Understanding the product lifecycle: stages and examples

To create a successful digital product, there are multiple development stages to navigate before it can be released to market. Each stage plays a vital role in shaping your product’s success, so it’s important that you have a clear view of each milestone. Read on to discover more about these key stages and their role in the overall product lifecycle. 

What is a product lifecycle? 

The digital product lifecycle includes the phases of a product’s development. Each phase is marked by its activities and goals. The stages ensure that a product is functional; and if done right, they give a product the features it needs to stand the test of time by staying relevant and competitive. They also give you the opportunity to refine your product offering as it develops, helping you to meet evolving user needs and new market demands. Having a clear strategy to navigate the product lifecycle means you stay on top of key milestones and the product reaches its intended goals successfully.

What are the key stages of a product lifecycle? 

The product lifecycle process can vary depending on a variety of factors. However, most businesses will benefit from some iteration of the stages listed below: 

Conception and strategy 

The conception and strategy stage is where a product’s vision, mission and values are clearly defined. This stage is the foundation of the product lifecycle, as without it, businesses may struggle to define the value of their digital product in the wider market. Product managers are responsible for defining a product’s concept and creating a corresponding business plan. Plans are drawn up using market research to identify opportunities and to gain insights into consumer trends and preferences. 

Key steps in conception and strategy 

During a successful conception and strategy phase, you can expect to see these key steps taken: 

• Conducting market research: Early investment into market research can provide everything from competitor analysis insights to an overview of current market trends. With this knowledge, you can tailor your product to capitalise on new market opportunities and iron out potential weaknesses. 
• Creating a product portfolio concept: This will allow you to identify where your latest product fits in amongst your current offerings. This can become a useful strategic tool for helping you to spot growth potential as your portfolio widens. 
• Defining the target audience: Forming a clear understanding of your target audience during this initial phase will provide you with a user persona/s that will serve as the cornerstone of your product development process. 
• Assessing feasibility: During this phase, teams will work to understand what can be realistically achieved, taking into consideration technical, financial and resourcing constraints. 

Design 

The design phase of the product lifecycle is a collaborative phase in which designers and development teams work together to actualise a product’s design. Here, internal and external teams create a user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Throughout this phase, the product concept and strategy are continually referred back to, ensuring that the content, layout, functionality and visual elements align with the defined user needs. 

Design steps 

Key features of the design phase include: 

• System design: Plans and organises how the product will act as a solution for pain points experienced by your target audience. 
• Interface design: The details of a digital product’s visual design, including page layout, icons, buttons, images and typography. Again, the interface design will prioritise the user experience alongside a product’s visual appeal. 
• Process design: Identifies the steps the user needs to take to arrive at the desired outcome when using a product. This takes into consideration both business and consumer needs, seeking to find a balance between them. 

Development 

After the initial conceptualisation and design stages, the development phase is where you can begin to put those insights to good use. During this stage, the first iteration of your product- the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)– will be built based on the design specifications you’ve already established. Throughout the development of your digital product, your core audience should be the driving factor for the decisions you make. The development phase is often a cyclical one, typically with multiple rounds of iterations and refinements to ensure the product is ready to be launched. 

Development stages

These are the steps taken to help transform your idea into a tangible product: 

• Coding and functionality: Creating the code needed to implement the product’s main functionality and features, as well as running tests to ensure it runs as intended. 
• Identifying and fixing bugs: Identifying and fixing bugs or issues flagged during the testing process. 
• Refinements: Making small changes to the product based on feedback from user test groups and stakeholders. 

Launch 

The launch stage is the culmination of months of work, finally launching your new product to the wider market. This phase involves wider efforts to appeal to your target audience, including marketing, advertising and distribution strategies. The launch itself can be structured as a phased launch (a product and its features are gradually released in consecutive stages), or all the features can be released at once. 

Launch types

There are three different types of launches used in a product lifecycle. These are largely determined by when and how the MVP is released to users. 

1. Soft launch: During a soft product launch, the MVP is made available to a small group of early users.
2. Hard launch: A hard launch sees an MVP released to the general market with a corresponding marketing campaign. 
3. Dark launch: A dark launch is when an MVP has already been made available to a user group. However, new features are quietly introduced to a specific percentage of users. 

Each launch strategy has its own potential benefits; a soft launch targets early users to gather feedback and refine the MVP before a wider release. A hard launch aims to create broad awareness, releasing the MVP to the general market with an accompanying marketing push. A dark launch quietly tests new features with select users, minimising risk while gaining insights.

Launching a new product with Hiyield 

Choosing Hiyield to launch your latest digital product offering will give you access to a wide range of expertise to ensure your product resonates with target audiences. Our experts can provide deep knowledge at every stage of the product lifecycle, from product ideation to producing tailored MVPs to showcase your product’s core features. We’ll be there with end-to-end support, helping you to ensure that your digital product meets and exceeds even your expectations. 

To find out more about how our team can bring your latest product to life (and to market), contact us today and tell us about your goals for your next project.