What do you think is the most important stage in a product’s life cycle?
The product life cycle (2021)
Now that you have covered the basics of the product life cycle, complete the following exercise.
Instructions: Determining the most important stage in the cycle
- Reflect on what you think is the most important stage in this cycle.
- Write your answer in the discussion below, and explain why you think your chosen PLC stage is the most important.
- Try to find a real-world example that you can use in answering this. It might be an example from your professional experience or one you’ve found elsewhere.
- Reflect on at least one of comments from random learners below. Do you agree with their response? How do their experiences differ from yours?
Molly Campbell
What comes to mind as the most important stage for me is the decline stage. With the ever changing tech landscape, I feel that apps/websites etc have such a difficult task of staying relevant. Social media apps are what I thought of in this situation. Apps/sites such as Facebook or Instagram are now competing with SnapChat and TikTok, so both have updated their functions to include more video and filters, etc to be relevant in that market. They are trying extremely hard to prevent their decline and become obsolete. I do agree with others that development is very important as well, and the example I gave may have to go back to the development stage in a sense to redesign and update things to meet consumer demands.
Christina Bek Larsen
As it is a cycle, I find it very difficult to point to one stage as the most important one. One stage doesn’t exist without the previous one, I suppose. I think each stage requires something specific from the PM. With competition and evolving needs in mind, I am thinking about the growth stage as being a tricky stage. To keep relevant and ensure your rpoduct is growing seems like a challenge.
Ibukun Oni
I think the “Development stage” is the most important phase because if the right product is not developed to meet the needs of customers, then efforts during the other stages become futile.
I recall developing a digital product, the first assignment of the project team was to ensure that the product met the needs of our customers.
Chibuzo Anazodo
I think the Development stage is the most important because that is where you figure out what fits your consumers needs as well as trends in your industry to adapt or avoid to build a product that will thrive through all stages and still remain relevant after Maturity.
Peter Scheinsohn
I would say introduction, is most important step in the product life cycle. Even, if product was properly developed, but not good enough introduced and advertised or not clear enough introduced for which group it is, it will significantly influence its further growth. However, i also agree that proper development stage and growth stage are also very important, but good start (“introduction”) is vital in my humble opinion.
I believe the introduction stage is the most important because it’s acceptance by end-users is critical to it’s existence as a successful product.
All stages are very important but the most is the development stage.
Because having an idea will die as an idea and it will not come to life, hence other stages from introduction to decline will not be known.
Take the Tesla model as a good case study, if Elon Musk just had the idea and no development then it wouldn’t have been in existence, as so no growth or maturity.
So I feel development is the most important
Introduction stage is the most important stage that is why it is regarded as high stakes period. That is when the reality sets in, the moment you will see your real life competitors. Sales will be low and you have to work hard to build your demand gradually.
From my perception, Development stage is the most important state in any product lifecycle. As it involves the design stage of the product where it is built to meet with the needs of the market demand, product is being invested on to meet with the needs as any shortcoming at this stage will witness a longer introduction stage and sharp decline stage. Tesla cyber truck invested hugely in its design and currently witnessing a fast growth stage and short introduction stage
The development stage is most important even tho other stage as also as important as the development stage but when you talking of a product, as we are being taught here, any product you want to bring in to the market must have to be a product that will solve a particular problem or numbers of problems in other to generate or draw in sale and more customers to the product.
So the development stage determines if the product would solve a problem or not.
I think it’s the maturity stage because at that point the product has reached the targeted consumers. Also being about to redefine or reintroduce new products to the consumers market from research to avoid the product to reach the decline stage.
Not taking the fact that the introduction stage sets the tone for product success and market presence
It is difficult to actually choose one as every stage matters and is important, but I think the Introduction stage is top for me. This stage can make or mar the product, stakes are high and there may be an outright rejection if the introduction to the market isn’t properly done.
Introduction stage is the most important stage that is why it is regarded as high stakes period. That is when the reality sets in, the moment you will see your real life competitors. Sales will be low and you have to work hard to build your demand gradually.
To me I think the development stage is the most important stage and reason being that it is the basis for all other stages or I would rather say it is the bed rock or foundation for all other stages.
If the foundation the (development stage)of a product is faulty or poorly developed, the result will reflect at every other stage which can be disastrous to the general outcome of the product.
For instance, a mobile phone newly produced with faulty internal memory will probably not stand a chance at the growth stage after introduction before declining because information has been spread in the market place of this fault and this will affect sales significantly because user needs a functioning internal memory to enjoy all the features of a mobile phone and before you know it will face-out completely.
This is a dead on arrival case.
Development stage cannot be overemphasized or underrated.
I think the most important stage is gathering the data to solve the issue which is the birth of a product else the development stage.