Part 5: After 10K

The project finally achieved support and reached 10K supporters? Now what? I'll look at how many of these go on to be approved for production and what factors such as Staff Picks may have an effect.

If you're already familiar with the Review stage, feel free to skip to Question 1.

First thing we need to cover is what occurs when a project has reached 10K. Well, it kind of just sits there until the next Review stage occurs. There are three of these per year as follows:

• Round 1: May 
• Includes those where 10K was achieved from early January to May
• Round 2: September
• Includes those where 10K was achieved from early May to September
• Round 3: January
• Includes those where 10K was achieved from early September to January

What does that mean? Your 10K product idea will be sitting in limbo from 0-4 months waiting for the next Review.

What happens in the Review? Per the LEGO Group...

This project moves from the Idea stage to the Review stage. A "LEGO Review Board" composed of designers, product managers, and other key team members will examine the idea. We'll build concept models and determine if the concept meets our high standards for what it takes to be a LEGO product. This includes factors such as playability, safety, and fit with the LEGO brand. Every potential LEGO product goes through a process like this and must meet the same standards.

The outcome of the review will be that the product idea is either not approved (at which point the journey is done) or approved, at which point the following occurs per the LEGO Group... 

When the review is complete, we will inform you of our decision. If green-lit, this project goes into the longest phase of the project; the Development phase. During this time, LEGO model designers refine the product and develop it for release, we create the product materials (box, instructions, marketing), and get everything ready for a production run. This also takes several months.

So, putting it all together, this is what the two stages look like.

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Click here for a popup on what makes up the data:  

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*Note on a change in the dataset for this post only:

Of the 12,188 submissions reviewed, 460 made the 10K milestone and achieved support. However, 112 of those are either waiting for Review to start or are still in the Review stage and cannot be included in the data. Therefore, there ended up being 348 product ideas that reached 10K and ultimately had an approved/not approved designation. 

Question 1

What percentage of product ideas that achieved support (10K) end up being approved for production?

Percent of Achieved Support approved for production

Items of note:

• Only 5% of the products ideas that reached 10K were ultimately approved for production.

Question 1 Data:

Question 2

Does a Staff Pick affect whether a product idea is approved or not?

No, a Staff Pick is NOT any more likely (7%) to be approved when compared to one that did not receive a Staff Pick (5%). 

Items of note:

• While the numbers show a slight difference of 2%, statistically it is insignificant and therefore ignored.

Question 2 data:

Question 3

What percentage of ALL submissions make it to production?

Items of note:

• You read that right... only 0.15% of all submissions for product ideas ever actually get produced and end up on shelves.
• Another way of stating 0.15% is 1 in 667.

Question 3 data:

Similar Odds - to a random LEGO Idea getting produced (1 in 667)

More Likely to Occur - than getting a LEGO Idea produced (1 in 667)

Less Likely to Occur - than getting a LEGO Idea produced (1 in 667)

up next: IP vs Non-IP