Product Development Life Cycle: Key Stages Explained

Throughout its lifespan, a product will go through various stages until it becomes a market hit. These stages typically include introducing the product to the market, growing in popularity, and reaching peak market penetration.

The described product's journey from inception to market release sheds light on its end-to-end trajectory. However, it is missing the nitty-gritty details of the development process. If you want to understand how a product is truly developed, you'll need to dive into the product development life cycle (PDLC) concept.

As an organized approach encompassing straightforward procedures and predefined steps, the product development life cycle phases become the backbone for turning a raw idea into a unique solution. What does this process consist of? How does it help establish efficient collaboration between cross-functional teams? Let's find out.

What Is a Product Development Life Cycle?

We can trace the origins of the product development life cycle back to the 1960s when the software delivery process became more complex and required a structured approach to ensure quality and efficiency. The lifecycle model matured, and different software development methodologies like the Waterfall model, Agile, and DevOps evolved to address new demands of the software industry.

Overall, the product development life cycle has become more dynamic, collaborative, and customer-focused, emphasizing speed and innovation.

Say, a product team has to balance changing requirements, emerging technologies, and collaborating with other departments and stakeholders while developing a unique piece of software. At a certain point, this product is sure to become obsolete and irrelevant to end users.

On the one hand, it might extend the completion time beyond what's viable for the client, resulting in spending extra money and massive overtime for your employees. Moreover, the final project may be abundant with errors, causing it to lose the public's interest.

To avoid such a situation, the team must go through well-defined stages in the product development lifecycle. What does the PDLC imply?

The product development lifecycle is a systematic process that involves the stages of planning, design, development, testing, and deployment of a product. It ensures that the product meets the customer's needs and goes to production within time and budget estimations.

Such an approach enables you to break down the work into individual product development phases, coordinate the efforts of specialists in different areas, and decompose expected deliverables into smaller tasks for each team member. A top priority is to ensure that the software not only meets but exceeds the customer's expectations both during and after production while minimizing any potential risks.

How Does It Differ From the Product Life Cycle?

If we compare the IT product development life cycle with a product life cycle in a general sense, they differ in focus. While the product development life cycle deals with the creation and refinement of a product from concept to launch, the product life cycle focuses on the stages the product goes through after launch in the market.

Here's a breakdown of the key product lifecycle stages:

1. Introduction — When a product is first introduced to the market, it's in its early stages of visibility. Sales tend to be low as awareness is built, and the primary focus is on gaining customer trust. Companies often dedicate significant resources to marketing efforts during this phase to drive recognition and adoption.

2. Growth — As the product gains traction and begins to resonate with customers, sales start to increase. More people recognize its value, and demand grows. Companies often expand their market reach, enhance their product with new features, or refine their offerings to cater to a wider audience.

3. Maturity — This is when the product reaches its peak. It's widely recognized and has a solid customer base. Sales growth begins to slow down, and the market becomes more competitive. Companies focus on maintaining their share, enhancing the customer experience, and differentiating themselves from rising competitors.

4. Saturation — At this stage, the product is widespread, and growth slows significantly. The market is saturated, and the product faces strong competition from newer, more innovative solutions. There's pressure to pioneer further, explore new market segments, or find ways to extend the product's lifespan in a crowded space.

5. Decline — Eventually, as consumer interest wanes or new alternatives emerge, the product begins to lose relevance. Sales decline, and crucial decisions must be made. The product may be discontinued, repositioned, or phased out in favor of newer offerings.

But what are the stages of product development? They aren't the same. We'll go over the main software product development life cycle stages next.

What Are the Product Development Life Cycle Stages?

The steps involved in the product development life cycle can be classified in several ways. They may vary depending on the size and scale of the envisioned product, its specificity, and any associated industry limitations. 

Here are the 7 stages of product development we typically follow to define the process: 

• Ideation
• Validation
• Prototyping
• Marketing
• Development
• Launch
• Improvements

You can use the above phases of product development as a guide to creating your unique business strategy from scratch. Let's explore each step in the PDLC in more detail, according to the product development life cycle diagram below.

Stage 1: Ideation

What is the first stage in the product development life cycle? Getting an idea. During the ideation stage, the focus is on generating and refining ideas for the product. This is a crucial phase in the life cycle of a software product, as it lays the groundwork for the rest of the development process. 

The goal is to come up with feasible ideas that address a specific market need, end-user pain points, and underserved features in products provided by your direct competitors. Another milestone is to ensure alignment of expectations among all involved stakeholders.

How do you generate feasible ideas during the ideation stage of the product development life cycle? It's essential to keep a few key things in mind.

First, having a thorough understanding of the problem you're trying to solve is necessary. This means conducting market research, analyzing user feedback, and gathering input from all stakeholders involved.

Once you have a crystal clear understanding of the problem in a formulated product problem statement, you can begin to brainstorm potential solutions. It's important to encourage creativity and open-mindedness during this phase and remain grounded in reality. Consider the resources and budget available for development, as well as any technical limitations that may occur. 

After gathering all the available assumptions, the product team proceeds to filter them based on essential criteria such as feasibility, volume, competitors, or target customer types. To narrow down the list, there are as many efficient methods as possible, such as SWOT analysis or a SCAMPER method. These techniques help make informed decisions and select the best options.

Finally, it's vital to prioritize ideas based on their feasibility and potential impact and submit them for consecutive validation in the next product development stages.

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Stage 2: Validation

In the course of the ideation stage, the goal is to generate a multitude of ideas and assumptions. What is the second stage in the product development life cycle? However, next comes validation when the focus shifts to screening the most promising concepts worth chasing. This approach helps to prevent the unnecessary expenditure of time and business or startup budget. After all, it will be more difficult, expensive, and frustrating to alter the vision of your product in the later stages of the product development life cycle.

Here's how you can sieve generated ideas through a hypothesis validation screen:

1. Research potential markets
   This activity will involve conducting research on similar offerings in the market and assessing their performance and best practices. Additionally, you should explore specific trends, projected market potential, and customer feedback to understand target audiences' expectations better.

2. Find ideal buyer personas
   By understanding your target audiences, you can create a product that is in demand and develop a marketing strategy that resonates with your paying customers. A series of strategic tactics will come in handy in this regard. For instance, you can survey your current customer base or arrange focus groups while keeping attention to your competitors. 

3. Start with narrow customer groups
   It's important to focus on a specific group of people who are most likely to have a demand for selected ideas. This could be a specific age segment or a group with shared interests, geographic location, and similar qualities. For example, if you plan to develop an app with TikTok-like functionality, you would target millennials or Gen Zers who don't let go of their iPhones day and night. By narrowing down your target audience, you can even concentrate your idea validation efforts on a specific location with room for success, which will let you create user stories more effectively.

Stage 3: Prototyping

When you've settled on a product idea, it's time to move on to the next logical element. What is the third stage in the product development life cycle? You can start building a prototype. It is a preliminary model of your product that showcases the primary solutions you plan to offer without any additional features. As a quick and efficient way to present your idea, the prototype will serve as the foundation of your product-to-be.

To begin, you need to determine the key features and functions that should be included. After that, you can create a mockup of the product via UX wireframing (tools such as Figma may be handy). This will help you visualize how the product looks and which functions it provides. Start by sketching out each interface, then add buttons, call-to-action links, and other UI elements.

Creating a prototype is the best moment to get early feedback from internal and external users. By asking open questions about the product's design and expected functionality, you can gain valuable insights about where to move further with the MVP design.

For instance, if early adopters can easily navigate the prototype and understand how it works, it opens doors to the next steps. However, if some process requires additional explanation and guidance, it may be necessary to return to current mockups and simplify elements of user flow.

As you work on fine-tuning your prototype at this point of the product creation cycle, it's vital to enhance its complexity continually and fine-tune the user experience until you develop a version that resembles a minimum viable product (more on that below). However, prototyping is one of the commonly used MVP testing methods too.

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Stage 4: Marketing Strategy

As you proceed with your refined prototype, you will gradually arrive at the point where you can pitch the offering to the public. What is the fourth stage in the product development life cycle? Your product team can progress to the next phase: marketing strategy development.

Your actions for forming a business or startup marketing strategy will involve developing a compelling value proposition and designing valuable tools and resources for your sales team. You'll also need to create effective campaigns that resonate with your target audience.

To do that, you need to determine which channels will be most effective for reaching your target audience. Here are a few things you might do:

• create a website or a landing page for your new product;
• advertise on social media;
• utilize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve visibility on Google;
• use various media such as email marketing;
• promote your business off-site (link insertions, press releases, article submissions, and other methods that help you advertise your new page on other websites);
• attend relevant conferences and events to network with potential customers.

As part of your marketing strategy, high-quality content plays a crucial role. AI technology can help create paragraphs, product descriptions, promotional materials, and even analyze customer data to provide insights.

Furthermore, you'll need to observe the impact of all marketing efforts. Monitor the success of your activities by establishing measurable goals, metrics and key performance indicators. Regularly review your analytics to see which strategies drive the most traffic and conversions, and iterate further.

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Stage 5: Development

The previous product development cycle stages we covered dealt with intangible concepts such as ideas, prototypes, and strategies. What is the fifth stage in the product development life cycle? Now, you've arrived at a point where you can transform your prototype into an actual minimum viable product (MVP).

According to the MVP definition, it is a barebones version of a software product that has all the essential features required to facilitate market launch. For example, an MVP of a house will involve creating basic concepts needed for a habitable space. This might include a foundation, walls, a roof, and a door. You will use inexpensive materials like wood planks and focus on functionality rather than aesthetics. As you gain more resources, you could add features like plumbing or electricity.

The MVP development process during the agile product development life cycle is continuous and iterative, enabling you to develop, test, and release product increments to early users. By collecting their feedback and opinions, you can quickly adjust the required functionality and prioritize other features. 

Before proceeding with the later phases of product development life cycle maturation, your development team will derive requirements from a detailed product development roadmap. In order to adapt to potential changes, product teams should take time to evaluate each released version and prioritize modifications based on user input.

Stage 6: Launch

At this stage of the software product lifecycle, your product journey has finally led you to go live with an MVP. Your product team needs to work hard to create a successful launch plan and choose the most efficient launch timeline. It would be best to polish your strategy to reach our target audience and generate excitement around your new product. Take time to consider every aspect of the launch, from marketing and advertising to distribution and pricing.

Once you've finalized all the decisions, your product development team will begin transitioning an MVP to production. During this step, it is necessary to incorporate QA testing to ensure that your live product functions as intended. 

Another crucial aspect of launching an MVP is to measure market interest. It's essential to track usage patterns and pay attention to feedback from our users to continue providing a valuable and efficient product.

Stage 7: Improvement

What is the final phase of new product development cycles? Well, the cycle should never come to a complete halt after the initial launch. Conversely, product teams should always be working to improve and enhance your solutions over time, even after they've hit the market.

As you observe user behavior and engagement with your product, note any emerging trends or patterns. This valuable data can help guide your future decisions and actions, ensuring that you are constantly adapting to meet the needs of your users and are moving toward finding product-market fit.

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Product Development Team Structure

The discussed stages of product development life cycle evolution help streamline time-to-market and accelerate product launch. However, this means you will need to involve and unite multidisciplinary teams that will be responsible for your product strategy, marketing, implementation, risk management, and improvement.

Such teams will most likely include a combination of different roles. The general rule of thumb is clearly definingeties and responsibilities and establish a reporting hierarchy. Moreover, it is necessary to match team roles with the talent possessing the required skills and experience levels.Here's what a typical structure of a product web development team is like.

Product Manager

In this role, a specialist acts as an intermediary between business and technology. Product managers deeply understand market requirements, end-user pain points, and the path a product should take to evolve. Key responsibilities of a product manager include:

• clarifying the product's vision and roadmap;
• handling resource allocation;
• comprehending the needs of customers;
• prioritizing product features;
• maintaining coordination with stakeholders and teams.

Project Manager

Project managers ensure that product teams ship the deliverables on time, within budget, and to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. Their activities of PM professionals include overseeing project planning and communicating with team members and the product owner. They monitor progress and make necessary adjustments to keep and return the project on track. Additionally, they play a critical role in motivating team members and fostering a positive team dynamic.

Product Designer

Product designers are accountable for creating innovative and user-friendly product designs that meet current and future business needs. This requires research, brainstorming, and stakeholder collaboration to ensure that the final product meets the outlined specifications and aligns with the company's goals. Product designers should be able to present new ideas to customers and team members with clarity and professionalism.

‍Product Developers

Developers take care of the implementation stage of the product development cycle. They work directly with technology and implement designs created by other experts. Additionally, product developers collaborate with product and project managers to ensure that product requirements and vision turn into full-fledged software. They often use time clock software and project tracking tools to mark progress.

‍Sales and Marketing Specialists

The marketing team works hard to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote the product and generate interest among potential customers. Sales professionals cooperate with the product manager to craft a corresponding sales strategy to engage target audiences and drive sales. Many of them apply CRM and email marketing software to streamline communication and track customer interactions more effectively.

Final Thoughts on the Stages of Product Development Cycle Evolvement

The product development lifecycle process is a systematic and cyclical approach that involves stages such as ideation, validation, prototyping, marketing, development, launch, and improvements. When done right, it ensures that your product:

• meets customer needs and addresses their pain points;
• goes live within time and budget estimations;
• exceeds customer expectations while minimizing potential risks;
• responds to user feedback, reacts to changes in consumer behavior, and adapts continuously to outperform competitors. 

Need more direction with product development? Tell us about the challenges you face, and let's start the continuous journey to your success!

FAQ

1. What is the product development life cycle?

The life cycle of product development refers to the series of stages a product goes through from initial concept to market launch and beyond. It involves various stages that help refine the product, assess market fit, and ensure it aligns with customer expectations and business objectives.

2. At what point in the new-product development process does a product's life cycle begin?

The new product development life cycle begins during the ideation phase, where the initial concept for the product is created. This phase sets the foundation for the entire process, as it includes brainstorming ideas, evaluating market needs, and defining the product's purpose. It's the first of the phases of new product development, and its success directly influences the following stages like design, prototyping, and testing.

3. How many stages are involved in the product development process?

The product dev lifecycle usually consists of seven stages. Each stage is designed to progressively fine-tune the product, ensuring it meets market needs and customer expectations before moving forward. The process is structured to ensure thorough validation and preparation before launch.

4. What are the 7 steps of product development?

The product development lifecycle stages typically involve ideation, validation, prototyping, development, marketing, launch, and post-launch evaluation. This approach helps save resources, reduce costly mistakes, and maximize the chances of long-term success.