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.
From my understanding though;
I think 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.
As in the case of 2go that had a poor development it experienced a very quick decline unlike Whatsapp.
I totally agree with with fishway.
IMO in the case of 2go. Development, Introduction and Growth was there. But the maturity and decline stage was where they struggled to evolve and keep up with the competition.
For me personally, I think each stage plays a crucial role in a product’s life cycle. I agree with Molly Campbell and Peter Scheinsohn. Introduction stage is particularly important for establishing a foothold in the market. Product like the Google Pixel for example, Great phone IMO but I feel the introduction to the market wasn’t as strong to push forward the growth of the product compared to its competition, Samsung and iPhone. While the maturity stage requires strategic adaptations to maintain relevance and competitiveness in the marketplace. In this case YouTube, and its competition TikTok has been on the rise for the past few years now because of which YouTube added the shorts feature to its platform. Personally, I don’t use TikTok but because of the shorts feature added to YouTube I spend more time than I should on there. So, I think personally the maturity stage is most important.
I agree with Peter Scheinsohn that the introduction stage has to be the most difficult stage. No matter how amazing your product is,if you can’t properly communicate to people what it is for and what problem it is solving. You would have a hard time with the rest phase. Just as statistics shows that most business don’t usually make it through the introduction stage if not done properly.
I think the ‘Development Stage’ is the most important as the development of the product determines how the target market reacts or accepts the product.
I think the development stage is the most critical stage of a product. Before launching or introducing my smoked catfish to the market. I have to determine how it will look like in term of taste, texture and sizes. Without going through this phase of development the product is bound to fail in the market
All stages are essential. However, development is vital; it is the foundation for every product. How you develop your products determines the success of other stages if carefully implemented. A product can’t exist without going through a successful development stage.
I feel all stages are as important. The next stage won’t be happening if the previous stage was not planned out well. The PM needs to put a lot of effort into each stage with competition in mind. The maturity seems a little tricky as this is where the PM needs to keep understanding the evolving needs of the customer in mind so as to keep the product for as long as posible.
I think the most important of the stages is the Introduction stage. How well you introduce your product to the audience matter a lot. We are talking about a new product that was just developed for it to be accepted by majority will involve a lot of Feasibility research, type of audience, level of acceptability and proper awareness and product knowledge. If it fails at this stage then every other stages automatically fails. Malik Adenaya
The most crucial stage in the product life cycle can vary depending on the product and industry. However, I will consider the introduction stage as being significant. This is when a product is launched, and marketing efforts play a crucial role in creating awareness and establishing a market presence. Success at this stage can set the tone for the product’s entire life cycle.
The most important stage is the development stage because the initial acceptance of the product can determine its long time success.
This is particularly true of the Maturity phase. This is the most important one to extend from a financial point of view because this is the period when the product is at its most profitable.