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.
While all stages of a product’s life cycle play crucial roles, the introduction stage holds particular importance. This initial phase sets the foundation for a product’s success, as it involves launching the product into the market. Effective planning and execution during this stage can create a strong first impression, generate initial interest, and establish a foothold. A well-managed introduction lays the groundwork for subsequent growth, ensuring the product gains traction and captures the attention of the target audience. Therefore, focusing on a successful introduction stage is pivotal for a product’s long-term viability and market presence.
For me I would say the decline stage because when a product has gone past through all this stage and is fully matured….what comes in next is consistency….if there’s no consistency, we find out that the product in question begins to decline and probably go down the drain hence the need to start over and re-strategize
For me I think is the growth stage because putting a new product out in the market knowing that they are competitors out there is the most important stage in the product life cycle.
Example of such product is a tomato company launching their product knowing there’s an existing product like Gino in the market.
@lbukun oni.. I totally disagree with you on this because as a product manager, you ought to study the market first to ascertain the people’s need before developing a product.
After a critical review, I think the most important stage in a product’s life cycle is the MATURITY STAGE because I believe this is the stage where you hit a plateau and reach market saturation (according to the graph analysis). At this stage you could go for finer differentiation by adding some innovative aspects to your product, or opt for cutting costs by using innovative technologies. Even if you choose both, you can only prolong your product’s life for some time. The next stage which is decline stage is inevitable. That is the reason why you should think ahead and have a plan B, to have that next innovation in the development stage and ready to hit the market. A good life-example is Coca Cola, we can basically say Coca Cola is at it Maturity stage, Coca-Cola focused on diversification by introducing new products like Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and various flavored variants. They also heavily invested in marketing and brand-building to maintain their market position.
For Mr every stage is very important. Most especially the cycle state
For me, I would say the maturity stage. At this stage, sales tend to and begin to decline. This is critical because it signals a shift in interest from your customers which could result from lack of certain service not being provided anymore or not provided at all. At this stage, observations are noted and feedbacks from customers will help guide you on the best possible way or features to include when developing a product the next time. It is critical to note that it is in this stage that comparable statistics are made and researches done to determine the cause in sales decline or product usage.
In my opinion, the most important product’s life cycle stage is the decline stage. This is because at this stage, the competition to stay relevant increases. This stage helps companies make decisions about discontinuing products. This is the stage where companies need to come up with new strategies to enhance the product’s life cycle. Like, in a case of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Every time, there are new updates that consist of new features that make the masses want to try out these applications, and this prevents the product declining. The harder a company works on a product at the decline stage, the more relevant it becomes, and this prevents obsolescence.
Chinazor mbagwu
For me i believe each stage is very important and vital to all, but to pick one ,i will say the decline stage is the most important,because when a project manager has followed the trends of development and growth and seen the maturity of his products, he should know the most important which is when to pull out. That is why the decline stage is the most important, the product manager should know when to withdraw the products from the market,before more damage is done to their already made profits and organizations as a whole.
In my former manufacturing company,where crackers biscuits were produced in nigeria, the high cost of raw materials and importation made production cost very high,mlaing the products too high even for the lowest customers. The sales dropped,but they refused to pull out and re-strategize,this cost them alot, they lost all their customer base, because for months they had no sale, no income, no purchase…nothing. they had to sack almost all their staff and so on. But if they had used the decline stage, know when to pull out,it would have been restored.
I think the most important lifecycle is the development stage. this is because at this stage, the product manager has a lot of analysis and market research to do because that to a large extent determines the introduction, growth, maturity as well as the decline of the product. If this stage is properly taken care of, then the product would stay in the market for a long time.
I remember trying to introduce a product to the market sometime ago and it didn’t get to the growth stage because the development stage was not properly handled and it crashed.
The Development cycle is the most important, reason being that it’s the birth of the product if anything goes wrong here it can affect the growth of the product if it is not checked before introduction, so if the development is great the product will be great e.g Apple (iPhone)
I agree with you because if this is not properly done, the product in question would phase out even before it gets introduced.