Product Development Life Cycle: What It Is & Why You Should Care

The Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) is the process of a product going through all the stages of existence – from idea to product development and the time when the product.

Let’s take a look at the processes involved in each stage of the product development life cycle.

STAGE 1: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Team: stakeholders, business analysts, marketers, developers

Purpose: the creation of a valuable and working product

Exit criteria: the product is ready to enter the market

Challenges: colossal time, money and human resources

New product development involves idea generation, market and competitive research, idea testing with a focus group and stakeholders, concept development, etc.

STAGE 2: INTRODUCTION

Team: marketing and sales team

Purpose: building demand and customer base

Exit criteria: customer base starts to grow

Challenges: low sales, raw market

The stage requires the involvement of a marketing team to build product awareness and find the first customers or users. When done right, the buzz created during the previous stage will help you get the first customers and even form a base of devoted fans.

STAGE 3: GROWTH

Team: growth marketers, developers

Purpose: establishing the brand and gaining market share

Exit criteria: the demand and profits are growing at a rapid pace

Challenges: increasing competition

During the growth stage, the market has already accepted your product and customers are actively starting to join it. The main goal is to bring demand and profit growth to a rapid and steady pace. You’ll need to advertise your digital product, explore new audiences and new marketing channels. 

STAGE 4: MATURITY

Team: marketing team, developers, stakeholders

Purpose: maintaining the market share, outperforming the competition

Exit criteria: the profit and sales start to level off

Challenges: increasing competition, the need to innovate to stay competitive

At this stage, your competitors are already in the growth stage. The competition becomes quite tough, so you need to reduce prices, enhance features and promote your product more intensely to stay competitive.

STAGE 5: SATURATION

Team: growth marketers, developers, stakeholders

Purpose: keeping the market share, making your product a brand preference

Exit criteria: the sales are starting to fall

Challenges: strong competition, fewer competitive advantages

Product saturation stage is characterized by neither growth nor decline in sales, app installations or software signups. At this stage, competitors have begun to eat away a portion of your market, offering products that attract customers.

STAGE 6: DECLINE

Team: marketers, developers, stakeholders, business analysts

Purpose: innovate the product or exit the market 

Exit criteria: the products stops being economically viable

Challenges: low profits, need to withdraw the product from the market

To get out of the decline stage, you can concentrate on new marketing strategies, adding new features, reducing prices and exploring new markets.

STAGE 7: AFTERLIFE

Usually, product decline means the death of a product. However, products don’t always go into oblivion after the decline. There are a few possible scenarios:

Gradual death if the product is no longer sufficient for the market

Transformation of a product into a new solution with enhanced features

Inspiration for a new product development

Resurrection of the gone product after its modernization and innovation

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAM STRUCTURE

There are many people involved in the software development life cycle, all of them have an impact on the product and its future.

·         Senior management 

·         Product manager

·         Project manager

·         Design

·         Marketing

·         Sales

In addition to the above-mentioned roles, some other ones might be involved, such as the finance department, business analysts, etc.

FACTORS THAT CAN DISRUPT THE LIFE CYCLE OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Many factors influence the success of a product and can disrupt the software development life cycle.

Management support – all team members should be aligned when it comes to the product concept. After you’ve identified it, make sure that top managers understand it, along with other team members.

Market orientation – your new product should meet your company’s values. If the product might be popular among end-users but goes against your values, you might need to reconsider the product and even maybe put the idea aside.

Technology – adding new and innovative technologies doesn’t always benefit end users. All the while, it increases the product price and puts a strain on your company.

Emerging competitors – a new product on the market can stealyour market share. Cheaper price, better UX design, more innovative features can become a deciding factor for users.

Economic stability – an economic crisis can undermine the buying capacity of customers. You need to keep your product affordable to ensure high demand. Otherwise, you’ll need to explore new markets or ways to expand the user base with customers that can afford your solution.

Life cycle of product development is a process with a lot of factors involved. The success of your product fully depends on your ability to innovate and come up with growth ideas. There is no guarantee that your product will navigate between stages smoothly. Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride and try to enjoy the process no matter where it takes you. Read more about Product Development Life Cycle.