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 all stages are very important as a PM and also to the organisation as well. As a PM you need a strong and innovative strategy to tackle the development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline stage.
Because if any is lacking it will definitely affect the others. If a product is not well developed, introducing it to the market will definitely bring a poor result and therefore affecting the growth of such product, thereby slowing down the demands and satisfaction of the consumers and resulting to placement and selling out of the brand within a shout period of time.
E.g Tummy Tummy noodles.
When they first introduced their noodles which was in a blue sachet, the taste and aroma was not impressive and I believe is all started from the development/decision stage, which affect their brand so bad, and reduced the demand and satisfaction of consumers which led to drop in demand and supply, thereby vanishing in the market space with a short period of time.
I agree with Christina Bek Larson.
All stages are unique in their own way and have a way of influencing the product either positive or negative.
I think it is the Development stage, such that when designing a product, the organization make it to be flexible so that as the consumer needs increase, it can be accommodate the increase in the needs by just updating or upgrading the product without replacing the product by another one.
All the stages are very important. But the Growth stage stands out for me because this is when competition sets in and if a product manager fails to come up with strategies to retain customers, demand and sales would likely reduce drastically.
An example is Jumia and Temu app, during this festive season Jumia is supposed to occupy the hearts of its customers but then Temu sets in as a high competition, with Temu’s Ads running on all social media platforms has indirectly affected Jumias demands. For the past 3 days I have not seen Jumia’s Ads which is very rare, Temu is slowly saturating the market and gaining popularity each day.
So to avoid failure or sinking product managers need to draft high launching strategies to last longer in the market,give room for high product demand and withstand its competitors.
Though a cycle, but I think that the growth stage is the most important stage, this is the stage that will determine your relevance in the market, from my experience from companies that produces biscuits, when they start they do maintain some certain level of quality, but once they’ve grown and gotten market audience, the loose guard, reduce the quality of the product and increase the price which eventually leads to their decline and fall in demand in the market
Thank you for this thought provoking practical activity Dexa.
I would say it’s the introduction stage for me. After the development of a product following all the metrics introducing the product might be funny. Now a product has been made and you have to convince the people/ potential customers to embrace the product as a solution to an identified problem/need/ gap etc.
The market competition is present and you have to face it even as a new product being absorbed into the market place. This stage determines if the product will be on shelves or if it would be a death of the product.
I reflected on food seasonings.
I have read comments on other stages. I disagree with the development stage being the hardest stage. The product may or may not make it through development stage, it’s fine. The product manager is closer to the table, but at the stage of introduction, the product has now been made and is being brought to light. This stage leads to growth and the growth of a product is determined by its market entry. Maturity is the retention of growth and decline is almost normal. A product just like a human has to stay revitalized, energized and woke to fight decline. Relevance and consistent growth keeps the product new to the customers.
This is a cycle, that means the whole stages work together and need to be updated each time in other to keep the product in the market. Eg some products are still in the market even if things are getting hard/higher, because they consider their customers and economic conditions at that point in time. They rebrand or produce affordable sizes so that every customer can still afford it. For instance toothpaste now has satchet ones in this scenario all stages are important
For me,while all stages are important,the most crucial stage is the decline stage because if product managers do not come up with new innovations,the product can go into oblivion.Nigeria’s movie industry is a clear illustration,due to the introduction of facebook reels,Nigerian movies reach wider audiences and continually rake in revenue for its producers.
In my opinion I think is the growth stage because it determines whether products gain acceptance and profitability, in growth stage there is revenue expansion, marketing positioning, scaling operation which determine the features of the product whether is gonna be a profit or lost or gain acceptance by the audience. E.G when AMAZON was launched it was only selling of books before he launched an online E-book with expansion of selling of other products like gadgets, home materials etc.
As a banker, i think the “Growth stage” is the most important phase, once your product earns trust customers, existing customers will bring more customers to your product through “Word of mouth”. With that in place, there is a higher chances that you can keep riding the wave.
Because growing product loyalty will drive sales.
It is at this point that companies think about enhancing the product’s continued viability and success by developing upgrades and alternative product versions as they get feedback from customers.
At this point, consumers see the benefits of your product and it’s expedient for Product Managers to think about ways to keep users hooked on your product.
I think as a project manager the introduction and growth are the two major cycle a product supercede to become a top notch product in the market,if it not well introduced with it features and what makes it stand out from other products and durable and why people audience to chose it over all products you have not done anything and after introducing it.
The next important cycle is growth while it growing have it in mind that as you growing you have other competitors looking out for your weaknesses to use against you always bring in new innovation that will keep you on top of the market.
Emmanuel Odegene
Personally,the development stage is the most important and critical stage in a product’s cycle. As this is the stage where basically all the processes lies.
Whether a product will grow or not depends solely on the development at the inception.