23 Apr Why is it important to understand your customers?

Published on April 23, 2025

Did you know that Lego went through a major crisis for not truly understanding its customers?

In the early 2000s, the company was on the verge of collapse. Surprising, right? In the midst of the crisis, they assumed their toys weren’t selling because they were too complicated. So, they decided to make the pieces bigger, hoping to boost sales. But this only made things worse.

That’s when they decided to dig deeper. Sociologist Dr. Henry Jenkins visited several customers’ homes. In one of these visits, he noticed a teenager who kept a very worn pair of skate shoes on his shelf. When asked about them, the boy explained they were his skate shoes — and he kept them as a symbol of the effort he had put into the sport. At that moment, Jenkins made a key connection: what if Lego builds were also seen as personal achievements?

The research concluded that people valued Lego because it required time and effort. The builds weren’t just toys — they were trophies. Based on this insight, Jenkins suggested the exact opposite of what the company had planned: instead of making the pieces bigger, they should make them smaller.

I can only imagine how the business team reacted to that advice… but they decided to trust the process and give it a try. The rest is history: Lego turned things around and became one of the most successful toy brands in the world.

The importance of understanding your customer

This case teaches us a clear lesson: we can’t assume what our users want based only on our intuition. Do we really know our customer? Do we have evidence that this is what they need? If not, the risk of failure is high.

User research is key. And more importantly, we must be open to changing our perspective based on what we discover.

Another example: the root-sorting machine

Lego’s story is not unique. Here’s another classic example: a group of designers working on a project for a rural community in Africa observed that the women spent a lot of time sorting roots and seeds. They saw this as a tedious task and built a machine to automate the process.

But once the machine was delivered, it barely got used. Confused, the designers asked why — and the answer was eye-opening: for the women, this task was a valuable social moment. They didn’t want to lose that time spent talking and sharing while they worked.

In short, the designers had interpreted the problem through their own lens without first asking the users. The result? A failed solution.

Final thoughts

Good design solves real user needs. But those needs and motivations aren’t always obvious. That’s why we must research, listen, and deeply understand users before we jump to conclusions.

Sometimes what we think is the problem — or the perfect solution — isn’t the real one at all.

Next article

In the next article, I’ll talk about simple methods you can use to better understand your users. Stay tuned!