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.
I think the Development stage is the most important stage because that is the exploration stage, where you figure out what fits your consumers needs and all the trends and approaches your industry will adopt to sustain it through all the other stages, even in decline stage, you keep researching for strategies to keep existing.
Stages in project management are all important as one stage leads to another. Jumping one stage will amount to serious distortion in the project execution.
It is therefore imperative to follow each steps one after the other.
The most important product life cycle to me is the development stage because it is at this stage exploring the right and best product can be developed or created that will stand the test of time. Once a product is produced with the right tools, you need not put in much effort to introduce it to the market and its life cycle may stay longer at maturity and may not decline anytime soon if the quality is good at the development stage. For example due to the creation of Samsung product, which has quality during the exploration stage of production, the product is still in the market for so many years and has not decline up till this moment.
Going and studying the products life cycle.
Every stage is important, product cycle follows a water fall methodology.
Where every stage needs to be carefully treated well ease there will be a flop.
Many products get crashed at the development stage because of a carefree attitude
I will say the “growth stage” because looking at the chart of PLC it is at this stage that the product either stay afloat or go back to square one that is development stage. Growth simply implies that you keep on doing all you have to remain relevant. Which means there is always room to improve on the product. Example is Twitter, they are always adding new features from time to time. They try to look out for some features that their competitors like Instagram has and add to theirs and also innovate other ideas to ensure that their consumers does not have anything to do with their rivals. This alone will keep the product afloat for a long time.
Determining the most important stage of a product life cycle can vary depending on the industry and the specific product. However, for me, the Introduction stage is often considered crucial as it sets the foundation for the product’s success in the identified market, and with the customer. At this stage there must be a buy-in for the product. If this stage is not well managed, the product may either succeed or fail. It is a stage that requires utmost patience and strategy upon strategy development for customers’ buy-in into the product.
I think growth is the most important stage, to develop and introduce a product is actually not hard but to keep the product growing and preventing it from future decline is actually the most important
left to me, I would say Growth Stage of product life cycle.
At this stage of a product it is important for the product management team to note that continous research and development on their product will help them remain in market. Lets take Nokia for example. At some point in my life when I was a kid, i thought nokia was the only company producing phone due to it popularity and avaialability in places. going forward it started fading awaying knowing well that the maturity stage of the product has arrived. They should have worked on themselve better since they own the market as at then. so growth stage of every product is as important as your healthy life. every product need to keep up with the pace and new technology, this is why research and development is paramount to product managers.
Every stage in a product’s lifecycle holds significance, and it’s crucial to acknowledge that not all products have everlasting durability. Unfortunately, products have a finite lifespan, but their longevity can be extended. The maturity stage is particularly critical because it marks the point at which a once-popular product may experience a decline in sales and numbers compared to the earlier stages (development, introduction and growth).
When products reach this stage, it becomes essential to extract valuable data that can help rectify any overlooked errors from the development, introduction, and growth stages. A case in point is Toyota, a company that has been in existence for almost a Century, yet their products continue to be appealing. They boast a diverse range of brands catering to different social classes of customers.
For me development is what will inspire you to introduce what you think the market need and that will surely prompt the growth of the company just like the flip-flops company