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.
Development: to me this aspect is the most important stage of a product. Lot of resources are put in the entire production of a product, and development is the first step in producing a product, at this stage research would be made, if the product will be helpful to it user, on how the product can solve problems. to me development is the foundation of every product. They won’t be introduction, growth, maturity nor decline with out development
I think that the most important stage in the product life cycle is the “growth” stage. During this stage, the product is becoming more popular and is experiencing increased sales. This is the stage where companies can really build momentum and expand their reach. Plus, the “growth” stage is where companies can start to generate profits and reinvest them into further product development.
As I was saying, the profits generated from the “growth” stage of the iPhone’s life cycle allowed Apple to invest in further product development. This led to the creation of the iPad and Apple Watch, which have both been hugely successful products in their own right. So, the “growth” stage was clearly crucial for Apple’s success and continued innovation.
I think the most important stage is the Maturity stage. The more time a product spends at the maturity the more the relevance in the market and this grossly depends on inputs by the PM.
Secondly, the data from this stage helps a company make changes on the mistakes made in the introduction and growth stage. So this stage serves as a controls to the whole product life cycle
I would say the Development stage is the most important PLC because if a product is not well developed, its existence in the market will be short-lived. It may not also meet the demands of the consumer. This is the stage where research and analysis, planning and execution is discussed. At this stage too, it’s expected that the innovator gains significant feedback from potential users so as to introduce a product which is relevant to the consumers to the market.
Personally, I’d say the most important stage is the growth stage. This is the stae where the product is trying to gain the right audience and if all fails at this stage, the rest of the stage will automatically fail
It’s a tough one to point out the most important stage in the PLC because every stage is a s important as the other. Although I would say that as a product manager, preference should be given to the grouth/maturity stage because this is the stage after which a product would fizzle out or become obsolete if care is not taken. The behaviour of the product should be carefully observed in the market and from customer feedback so as to make adjustments and modifications from the development stage if need be. In a nutshell, the product manager should prevent the product from declining by carefully observing it’s growth and maturity phase, making modification on the product to Keep it relevant in the market. For example Xbox and playstation have been making a alot of modifications to keep their consoles relevant and preferred to their users. From Xbox 1 to Xbox 2 to Xbox 360 etc. From playstation 1 to playstation 2 Upto playstation 5. The playstation moved from 1 to 5 packed with modifications to make it relevant, Up to date and prevent from declining.
As it is a whole cycle, It is safe to say all stages are very important, because one stage doesn’t exist without the previous one, each stage has a specific requirement from the Product Manager. With evolving needs in mind, I will say the development stage is the most important stage. Building a beatiful product that does not solve the core problem, or has a low value will affect all other stages.
I feel the Introduction stage as the most important stage of the cycle. Being the stage where the product is released into the market, it is regarded as a high-stakes period in a product’s life cycle.
The strategies employed at this stage will determine the initial success of the product in the market and can also determine how long it spends before moving to the growth phase.
take 2GO for example the introduction was not wide spread like other platforms like Facebook and twitter(now X), likewise BBN the platform introduction was too restricted which made it easily phased out when WhatsApp was introduced which has a wider reach.
I think the decline stage is an important stage of PLC. It is at this stage that a company’s product returns to the growth stage of permanently goes to decline. Take for instance, Nokia during their decline could no longer meet up with users needs. if they had found out or figure out market trends and adapt their product to the new normal. they would have still remained in the Market today.
At the decline stage, you find out why your product is declining, find out why the loss of interest from your customers, find out what is missing, find out what your competitors are doing differently and then implement. This is where you need to meet your users.
According to the lesson note and my own understanding I think all the PLC is important in PM because they all work hand in hand if there is a flop in the first stage of PLC which is the DEVELOPMENT they their will be a problem with the rest in short if the DEVELOPMENT stage is well addressed then GROWTH stage is very important because it helps to determine how valuable products is to win the desires of the consumers