Learning Product Life Cycle Management

It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand new startup or an established, multinational company, you need to keep track of how you develop new products and how those products mature. You can’t simply rush into product development and hope for the best, as you’re unlikely to know when sales have peaked and when its popularity is coming to an end. This is referred to as Product Life Cycle Management, or PLM.

With effective PLM, you can manage product performance, anticipate future challenges and make data-driven decisions to extend the life of your product as much as possible, even maximising profitability in the process. Instead of guessing when your product has reached maturity, you can look at the facts and figures in front of you. But, in order to do this, you need to understand PLM and the different stages involved.

What is Product Life Cycle Management?

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) covers every stage of a product’s life, from the initial designs and development conversations, to releasing that product and putting it on the market, to eventually discontinuing it. PLM refers to how you manage the data and information gained throughout the life of a product, which can be used to optimise its journey.

With PLM, you can see how well a product does at the different stages of its life, including how long it takes the product to move from one stage to the next – for example, how long it takes to go from development to releasing it for sale, or how long the product is successful until it’s time to discontinue it – the costs involved in each stage and the time spent. This information can then be used to optimise the various life cycle stages of the product, helping you to cut costs if you need to, or boost efficiency if things are moving too slowly. You can track how much you’ve spent on each stage of the product’s life, and make changes as you go along to ensure that  you’re sticking to the budget.

The Different Stages of Product Life Cycle Management

• Development – The first stage of a product’s life is the development stage. This is when the design and planning of a product happens. It’s when you come up with the idea for the product, decide what it’s going to look like, decide which materials to use, and finalise the specifications. If there are unique features you want the product to have, this is when they’re put into action.

• Introduction – After the development stage, you move onto the introduction stage. This happens once the product has been developed and when you’re ready to introduce it to customers, making it available on the market for them to buy. This tends to involve some sort of marketing strategy, ensuring that customers know about the product and where they can buy it. The type of marketing you choose depends on a variety of factors, such as target audience and budget; it could be anything from a big budget marketing campaign, to more affordable word of mouth marketing via friends and family. You might choose to advertise on social media, use traditional marketing techniques or focus on SEO.

• Maturity – Eventually, after the product has been on the market for a while it will reach maturity. This is when the product peaks in its success, when sales are still relatively strong, but there are signs that the product won’t be able to keep up forever. You might begin to realise that the product can’t keep up with market trends, changing customer demands and innovation. This could be because customers are demanding features the product simply can’t manage, or because it’s just not equipped to keep up with newer products hitting the market. Though products are still successful in the maturity stage, it’s a sign that things are slowly coming to an end.

• Decline – The last PLM stage is the decline stage, which is when the product stops performing as well as it used to, and there’s a decline in sales. This is usually when you start thinking about stopping selling it and moving onto something else. This could be because other products on the market are performing better and you have something else that’s more appealing to customers, or your product might not support the features that customers now need. Depending on the specifics and how much your sales have dropped, you might decide to stop selling the product altogether and focus your attention on your next idea.

Benefits of Effective Product Life Cycle Management

There are many  benefits that come with managing the life cycle of your product, but the main three are increased profits, improved responsiveness and you’ll have a better competitive edge.

• Increased Profitability – With a structured approach to PLM, you can reduce production costs, maximise returns and manage decline phases before you start to lose money, all of which leads to increased profitability.

• Improved Responsiveness – Regardless of your industry, market trends and customer demands can change quickly. But, PLM helps you to be flexible and responsive, enabling you to adjust your approach based on data and consistently meet customer needs.

• Better Competitive Edge – PLM can help you to ensure your products stay relevant and competitive as long as possible, by proactively addressing market shifts and implementing improvements, giving you an edge in a crowded marketplace.

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