User-generated products are authentic products created by community users, rather than being designed by an internal product team. With this approach, customers are invited to participate in the creative process, contributing ideas, providing feedback, and even influencing full product development.
This method sits at the center of co-creation platforms, where brands and communities collaborate to expand new ideas. Brands with active communities are reported to see a 46% increase in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), with brands in a range of industries, such as software, gaming, consumer goods, and education, leaning towards this approach.
LEGO Ideas is a notable example of this model, consistently demonstrating how crowdsourced product development can be successful while maintaining commercial viability.
This case study will examine how LEGO Ideas is a leading example of community innovation and collaborative product design, exploring how the platform works, the results it's produced, and ongoing challenges. It will also explore how solopreneurs, creators, and consultants can learn from this brand when applying their own co-creation principles within their own businesses.
Background on LEGO Ideas
How Did LEGO Ideas Begin?
LEGO Ideas was founded in 2008 as an independent project called LEGO Cuusoo, initially launched in Japan and named after the Japanese word ‘kuso’, which means to daydream or fantasise.
The concept was introduced to test whether LEGO fans would actively contribute product ideas, allowing fans to submit ideas for potential LEGO sets and earn royalties if their design was to become a sellable product.
The experiment gained traction quickly, allowing LEGO to expand the idea globally and rebrand it as LEGO Ideas in 2014.
What Are the Core Objectives and Principles of LEGO Ideas?
LEGO Ideas was created primarily to expand on user innovation that was already occurring organically within the LEGO community.
It was believed that involving users within the product development process would help to validate product demand and reduce risks involved with committing to ideas with internal resources before customer interest had been tested.
Another core objective was to strengthen emotional investment and loyalty among fans, and experiment with different themes and licenses outside of LEGO’s traditional practices.
How LEGO Ideas Facilitates Co-Creation
Submission Process
LEGO Ideas works by allowing registered users to submit original LEGO set ideas, typically including digital renders or photographs, alongside a description nd explanation of why the concept would be popular.
Ideas would then enter a phase where other community members could offer feedback. To be taken to the next stage, an idea must achieve support from 10,000 community members within a set timeframe.
This acts as an early validation filter, ensuring that only ideas with the most interest proceed to production.
How Are Ideas Evaluated and Approved?
While an idea may receive support from 10,000 supporters, this does not guarantee that it will go straight into production.
Instead, approved ideas will enter an official LEGO Review phase, where LEGO’s internal teams assess their build feasibility, brand fit, market viability, and any intellectual property considerations.
This hybrid model ensures that community participation is well aligned with professional product oversight, upholding the success of the brand and its products.
Impact and Outcomes of LEGO Ideas
What Products Have Emerged from LEGO Ideas?
Over the years, LEGO Ideas has produced many commercially released sets across different categories such as pop culture, science, architecture, and nostalgia-driven themes.
Popular examples include the following sets:
- The Goonies: Recreation of The Goonies movie featuring the Fratelli’s hideaway and characters such as Mike, Richard, Clark, Lawrence, and Mama Fratelli.
- The Gremlins: Buildable Gizmo Mogwai from the 1984 films Gremlins, including iconic accessories like water splash element and brick-built 3D glasses.
- Minecraft: Micro World: A Buildable Minecraft environment of one-stud tiles, featuring both Player and Creeper.
- WALL-E: 7-inch model of Disney/Pixar’s iconic WALL-E robot, with adjustable neck, head, and moveable rolling tracks.
- The DeLorean: Buildable DeLorean time machine from iconic Back to the Future films, featuring opening gull-wing doors, fold-up wheels, and a flux capacitor.
These sets typically appeal to adult fans, a demographic that LEGO has been increasingly exploring in recent years.
What Evidence Supports the Value of Community Innovation?
Studies by the National Library of Medicine and Science Direct found that customers with high online community affiliation are more likely to provide feedback and support, helping to reduce innovation risk and speed up the adoption of new products.
LEGO Ideas is a good example of this in practice, with its projects often producing strong engagement before launch and creating momentum within prospective LEGO customers.
Benefits for the Company and Participants
For LEGO, it’s clear that involving their community in product innovation helps to reduce ideation costs, produce a deeper fan loyalty, and reduce the risk involved with creating ideas that may not always resonate with their community.
For participants they’ll receive public recognition and attribution for approved ideas, as well as financial compensation through royalties. They can also improve their own design, storytelling, and engagement skills through refining design ideas and processes.
Challenges in Managing User-Generated Products
How Does LEGO Handle Quality Control?
Not all ideas are commercially viable, which means LEGO Ideas must filter creativity without discouraging community participation.
Putting in place clear guidelines, structured review phases, and transparent rejection criteria can help manage expectations, especially when ensuring communication with contributors on a regular basis.
Intellectual Property Concerns
A common concern within co-creation platforms is intellectual property. LEGO requires all contributors to agree to submission terms that clarify ownership, licensing, and compensation structures to ensure there are no misunderstandings when a product is commercially launched.
For solopreneurs considering working in this space, this highlights the importance of establishing clear IP policies early on in the process of inviting your community to participate in product development.
Scalability
Scalability is another challenge when managing user-generated products. As a platform grows, elements such as moderation, reviews, and community management become more complex to manage, which must be taken into account when thinking about scalability.
LEGO navigates this challenge by issuing automated voting systems, phased reviews, and defined submission windows to reduce the complexity of managing these issues.
Lessons for Solopreneurs and Creators
What Can Small Businesses Learn from LEGO Ideas?
Small businesses can apply similar principles to LEGO Ideas, without needing the same level of resources.
They can use community input to validate ideas before investing heavily, treating contributors as collaborators. They should create clear participation rules and evaluation criteria to avoid misunderstandings, and consider rewarding contributors for their efforts through royalties or incentives.
Even with a small email list, Discord group, or paid community, a brand can function as a co-creation environment successfully.
Adapting Co-Creation Approaches on Smaller Scales
There are a few ways that brands can adapt LEGO Ideas’ model on a smaller scale.
These include:
- Inviting idea submissions for digital products/services
- Using polls or structured feedback rounds
- Rewarding contributors with revenue shares, credits, or early access to new launches
Structuring your approach will give you more scope for a clear, efficient campaign, centered around involving your community within co-creation practices.
The Role of AI Tools
AI tools like Nas.io can assist when structuring a co-creation campaign by automating marketing and packaging offers derived from community ideas.
These platforms can support solopreneurs by:
- Automating lead capture, nurturing, and customer onboarding
- Packaging community-driven ideas into sellable offers
- Managing marketing workflows without big technical overheads
AI can complement co-creation by handling operational tasks, while creators focus on engaging with their community and guiding product direction.
The Future of Community Co-Creation and Innovation
What Trends Are Shaping User-Generated Products?
There are several trends that are accelerating interest in co-creation and collaborative product design.
The growth of niche online communities is one of these trends, which is driven by consumer demand for more personal interaction and engagement. These communities are made for user-generated products, with users collaborating in shared interests like gaming, skincare, and tech, and brainstorming ideas that would work well for them as a bigger community.
Creator-led brands are replacing traditional product pipelines more than ever before, and consumers are showing increased comfort levels with participatory business models, leading to an increased presence of user-generated products and co-creation.
AI Impact on Co-Creation
AI tools are becoming increasingly popular within co-creation for synthesizing feedback, analyzing community input, and speeding up iteration cycles.
Rather than replacing human creativity, AI should act as a coordination layer that helps translate community insight into execution.
Predictions for Community-Driven Product Development
Community-driven product development is forecast to become a more dominant strategy used by brands to drive loyalty, retention, and as a method for testing out new ideas.
Future iterations of this space are expected to include faster validation loops, more modular participation models, and deeper levels of personalization. The core principle will remain unchanged: that innovation will thrive when users are involved early on in the process and in a meaningful way.
Conclusion
LEGO Ideas is a good example of how user-generated products can succeed at scale when structure, incentives, and community trust are well aligned.
This case study demonstrates that co-creation isn’t about relinquishing control, but is about sharing creative control strategically to involve a community and gain a deeper connection with followers.
Solopreneurs, freelancers, and creators don’t need a large platform to benefit from community innovation. With the right frameworks and supporting tools, even small communities can create powerful, validated ideas to nurture loyal communities and create popular product offerings.
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FAQs
What qualifies as a user-generated product?
A user-generated product originates from user input, rather than through internal teams alone.
These include ideas, designs, or features that are shaped directly by community members.
Who owns ideas submitted on co-creation platforms?
Ownership of co-created products depends on the individual regulations of the co-creation platform.
Most platforms require contributors to agree to specific licensing terms. These terms will allow companies to develop submissions from community members, while offering attribution, compensation, or incentives in return for their ideas and participation.
How long does co-creation take?
Co-creation timelines can vary depending on the company, depth of the product, and communication levels.
On LEGO Ideas, projects can take years from initial submission to final launch. Smaller-scale projects may move more quickly, depending on budgets and other factors.
Is co-creation expensive?
Costs for co-creation vary depending on incentives, tools, and moderation needs.
Many solopreneurs start this process by carrying out low-cost experiments with existing communities to assess whether the costs of cocreation are worth the returns.
Do I need technical skills to run a co-creation process?
No, you don’t need technical skills to run a co-creation process.
Platforms and AI tools like Nas.io increasingly handle elements like logistics, voting, and communication, allowing beginners to get involved with co-creation within different side hustles.
How do I decide which community ideas to pursue?
To decide which community ideas to pursue, you should use a combination of demand signals and feasibility checks, along with assessing the ideas' alignment with your brand or expertise.
Considering these factors will ensure that only the most popular and profitable ideas will be taken to fruition.
