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 would say the introduction stage , just as it is regarded as the high-stake period because it allows room for new strategies to be implemented and this will result to the growth of the product
I agree
Every stages are important for proper attainment of satisfaction and profitability. The most stage to be emphasized upon is the development stage this is because it determines the key reason for creating a product which is “to satisfy human want”.
The satisfaction of human want gives the sustainability of such product in the competitive market and also develops the business interest at profit making.
The Development stage is the most important stage because it helps product managers to develop and see what exactly the product is serving as in the main purpose of the product and how customers can benefit well from the product.
its a very hard one to pick out the most important stage in product life cycle, because all stages are really important, that been said i think the introduction stage and the maturity stage are more important on my own view. Talking about introduction its the phase where a product is lunched into the market this stage sets the foundation for the product success in the long run, creating awareness and gaining early customer feedback while maturity stage, is a stage where a product reach its peal level of market penetration where competition may be intense its important to adopt careful planning and adaptability to sustain the product success. A real word example is the Apple and Samsung smartphone and other devices they introduce
Without the middle, the head, and tail of a fish will not be complete. with that being said, all the stages of a product life cycle are important. As a product manager, attention should be given to all, from conceptualization to decline.
I think the most important stage in a product’s life cycle is the introduction stage. This is the stage where there’s room for trials, errors and corrections. Which is why a company should be sure about a product’s viability in the market before launching it into the market.
The introduction stage is the most important stage, the development stage is also crucial but even with effective structure and planning, if the introduction of the product into the market isn’t solid, the product will consequentially have lower chances of success. The introduction stage dictates the momentum that the product will carry into the growth and maturity stages and that’s why I think it’s the most important.
It is very difficult to think one stage is important as the other as they are in cycle. What comes to mind as the most difficult stage for me is the maturity stage. After proper work has been done in the Development, Introduction, Growth stage. I think the maturity stage will determine if the product will decline and not. One of the product that help me come to this conclusion is our mobile device.
I think that the growth stage is the most important. That’s because this is the stage when the company starts to make the most money from their product. They’ve started to recover the costs of developing the product, so every sale means profit. Plus, they can focus their marketing and advertising resources on promoting a product that’s already been well-received. In short, this stage is when a company’s investment starts to pay off.
A great example of the importance of the growth stage is the iPhone. When the iPhone was first introduced, Apple had to spend a lot of money on research and development, and there was no guarantee that it would be a success. However, once the iPhone hit the growth stage, Apple started making a lot of money from it. They could focus on promoting and improving the iPhone, knowing that customers loved it. Without the growth stage, the iPhone wouldn’t be the success it is today.
the example is a bit porous though. the apple did a good market research and sold luxury to its user which was the beginning of the end for then market king; Blackberry.
From what I’ve learnt about initial stage of a product, which is rightly focusing or the problem-solving and not just the idea about the product as the top priority, and similar with the learning about the first stage in the product’s life cycle, I would have picked “Development stage”. However, sustainability and relevance, especially with innovations around day-to-day technological advancement, I would pick the Decline stage as the most important stage of the product’s life style.
I’ll like to use Dangote Group of Companies as my case study. Dangote started with Cement, and their initial goal was to help Nigerians reduce the cost on cement purchase as against the imported ones. That was a good problem to have solved. However, that could not be the only product to stay relevant, especially with diversity in things. So, I want to believe stage five, which is the Decline stage, has helped them. Being strategic by introducing Rice and Tomato farming, Salt & Sugar Refinery, Mining, and Fertilizer are great innovations. Their target audience shifted from builders and more extensively to every individual. There is no category of audience that will not be in need of any of this product; providing a logistic company to distribute these products, is also an additional concrete strategy that cares for the interest of the consumers, the business, and at the same time solving the problem at hand – which is producing indigenous goods/services to alleviate the cost of purchase as opposed purchase from importations.
The most important stage I think is THE MATU RITY PHASE because it is the most profitable, the product is now widely available, production costs are now less and less is being spent on marketing. At this phase, the company producing it needs to reap considerable rewards for the time and money spent developing the product.
Marketing cost or activities like I said are lower on the stage