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 own understanding so far from the course, the growth stage is the most important life cycle of a product, it’s like giving birth to a new born baby, apart from the nourishment the baby derives from the mother when in the womb, he or she still needs more attention and nourishment when born to enhance is growth and development, a product manager would have done a proper customer base check, along with the teamwork before designing a product, but consistence follow-up will enchance the live long of the product.
For example, Meta that is own by Mark Zuckerberg, he uses a system of updating WhatsApp app every three months and it usually came with a new features, likewise for Facebook, Thread and Instagram…
Growth is very vital in every product life’s cycle…
I would say the introduction stage is crucial, as it assesses whether the product will gain wide acceptance, despite prior considerations, it does not ensure consumer acceptance. However, the decline stage is another important cycle, indicating the need for the product to revisit the development stage and make necessary adjustments due to change of demand technology and growth. An example is the introduction of Android into the phone market. Nokia, a leading product in the phone market, struggled to adapt. They opted to partner with Microsoft, which lacked the broad acceptance unlike Android phones. By the time they launched their Android product, another competitor had already seized and control the market.
I would say that the development stage of the product life cycle is the most important, this is because it is the research phase before a product is introduced to the marketplace. This is when companies bring in investors, develop prototypes, test product effectiveness, and strategize their launch.
Without this stage there will nothing to introduce to the market.
In my opinion, I do think the growth stage is the most important, due to the fact that after multiple fact checking, inquiries, cross-analysis there is no determining that the product would grow or essentially go ahead to beat its competitors for example A group of young minds developed a music streaming app called astrotwig prospect wise it poses to be acceptable as it contains features that would enable up amd coming artists to have their songs heard by an already waiting market…
But it hasn’t really lived up to expectations due to the existence of more powerful streaming platforms which suits the fancy of every artist.
the product development stage is the most important stage because if mistakes are made at this point, the product will flop in the market. at this stage, it is important that the needs of the user is the utmost priority so as to achieve a successful product development.
In my opinion, the introductory phase holds significant importance. I have observed instances where excellent products lacked a compelling introduction to the intended audience, resulting in a perception of disorganization and lack of structure. A well-executed introduction of your product holds the potential to facilitate progression through subsequent stages and foster growth. While the development stage is undoubtedly crucial, I believe that greater attention should be directed towards enhancing the introduction stage.
I think the most important stage is development because, without that, the product might not even reach the growth stage. You need to develop a great product. An example that comes to mind is the electric keke. It is a great idea, but the target market is not yet ready for that, as most do not have access to steady electricity, and the charging of the keke during business hours would result in downtime or loss on the side of the keke driver.
As a product manager, I believe every phase of a product’s journey is very important, but the development phase, where you’re shaping the product idea, understanding what customers want, doing market research, and planning how to launch it, is like laying down the foundation. Doing this part well can really set the tone for how the product performs in the long run.
To me it’s Development stage that is the important stage because the product is refined, heavily invested in before it’s been launched out
In my opinion, “Growth phase” is the most important stage of a product life cycle, because that’s where the market becomes competitive from other competitors and must be able to survive all of that before it moves to the maturity stage.