Product Development Life Cycle

Check out this renewal of the life cycle from the Think for a Change blog:

The New Product Development Lifecycle

“Just about every “thing” on earth has a defined life period. A “thing” is conceived, it grows, it matures and, at some point in the future, it will “die” or break down. Ideas go through a similar process and, likewise, products traverse the lifecycle approach. How, then does an organization develop and manage a succession of strategies that ensures a product, as it goes through its life cycle, is successful at each step along the path?

Let’s first start out with defining what exactly makes up the new product development lifecycle. Like the “conceive, grow, mature and die” stages listed above, there are four key product development stages as well:

– Conception or the “Fuzzy Front End”
– Creation or the “Messy Back End”
– Realization or “Commercialization”
– Decommission or “Sunset Period”

Each of the four main stages can be broken down even further into manageable, controllable task and milestone groupings:

“Fuzzy Front End”

* Problem Identification
* Idea Generation
* Idea Screening

This stage includes all activities beginning with the search for new opportunities through the formation of an idea to the development of a precise concept. This phase ends, however, when an organization approves and begins formal development of the concept.

“Messy Back End”

* Development
* Prototyping
* Customer Need
* Business Feasibility
* Testing
* Implementation

This stage focuses on moving the idea from the abstract, into reality. It is the stage where the idea is physically designed and built. It is also the stage where mock-ups are developed and tests are conducted to validate the assumptions made in the previous stage. This phase ends when the “concept” becomes ready for sale as a physical product or service.

“Commercialization”

* Pricing
* Marketing
* Launch
* Distribution

Commercialization, put simply, is the process or cycle of introducing a new product into the marketplace. Commercialization comes down to a defined set of key management decisions: pricing, release timing, target market and initial production volume. This phase can last for many, many years. In fact, the main goal of any new product is to have as long of a commercialization stage as possible.

Eventually, however, the product is likely to transition into a sunset period.

“Sunset Period”

* Extensions
* Improvements
* Maintenance
* End of Life

This is the final stage in the lifecycle. Typically, at this stage, the product has reached its maximum maturity. All that remains for the product is periodic maintenance, enhancements, incremental improvements and line extensions. Eventually, the product ceases to be, either through deliberate decommissioning or rejection by the marketplace. Some organizations attempt to plan for this sunset period in order to make the eventual transition as orderly as possible. Some even force their products into this stage to initiate new thinking and stimulate fresh “fuzzy front end” activity.

As the reader can see, there is a methodical, planned, controlled and managed process behind the development of new product ideas from “birth to death.” The common perception that ideas cannot be managed certainly does not stand up against this level of rigor and structure. While there are certainly a number of variants to this approach, depending on product and industry type, the rough framework is available to move ideas from conception through to reality in an orderly way.”

Stephen