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 will like to also agree with others who shared the thought that all the stages are very important, and I will like to emphasize that your introduction of the product with a strategy that is quite attractive is very important to the product lifecycle.
For me all the stages work hand in hand but development is the most important stage because it’s at this stage that the product manager research about the product, the costumer, the market. This is the decision making stage and you have to get it right else it will affect other stages.
For me,I think it’s the growth stage because after the introduction and development stages..You will deal with your competitors, and they are much..
Example:The hospitality sector,especially restaurants. There are so many restaurants in Lagos (I’m a chef),so when your menu has been introduced,be sure to know that only few meals will be your best sellers and if the front end staff don’t push the rest well,it will die down..Then you have bad items,and products you can use again..So many taste buds,so you have to choose the right niche so you consumers can keep coming back..
We usually move to the decline stage most of the time,replace it with something that can work with the product you have so it doesn’t waste or take it out completely..
So growth period for the culinary world is the main stage.
Development is the most important phase for. A product that will meet its goal will be known at the development stage. at the development stage you get to have solved why you are making the product and for who. if this stage is wrong you can’t move further to the next effectively
For me I think the most important phase in pdlc is the launch phase I.e the introduction to market, it’s one thing to get everything right from the ideation to research to development but it another case to get users to buy into your products.
What you plan,how you plan for this introduction phase, and how you are able to get customer to believe and buy into your product is very crucial
I think the maturity stage is the most important stage of a product life cycle because it marks as a middle ground stage whereby someone can be able to learn from the past and foreseen into the future of a product, it is a stage whereby innovations usually comes into the life of a product, a stage that can make or mar a product depending on which steps someone takes. I will like to take Facebook for an example, when the application reach it maturity stage while other applications was taking over the Arena of social media, Facebook noticed this and try to see where they made mistakes and how they can improve on their application,and with this they gain their ground in the market place.
I think the growth stage is the most vital because it is difficult to keep a product afloat in this very competitive world we are in. A product can be developed and introduced but it’s growth is really dependent on the Product Managers, and the products’ quality.
I am struggling between product development and its growth, as which is the most important stage of a PLC. But it seems to me as a choice that product development is the most important stage. While growth is a continuous factor in a PLC until it reaches maturity, the same way product development never ends until it saturates the market, and decline results. Product development is not a one off thing. For instance, it was not lack of growth that Kodak polarod camera out of the market. But the lack of its further development. Memory saver innovation was sold first to Kodak. While it refused to innovate to developing its camera further to store pictures on memory, a competing organisation did. And Kodak was history. Continuous PD enhances PG. Why the Agile methodology is displacing waterfall, is its basic principle of product not being a one off thing. This principle helps not to only improve the product for growth, but to as well retain the product in the market for a longer time. PD for me is an important stage of PLC.
I would say that all the stages are quite important. One is not more important than the other as each step is a function of the step before it. This is just like the analogy of the body parts, where every part has it’s unique place.
For instance, even if you have a fantastic Development phase, if the Introduction phase is not too excellent, the product will not be successful. A successful Introduction phase will need a successful Growth phase before we can label the product a successful one.
The most important stage in a product’s life cycle can vary depending on the industry, market conditions, and the specific product’s characteristics. But for me, I think the most important stage is the introduction and growth stage put together, because this is where you tend to clear any doubts the target market may have and win their hearts. You do this by creating awareness, generating interest, and gaining initial customers. As sales begin to build up rapidly, efforts can begin to shift towards brand loyalty and expanding market share.
A real-world example is Telsa, Inc., an electric car and clean energy company founded by Elon Musk. They started with their electric cars, which, when introduced on the market, were met with skepticism and challenges because they were a new concept to many people compared to the normal internal combustion engine cars.
They promoted their high-quality cars with advanced technology that also helped the environment, and people started to like them a lot. The cars they called Model S and Model X began to sell well as more people looked for better alternatives to traditional fuel-powered cars.
As the company grew, they introduced another car called the Model 3, which was a more affordable option for people interested in buying an electric car. The Model 3 became very popular and helped Tesla gain many customers.
All stages of the product life cycle is as important as the other but for me i think the maturity stage is the most in the process in terms of sales,this is where the product manager comes in,he/she must make a decision as to the right timing to onboard or introduce the product to the market or consumers,it is a crucial and delicate step because if it’s the product is pre-mature and launched to the public, the company will run at a loss.For example; Samsung produced a few series of “NOTE “ in 2014/2015,and the phone exploded while charging even some users complained that it burns up by itself and it’s uncomfortable to use with a phone pouch at times. People didn’t purchase that particular model as supposed to be due to the poor performance or quality the model lacked thereby making the company announce a return -to – factory rule ,some got a replacement while others opted for another brand .