If you’re new to LEGO CUUSOO and wondered how a particular project goes from the idea stage to an actual product, ReBrick has recently done an article with LEGO Group Head of Community Business/Busniess Manager Daiva Naldal to explain how the process goes. After a project gets 10,000 supporters, it heads to the LEGO Jury/Review Board which consists of people from different departments:

“It consists of different people who represent different departments within The LEGO Group, to make sure that we have a decent and proper evaluation of each idea. We have LEGO Designers and people from our main markets,- like Sales and Marketing people, who will then be responsible to validate the sales potential. We also have representatives from our Brand Management Team, securing that the projects fit our Brand guidelines. And we have a close relationship to License and Legal, as well as Product Development Teams. So we get insights from all teams in order to make the final decision.”

Daiva also explains that many projects aren’t selected to become actual products not because the designers don’t like it but the company has to look at different aspects to make a decision. One aspect is to get a licence from the original IP. You may have seen that there have been a lot of projects on CUUSOO that have reached the review stage that require a license to use the particular theme.

“Sometimes we cannot not secure the partnership, sometimes it clashes with our own development projects that are in the pipeline and sometimes it is similar to a project that we already had. And sometimes the topic simply does not fit with the brand values.”

After a project passes the review stage, it goes to the development stage and the design team works with the original model and make changes according to the company’s specifications and standards.

“That means we look at the original idea and work with our design team to structure the project. And to secure that final product lives up to our play and building experience standards. So our design team prunes the model and adjust it, so it can pass our internal model review. Our experienced designers and design coaches will build and adjust the model. And that sometimes means we have to tweak the details of the model to make it final.”

“Hopefully the final model ends up to be very close to the original model idea . And we would collaborate with the people who have presented the original idea on LEGO CUUSOO. To make sure that we are on the same page.”

Finally, the product is ready for the market. An interesting fact in the article states that LEGO CUUSOO projects are able to reach customers faster than the normal LEGO sets. It only takes CUUSOO sets about six months to a year to make it to store shelves while any other sets would take more time. The timeline includes everything from the review stage to when customers can actually purchase them.

“Once it passes review, it takes six months to a year to reach the market. That includes the whole development process, adjusting design, developing the packaging, communication, producing different parts, packing it and shipping to different places in the world and then bringing it to the shops. A ‘normal’ LEGO product would take more time from the idea to the market.”

The article does explain the process fairly well and you can read much more about it over at ReBrick. Also, check out various projects on CUUSOO to give your support to any that catches your eye.

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