Mindstorms users in the development of the next generation
products?
In the previous generation of LEGO Mindstorms, users had hacked the code for the programmable
brick and developed other programming languages that many in the community felt were better. It
may be an opportunity to develop its next generation of LEGO Mindstorms as an open source product
that allow more users to engage in the programmable products.
4) What should LEGO do with the LEGO Factory line?
Users can create new LEGO toys virtually in LEGO Digital Designer. After building a virtual toy, a
user could check the price of the new creation, upload it to the LEGO website, and order exactly the
pieces needed to build it. The new service “LEGO Factory” will allow users to purchase other users’
creations. LEGO then will need to develop the logistics of the packing and shipping of these kits.
5) How should they restructure the innovation and development process?
Traditional LEGO Development Process (LDP) was a cumbersome bureaucratic mechanism and the
successful rate is low. Designers would brainstorm, then engineers took over. Next, it went to the
manufacturing groups, and finally the marketers got it. Getting something to market took about 36
months. To improve the process, LEGO can create a cross-functional product team to foster the
product development.

6) What does Fleming mean by the statement that the distribution of innovations has a "long-
tail"?
When all inventions are considered, they demonstrate a highly skewed distribution. Almost
all inventions are useless; a few are of moderate value; and only a very, very few are
breakthroughs. Those breakthroughs constitute the “long tail” of  innovation.