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.
This is a very intricate decision to make, but like the saying goes, life indeed begins with conception and birth, I’ll choose the development stage as the most important stage of the circle.
He you have to develop a product that meet consumers need adequately, once this is done, other stages of the industries can be handled with ease.
A good examples are different product in the food industries, they don’t have to struggle much with marketing because constantly, there is always an available market for their products and rebranding and ungrafe to stay in the market is always not much a product to them. Some good examples are Indomie noodles, Gala sausage roll and a long list of others.
The most important stage in a product life cycle is often considered to be the introduction stage. This is the point where the product is released to the market and it is critical to get it right. If the introduction stage is not executed well, it can have a negative impact on the product’s success. During the introduction phase, it is important to make sure that the product is well-marketed, that it has a strong value proposition, and that it is priced competitively
For me this is the stage that will determine how well the product will do
I believe the development stage is the most important stage as every other stages depend on it. This is because if the product being developed is not the right product needed by customers. It might not succeed the introduction stage and a lot of investment would have been put into the development which would eventually result into a failed product when it gets to the introduction stage.
With out thinking twice I will say the development stage, although all other stages are important but the development is more important. This is because the development stage is when we get it right. This stage make us see reasons why the project is created, the problems it is solving and which method it is using to ensure that product will continue to be in market.
The development stage and the growth stage seem to be the most vital stages. To achieve growth, customers must see great value in the product and to prevent the product from a quick decline it must be developed in such a way that it’s going to be flexible and have room for innovations and improvement to compete with trends and technological advancement.
Each stage of the product life cycle holds its own importance, but if I had to choose one, I’d say the introduction stage is crucial. It sets the foundation for the product’s entire journey in the market. How well the product is introduced can significantly impact its success in later stages. Effective strategies during this phase can shorten the time to reach growth and maximize the product’s potential.
Development is the bedrock of every product, if you get it wrong there, you will most likely get everything wrong.
I think the development stage is the most important in the product life cycle. Because the development stage is where research ad process building happens, if product was properly developed with the user in mind, it becomes easier to introduce and advertise the product too a eager audience. This doesn’t invalidate the other stages but it’s more a matter of setting the right foundation through development.
As a matter of fact, 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 crucial stage. To keep up with the market and stay relevant as well as ensuring your product is growing seems like a challenge.
I think the development stage is the most important because that is where you figure out what fits your consumer’s needs as well as trends in your industry to adapt or avoid to build a product that will thrive through all stages and remain relevant after Maturity.