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.
The most important stage is the development stage because the initial acceptance of the product can determine its long time success and also creating awareness and educating consumers about the product’s feature are very essential during this stage ,this can really pave a wave for future growth and acceptof the product by the consumers.
The most important stage of a product life cycle is development. To end well, one must begin well. It’s like building a house, the foundation must be solid for the building to be durable. This, before launching a product in the market, you should have done all the it takes to guarantee the success of the product through proper investment, refining, carryout a proper SWOT analysis of the product, consider the “Five Common Errors” before launching.
In my opinion, the most important stage in a product’s life cycle is the introduction stage. It’s the first impression, where the product is launched and marketed to create awareness and generate interest. It sets the foundation for the product’s success. Also another important stage in a product’s life cycle would be the growth stage. This is when the product starts gaining traction and its sales and market share increase. It’s an exciting phase where the product’s popularity grows and it establishes a strong position in the market. What are your thoughts on this?
I would say growth, is most important step in the PLC. Even, if product was properly developed and introduced, but the growth is not properly maintained it will significantly influence its maturity stage. Let’s look at “thread app” by meta teams, they properly introduced the product but they couldn’t maintain the growth. However, i agree that proper development stage and growth stage are very important.
Every stage in the project life cycle is so important but I will choose the Growth stage as the most important because no matter how well a product was developed to solve the needs of the supposed users at a time. People are dynamic beings and there will always be room to serve them better so being aware of this just makes you as a product manager always look for ways to serve your user’s problem by updating the product thereby serving your users better and even serving more people other than the development stage which doesn’t entirely give a final solution to upcoming needs that may arise. No matter how great the product is there will still be a need to update it because human beings’ needs are ever-changing, so the growth lifecycle is the most important stage for me.
All of the product life cycle are very important in my opinion. However, the one I’d say is mostly important would be the maturity cycle. Using BlackBerry and Android phones as an example:
BlackBerry was unique because of its bbn chatting app and at first, it was the only chatting app that everyone wanted to be on, not even WhatsApp could compete back then. But the makers decided to sell that one feature that makes the blackberry phones so unique and it became possible for people to have bbm on their androids something which only blackberry had back then. That was the beginning of the downfall for blackberry and its makers. Now, blackberry phones are no longer existing whilst android phones are still very much around. Maturity is a very crucial stage in the life of a product but other stages are just as important
In my opinion, the development stage is more important. If a product is well developed, introducing it into the market becomes easier because the product manager will not have too much convincing to do, the product’s quality will speak for itself and the growth level will increases. A well developed product makes the job easier for the other stages.
I believe the development is the most important cos it has all the backings to make the product excel
Every stage has it uniqueness and it is a determinant for the succeeding stage.
Maturity is the engine of PM, 2go vs WhatsApp.
2go got the best of the first 3 stages and lacked in the Maturity stage which led to a gross decline of it usage as a Social Media App, WhatsApp got the average sailing of the first three stages, in it Maturity level, the PMs had to collate data and analyse and made it better.
Now an average man can use WhatsApp conveniently without much introduction and observation. 2go as Social Media App is long forgotten. Though a decline in WhatsApp began to ensure and a great competitor was in the market, WhatsApp had to restrategize and boom it’s still booming and it relevance in the society is second to none.
Development is critical stage as ideas cannot be stored (in the brain) if not recorded (verbal or written) or worked upon immediately it’s lost. One can develop a thing have a bad introduction and gets no growth. Management as someone will say is “getting things done through others”. This is crucial cause in maturity expansion and longevity is prone to be seen. As such, one beats someone who is expectant and is prepared for whatever opportunity/situation that comes his/her way.
Maturity is most important yet dependant on the other determinants.
For me the development stage is the most important. It is the bed on which the success of the product lies. This is the stage where you involve in industry research to know what is obtainable and how viable your product will be in satisfying your customers