Inside the annual LEGO® Brick Hack
Data speaks a language all of its own. Understanding what it says is something that we really value. It can tell us anything from how to work more efficiently or even reveal our customers’ needs. Every year, our Data Science team reaches out to the business to ask them how they can help support what they do. The result is a three day hackathon. It’s intense. There are highs and lows. But, in the end, it’s a great example of learning through play in action.
A great opportunity to reconnect and onboard
This year the Brick Hack was in the capable hands of of Ryan Timpe from our Marketing Effectiveness team and Aravinth Baskaran who works in the Incubation team. Post-Covid, this was the first opportunity we’d had to hold an in-person event so it was a great bonding experience for the Data Science team as a whole as Ryan explains:
“The Hack started out as a way of giving Data Scientists an outlet to work with each other in new ways and on work they don't normally do day-to-day. Since then we’ve transformed it as a way of involving the whole business. It’s part PR exercise for what Data Science can do and part problem-solving collaboration. We start out by asking the whole organisation what they need then, from this, we create briefs for our teams. They select the ones they think will be most interesting to work on. It’s a great way to introduce them to their stakeholders in the wider business and for them to see what value they can unlock.”
With the teams assembled and the projects chosen, the Hack begins. It all starts with a kick off session, then each of the teams has 45 minutes to brainstorm with stakeholders. This year, these include Supply Chain, Product Development and LEGO Games. With questions asked and objectives set, work begins in earnest, led by a team leader. One of whom was recent joiner, Elly Howells:
“For me, this was a great way to understand the full scope of the business and the complexity and extent of what we do. It’s really impressive. The fact I was leading a team of relatively new joiners was kind of daunting. But we also had a senior Data Scientist on board and it says a lot about our culture that I was trusted to do this."
Creating better customer experience
The problem Elly’s team worked on was a great example of improving user experience. Essentially, it focused on creating a recommendation engine for our Pick a Brick tool. But, as Elly sees it, there was a much wider purpose:
“A better customer experience means improved sales. From a demand forecasting perspective, we can figure out what people are trying to build. Is there a gap in our themes or products we don’t have. We find out a lot. And I guess that’s a key takeaway. All learning is good learning. Engineers and scientists working together gave us all some useful insights into what we all do.”
This is a theme Aravinth picks up on as he talks about the Brick Hack going from strength to strength:
“It’s working really well. We were oversubscribed this year. We’ve had people with different styles working together from different geographies and parts of the business. We’ve learned a lot and it’s been fun. Intense. But fun. When you put people together in an environment like this, good things happen. That’s the power of learning through play.”
Just imagine
building a digital world.
Then make it real.
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