The Product Lifecycle: From Concept to Launch #PM101

Stages of Product Development: From Idea to Market

You can read the 1st article of this series here: What Does a Product Manager Do?#PM101

2nd article: Key Skills Every Product Manager Should Have #PM101

Understanding the product lifecycle is a key factor in bringing a successful product to market. The product lifecycle includes all stages of a product from concept to launch. In this article, as I aim to talk about product 101, I will walk you through each stage, providing insights and examples into processes and I will give you tips for a better product launch.

You can read this article to have insights about the Complete Product Experience.

by Andrey Matveev

Ideation and Concept Development

The first stage of the product lifecycle is ideation and concept development is very critical to create a better market fit. This is where ideas are generated and evaluated. By expanding the solution space, you will be able to look beyond the usual methods of solving problems to find better, more effective, and satisfying solutions to problems that affect the user’s experience of a product.

Some steps in the ideation and concept development and ideation phase:

1. Empathize with your users

2. Define the problem

3. Research

4. Generating ideas

5. Wireframing

6. Developing solution

7. Test

This step involves:

• Market Research: Understand market needs, customer pain points, and industry trends. Understand what innovation you can bring to the market. Conduct surveys, interviews, and competitive analysis to gather real-time data. Getting relatable data will help you launch the product with the right fit.
• Brainstorming: Use creative techniques to generate innovative ideas. You can use online wireframing tools to make it reachable for everyone, also you can reach the oldest to the newest. My favorite wireframing tool is InvisianApp with its user-friendly usage. Encourage collaboration with these tools and create diverse thinking activities. Having brainstorming activities is always fun. You can set up meetings with a common link for InvisionApp and like a whiteboard you can use post-its, visuals, etc.
• Concept Validation: Collect feedback from your users and customers to refine the idea and ensure it meets market demands. You can run A/B tests for your high-quality mock-ups to gather relatable feedback and improve your product based on collected feedback.

Ensure that your idea aligns with your company’s goals and has a clear value proposition. Create a list of the right questions to ask your customers and users. Don’t forget, it’s important to understand the problem not build a solution.

Product Design and Development

After the Ideation and Concept Development stage; Product Design and Development come up. This stage includes:

• Product Design: Create detailed designs, including specifications for each feature, features, and user interface(UI). Improving your wireframes, creating and updating your UI, and building MVP are in this step. Collaborate with design and development teams to create a better product experience. For better experience, you should embrace design thinking, read my blog article for better design experience; Power of Design Thinking: A Comprehensive Guide.
• Prototype Development: Prototype development meaning is when the working replica — an MVP of the product is developed. The prototype development is about defining the product type and deciding various attributes such as customers’ requirements, problem statements, and the conceptual design of the product. Before you get ahead with prototype development, you should know that prototype development is expensive and can consume time. As we mentioned, you should understand the problems of your customers, and empathize with them.

Build prototypes to test functionality and gather user feedback. Run A/B tests, and interviews and iterate on the design based on testing results. Improving your MVP instead of changing your product will be much better and this will help you understand where your product will fit before launching it. Various prototype development tools can help with the process of development of the prototype. As I mentioned, I prefer InvisionApp. Go with the MVP.

• Technical Development: Develop the product, incorporating feedback from prototypes. This may involve coding, technical design, or other technical processes. For example, you can design your APIs, integration processes, database, etc.

Maintain clear communication with all stakeholders to ensure the product meets design specifications and user needs. You will collaborate with different teams, clear communication will ensure there are no mistakes. For a better understanding of SDLC, read my full blog article; A Deep Dive into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Testing and Refinement

Testing and refinement are critical when you’re about to go to the market. Refinement includes bug fixing. This stage involves:

• Quality Assurance (QA): Conduct testing to identify and fix bugs or issues. You can run load tests to ensure that your product can handle high loads given the high demand of end-users. Ensure the product meets quality standards and performs as expected. The most common mistake is not including bug fixing process in your product roadmap, this may cause a lack of time and not being able to make it. Please don’t forget, that bug fixing is an important step. For a better testing process, you should create test scenarios and test cases, you can learn this in this article Creating Test Scenarios.
• User Testing: User testing is a research method that uses real people to evaluate a product or service by observing their interactions and gathering feedback. User testing should be happening at every point in the process as an integral part of an iterative design process.

Perform usability tests with real users to gather feedback to understand if your product solves your customers’ problems. But never ask your customers “Is it gonna solve your problem?”, try to understand their behavior and questions. If you put a button aiming to solve a problem, but your customers don't even see it? Nope, that ain’t working.

For example, let’s say you’re a product manager at a software company and you are developing a new fitness app. Your team has a couple of ideas of features to help users such as personalized workout plans, and nutrition tracking, — but it’s not clear which one would be the most useful for your target audience and you need to develop one of them first because you’re on a budget and don’t have time. To validate and prioritize these product decisions, you need to conduct user testing.

• Refinement: Make necessary improvements based on testing results. Address any issues and improve the product’s performance and user experience.

Focus on both functional and non-functional testing to ensure the product is reliable and user-friendly.

by Lisa Fotios

Market Preparation

Before launching the product, prepare for its fit to the market. For better product market fit, you should go over these steps:

• Marketing Strategy: Product marketing is the process of promoting your product and communicating its value to customers. To make sure the right audience understands what your product does, why it’s significant, and how it can benefit them. Develop a marketing plan that outlines how you’ll promote the product. Define target audiences, marketing channels, and key messaging. These elements like pricing, distribution, and obtaining feedback from potential or existing customers to optimize the product and give it the best possible chance of success. How are you gonna promote your app?
• Sales Strategy: Create a sales plan that includes distribution channels, pricing strategies, and sales targets. Sales is the relationship between two or more parties that involves communication, persuasion, and building relationships. The goal of a sales plan is to do all the strategizing up front so you can prepare for the future and navigate problems, identify and speak directly to your ideal customer, and ensure that your go-to-market positioning and sales strategies are ready for use. For a better Sales experience, you can read my article Mastering Sales: Strategies and Best Practices for Success.
• Training and Support: Prepare your team for the product launch by providing training on the product features and customer support procedures. Make sure relevant documents, user manuals, and videos are updated and ready to use. Use AI for better customer support, and apps for customer feedback — and use those feedbacks to improve your product and customer support processes. You can create short answers for faster problem solving, and make sure your customers get real-time and accurate answers.

Build anticipation for the product launch through pre-launch marketing activities and engage with potential customers early. You can reach out to your old customers for your new product and features. Build e-mail strategies, and organize live events and testings with them.

Launch

The launch is the culmination of all your efforts. It involves:

• Product Release: First of all the product release and the product launch are not the same thing. Product release is one of the final development hurdles. It’s where you check if your product is working properly and is user-friendly.
• Product Launch: This stage is all about marketing, PR, and promotions — creating a buzz and drumming up excitement for your masterpiece among potential customers. Your product launch is a strategic move to reach a broad audience and position your product favorably against the competition. And you can do it several times!
• Marketing Execution: Implement your marketing strategy, including advertising, public relations, social media activities, and promotional activities.
• Customer Support: Provide excellent customer support to address any issues and gather feedback from early adopters. As I mentioned above, get help from AI, update documents, and user manuals regularly, and create better customer support with real-time fast answers.

Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of the launch and make data-driven decisions for future improvements.

Post-Launch Evaluation and Maintenance

After the product launch, ongoing evaluation and maintenance are essential for long-term success. This stage includes:

• Performance Analysis: Monitor the product’s performance in the market, including sales, customer feedback, and market trends. There are analysis tools for better insights. You can choose one and use it for better and faster improvement processes.
• Continuous Improvement: Make updates and improvements based on performance data and user feedback. Address any issues or opportunities for enhancement. Make sure your product is always updated with no bugs. Continuous improvement is the ongoing process of analyzing performance, identifying opportunities, and making incremental changes to processes, and products.
• Lifecycle Management: Plan for future updates, upgrades, or new versions of the product. Consider the product’s eventual phase-out and transition strategy. The concept of product life cycle helps inform business decision-making, from pricing and promotion to expansion or cost-cutting.

Stay agile and responsive to market changes and customer needs to keep your product relevant and competitive.

The product lifecycle is a comprehensive process that requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing management. By understanding and effectively managing each stage, from concept to launch, you can increase your chances of bringing a successful product to market. Embrace the challenges and opportunities of each stage, and stay focused on delivering value to your customers.

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Best Regards, Yağmur.