LEGO Group
Rewiring discovery in an output-driven organisation
LEGO’s SAFe implementation was under pressure — not in delivery, but in discovery. The organisation was highly capable at execution. The question of what to build was still being treated as something external to the team.
SAFe had introduced new structures, but not yet shifted this fundamental pattern. Teams were optimising for delivery, not for understanding. The core challenge was systemic: moving from a model where problems are handed over, to one where teams take ownership of defining them.
Intervention: Introducing a shared discovery discipline
We introduced a five-day sprint format built around the Five Mindsets — a structured, co-creative approach to discovery. The intent was simple: give teams a practical way to explore problems, not just execute on them.
What emerged was something broader than expected. The format proved to be domain-agnostic — not tied to digital product alone, but applicable wherever complex problem-solving was needed.
Scaling across the organisation
The same principles were applied across multiple domains:
- Digital product and platform development
- Service design and business operations
- Manufacturing and logistics systems
- Strategic initiatives
The key variable was not the method — but the composition of the team. By bringing in the right cross-functional expertise for each problem space, the same structure could be reused with high impact.
Over time, this created a shared way of working: a common language for exploring problems, aligning stakeholders, and making decisions.
From discovery to strategy
The approach eventually extended into strategy work, where we applied the same Five Mindsets to support Industry 4.0 initiatives. This helped bridge a critical gap: connecting high-level strategic intent with grounded, testable directions — shaped in collaboration with the people closest to the work.
Outcome
- Teams moved from receiving solutions to owning problems
- Discovery became a repeatable capability, not an ad hoc activity
- A single framework enabled alignment across domains and levels
Changing ways of working is not about introducing more process — but about giving teams a shared, practical way to think.