The Roundabout Show with Tim Courtney

Building with bricks, bits, and AI with LEGO® Space designer Bjarne Tveskov | Episode 11

At 17, Bjarne Tveskov answered a newspaper ad for a LEGO spaceship designer, quit school, and never went back. He designed the Monorail, early Blacktron sets, and helped shape LEGO's first digital products. Decades later, he prototyped Smart Brick concepts from his basement using childhood bricks alongside new ones. Every piece still connects. This conversation maps the arc from bricks to digital tools to AI, held together by one idea: the best creative work happens at the resolution of imagination, not photorealism. Bjarne makes the case that repetition is a creative practice, point of view is the new competitive advantage, and weirdness might be the most valuable thing humans bring to a world of averaged-out content. Key Themes * Testing with kids reveals what designers miss. Children ignored the monorail and pointed to new helmet visors. A 10-year-old caught a tree growing on sand in the LEGO Minecraft prototype. * Resolution over realism. Pixelated LEGO bricks' power is approximation. The Smart Brick speaks gibberish so kids fill in their own stories. * Repetition as creative fuel. Bjarne takes the same forest walk daily, and posts the same Instagram motifs. Constants free the mind when one's job demands novelty. * Point of view is the new moat. AI averages human knowledge. Bjarne's corporate naming clients burn through a thousand ChatGPT names, then call him. * Modularity as philosophy. Bjarne loves combining existing elements in unexpected ways. 26 letters to make unique names. Childhood bricks that build new models. Key Takeaways * Your users will surprise you. Test early, with real people, and watch what they actually point to. * LEGO's system proves that backwards compatibility compounds over decades. Old bricks work with new ones. * Protect space for analog thinking. The creative ideas AI can't replicate often happens on a walk, not in front of a screen. * Data overload is real. Indexing on "Vibes" can be a valid response to information overload. * Cultivate what's weird about you. If the only things you can say are what an LLM can say, where's your unique value? * Viral demand adds pressure to accelerate product timelines. LEGO Minecraft went from idea to shelf in six months when the norm was 18-24. Chapters 03:07 - Becoming a LEGO Designer at 17 05:53 - The Birth of LEGO Space Factions 10:35 - Designing the Futuron Monorail 14:49 - LEGO Space Culture and the Internet 21:57 - LEGO Minecraft: From Viral Demand to Product 36:07 - Finding Joy in Repetition 39:00 - From Bricks to Digital: LEGO Darwin and Mindstorms 47:28 - The Smart Brick and Design Resolution 53:01 - Technology, Culture, and the Internet's Evolution 57:20 - Missing the Old Internet 1:02:18 - What Holds Value in the AI Era 1:06:05 - Vibes, Data Bankruptcy, and Human Feeling 1:16:09 - Bjarne's Red Thread: Combining Existing Elements Links * https://lovetobuild.net/ [https://lovetobuild.net/] * https://www.linkedin.com/in/tveskovdotcom/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tveskovdotcom/] * https://ideas.LEGO.com [https://ideas.LEGO.com] About Tim Tim works with leadership teams on community product strategy and co-creation programs. If this episode sparked something for your team: tim@roundabout.community [tim@roundabout.community]

From "ideas worth spreading" to products worth building with Thaniya Keereepart | Episode 10

Thaniya Keereepart has spent 20+ years at the intersection of product, community, and behavioral economics, from MLB's first live streaming app to TED's founding head of product, scaling TED from 500K to 2 billion video views and building TEDx. She's navigated the tension between what a brand wants to be and what its community needs it to become at Patreon, Harvest, the Athletic, and MetaLabel. Themes: * Community as brand amplifier — Opening TED up to TEDx uncovered talent the mothership never would have found, including Brené Brown. * The product-community circular relationship — Why product teams need a liaison role that makes user satisfaction a product metric. * Creator legal infrastructure — MetaLabel and Artist Corporations build legal tools around how artists actually work, not how corporations do. * Original thinking in the age of AI — AI content normalizes to the center of a bell curve, where non-AI assisted thinking allows for novelty. Takeaways: * If your community needs something and you don't build it, someone else will. Patreon → OnlyFans. * Harvest waived fees during COVID. 2021 became their highest revenue year. Generosity is rewarded. * Product leaders must face users directly. Shielded teams create misaligned products. * Start with human problems, not technology solutions. Product before protocol. Chapters: 2:14 - Growing Up on Airplanes 6:40 - Dreams Worth Helping to Actualize 13:25 - Building MLB's Live Streaming Product from Scratch 18:25 - TED's Founding Head of Product 20:59 - The Birth of TEDx 30:37 - Community as Brand Amplifier 34:54 - The Athletic and Sports Journalism's Future 45:12 - Harvest and the Business Case for Generosity 52:57 - The Circular Relationship Between Product and Community 58:50 - The Product Liaison Role 1:06:07 - MetaLabel and Artist Corporations 1:20:37 - AI and What Endures 1:28:51 - The Roundabout Brand Story Links: * https://thaniya.org [https://thaniya.org] * https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaniya/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaniya/] * https://metalabel.com [https://metalabel.com] * https://theathletic.com [https://theathletic.com] * https://getharvest.com [https://getharvest.com] About Tim: Tim works with leadership teams on community product strategy and co-creation programs. If this episode sparked something for your team: tim@roundabout.community [tim@roundabout.community]

Customer Experience: The operating system for trust and growth with Jeannie Walters | Episode 9

Customer experience isn't customer service with a bigger budget. It's the operating system. Jeannie Walters has spent two decades proving that to Fortune 500 teams, and her book Experience is Everything codifies the playbook. Tim and Jeannie dig into what happens when CX leaders drive change from the middle of an org chart, why your B2B customers compare you to Uber, and how trust builds or erodes at scale. Key Themes * Community is downstream of experience. A strong community doesn't come from marketing. It comes from a product and culture that earn the right to gather people. * Scores are indicators, not outcomes. Reporting NPS as an outcome loses executive attention. Tie CX to revenue and cost reduction. * Proactive design beats reactive service. Customers have an experience whether you design it or not. Intentional vs. accidental is the difference between trust and churn. * The influence job. CX leaders rarely control what needs to change. The work is influence: organizational goals, not feedback scores. * Filling the vacuum. When communication stops, customers write their own stories. They're almost always negative. Key Takeaways Your customers compare you to every experience they've had, not just your competitors. Start with a CX mission statement for your team. Results spread by osmosis. Ask executives when they last talked to a customer. The discomfort opens the conversation. Build feedback loops for frontline workers. They see problems before dashboards do. Frustration is anger without control. Design for reassurance and agency at risk points. Trust at scale requires systems: conscience, communication, consistency, credibility. Chapters 02:29 - Origins in the Social Media Era 07:02 - The Story Behind the Book 09:25 - The Influence Problem 14:18 - Customer Service vs. Customer Experience 19:38 - Customer Experience as Innovation 24:41 - Making the Case with Tight Resources 28:47 - Mission Statements That Work 36:12 - Jeannie's Executive Worksheet Trick 41:53 - Building a CX Culture 50:19 - Moments of Truth 53:25 - The CX Case for your CFO 58:10 - The Four Cs of Trust 1:03:59 - Placing Customer Experience on the Org Chart 1:06:32 - Clarity Over Perfection 1:12:08 - Community is Downstream of Experience 1:19:56 - The Future of Customer Experience 1:23:11 - AI and Customer Experience 1:29:08 - Trust in a Cynical World 1:31:17 - Connecting with Jeannie Links * Experience is Everything by Jeannie Walters: experienceiseverythingbook.com [http://experienceiseverythingbook.com] * Experience Investigators: experienceinvestigators.com [http://experienceinvestigators.com] * Jeannie Walters on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/] About Tim Tim works with leadership teams on community product strategy and co-creation programs. If this episode sparked something for your team: tim@roundabout.community.

The Creatine OG: From analog to agentic AI with Steve Jennings | Episode 8

Steve Jennings has been building for four decades. Competitive cyclist turned founder of Maxim (Europe's top sports nutrition brand), then PepsiCo, open innovation, and now Jenerise, a creatine company co-founded with his daughter Rachael. We cover why comfort kills your edge, how endurance sport trained him for entrepreneurship, building consumer community before the internet, and how brands must go all-in to win at open innovation. Steve tells the creatine origin story: a bag of white powder handed to him in a hotel, 47 days to a finished product and gold medals at Barcelona 1992. We close with how he's using agentic AI to de-risk product market fit. Key Themes * Discomfort and uncertainty are Steve's operating systems. He doesn't enjoy chaos, but he thrives on it. Endurance sport built him a tolerance most people never develop. * Brand communities before the Internet. Maxim built consumer community through cycling clubs and showing up. No platforms. No playbook. * Open innovation as DNA, not a campaign. LEGO went all-in with IDEAS. * Creatine's second act. Now the focus is cognition, bone health, and longevity. The science caught up with what Roger Harris predicted in 1992. * Building with AI at 65. Agentic tools compresses months of research into days. Key Takeaways * Product is the catalyst for community. Build something worth talking about. * Five pillars of everyday human performance: nutrition, movement, sleep, environment, people. * AI compresses time to market. Less capital means stronger negotiating position. * It will always be human first. Modern tools augment this thesis rather than supplant it. Chapters 02:39 - The Drive to Keep Building 06:47 - Thriving on Chaos and Uncertainty 10:59 - Cycling as Entrepreneurial Training Ground 19:10 - Regulating as a High-Energy Founder 25:05 - Five Pillars of Everyday Human Performance 32:21 - Building a Consumer Community Before the Internet 39:58 - Product as the Catalyst for Conversations 46:21 - LEGO Ideas and Open Innovation 49:11 - Why Brands Don't Go All In on Community 57:14 - You Have to Invite Customers into the Brand 1:02:14 - The Creatine Origin Story: Barcelona 1992 1:15:21 - Creatine Beyond Sports: Cognition and Longevity 1:19:55 - Building Jenerise with Daughter Rachael 1:25:02 - The Whitespace in the Creatine Market 1:28:04 - Agentic AI for De-Risking Innovation 1:38:20 - It's Always Human First Links - Steve Jennings on LinkedIn [http://linkedin.com/in/sjennings1] - Jenerise [http://jenerise.com] - Scientists may keep UK athletes one step ahead [https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12645172.scientists-may-keep-uk-athletes-one-step-ahead/] - The Untold Story Behind Creatine, and How I Played a Pivotal Role In It Becoming a Global Supplement Phenomenon [https://stevejennings1.medium.com/the-untold-story-behind-creatine-and-how-it-became-a-global-supplement-phenomenon-cb0d41e91c2e] About Tim Tim works with leadership teams on community product strategy and co-creation programs. If this episode sparked something for your team: tim@roundabout.community [tim@roundabout.community]

Your next CMO will build agents, but real strategy can't be prompted with Julie Mossler | Episode 7

Julie Mossler built the comms function at Groupon through its IPO, ran brand at Waze through the Google acquisition, and has been a four-time CMO across web2.0, crypto, and AI. Now she runs Common Fortune, advising founders on go-to-market and category building. This conversation covers building brands from the inside out, why small cross-functional teams outperform org charts, what AI is doing to marketing roles, and why attention might be the last real moat. Key Themes Culture builds the brand, not the other way around. Groupon's voice came from comedy writers and improv actors. Julie built Groupon's PR prowess on top of that culture, where most comms teams rein in their creatives. Speaking of reins, AI might be automating more and more operations, but it will never know when to put the pony in the freight elevator. Small teams with decision-making authority multiply output. The best ideas aren't limited to roles, titles, silos, or seniority. AI is collapsing junior roles, not eliminating marketing. One hire who builds agents replaces the headcount that used to do copywriting. The CMO of the future builds tools and tells stories. Sycophantic AI tells you your ideas are great. Real strategy can't be prompted. Read the zeitgeist, make bets, and learn from mentors who've honed their skills over decades. Attention is the last moat. Anyone can ship a product or press release; the differentiator is getting people to care and to keep coming back. Key Takeaways * Hire for personality and judgment. Scripts can't compete with someone who knows how far to take it. * Cross-functional teams surface growth ideas that fall through the cracks of individual job descriptions. * Campaigns end. Infrastructure compounds. Invest in briefs and knowledge bases. * If you can't critically evaluate AI output about your domain, you don't know your domain well enough. * Don't build a Ferrari to drive to the grocery store. There's no point in automating operations for a business without traction. * Find a mentor. Strategy is learned through people, not prompts. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 01:38 - The Collapse and Rebirth of Media 05:14 - Journalists Learning to Vibe Code 06:46 - How Julie Picks Winners 09:20 - Inside Groupon's Editorial Machine 14:07 - Improv Actors in Customer Service 19:38 - The Pony in the Freight Elevator 22:23 - Categories Worth Watching Now 28:46 - Small Cross-Functional Teams and Leveraging Volunteers at Waze 36:52 - Where the Junior Roles Go 40:20 - Strategy Can't Be Prompted 43:33 - Campaigns End, Infrastructure Compounds 48:56 - The Ethics of AI Tool Choices 53:10 - Human Skills Julie is Long On 58:01 - We Shape Our Tools, And Thereafter They Shape Us 1:01:15 - Don't Build a Ferrari to go to the Grocery Store 1:03:10 - Attention Is the Last Moat 1:06:07 - Julie's Novel and Accountability Time 1:09:16 - Limitless Possibility Links * Julie Mossler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliemossler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliemossler/] * Groupon: http://groupon.com/ [http://groupon.com/] * Waze: https://www.waze.com/ [https://www.waze.com/] About The Host Tim Courtney works with leadership teams on community product strategy and co-creation programs. If this episode sparked something for your team, get in touch: http://roundabout.community [http://roundabout.community].