Understanding the product development lifecycle

A guide for learning and building your way through the stages of product development

Presented by Susannah Locke

INTRODUCTION 

The product lifecycle encompasses the planning, execution, upkeep, and eventual end of your product. Though there’s no universal number of steps from start to end, the lifecycle process exists as accumulated knowledge from the development of about a zillion actual products. Ignore it at your peril.

Take the time to move through each step, and you will avoid common pitfalls that plague product development – running after the wrong idea that ends up getting you nowhere, VIPs who come in at the last minute and want to change everything, projects that keep getting bigger and increasingly delayed, poor execution that destroys a great concept, and even having too many bugs in the backlog that keep your team from developing new features and products.

If you use a strict waterfall-style development process, then the lifecycle phases will proceed one after the other without much overlap. However, if your team works in an agile style with continuous iteration, this so-called life “cycle” may have many loops and spirals as you adjust what you’re making based on what you’re learning along the way.

Regardless of how large or small a project, each phase has an important role to play. If you’re embarking on a giant, newsroom-wide initiative, each stage may involve serious planning and multiple layers of approval. If you’re sketching out a quick one-person project, think of these stages as a handy checklist.

IN PRACTICE

Use the tips and concepts in this section to cultivate a product culture in your newsroom

Ideation

Instead of thinking in a vacuum, do some research on your users first. Research doesn’t have to be very time consuming in order to be helpful. Try a few short interviews, or review existing datasets from analytics or marketing teams for insight.

Once you’ve identified the user problem you want to solve, tie it to established organizational values and goals such as OKRs. One way to start figuring out how to solve your users’ problem is to write a broad “how might we” statement, like this: “How might we [do X thing] in order to [solve Y user problem]?” You can then frame a group brainstorming session around this statement to explore ideas and product solutions.

Discovery

This step is about learning. Do a competitive analysis by looking around to see who has already tried to solve this problem. How did they do it? What were their strengths and weaknesses? Can anything they’ve implemented inform your work?

Next, apply what you’ve learned to create sketches or prototypes — to get feedback from stakeholders and future users.

And before you dive into development, make a list of product requirements. Prioritize them into “must have” and “nice-to-have” features, and get sign-off from major stakeholders so that everyone is aligned. Documenting and agreeing on product requirements before development begins will allow you to keep your initial product scope narrowly focused.

Development

As you create your product, in an agile process, you’ll move through cycles of learning and building during development. Beta test your sketches, mockups, and other partially finished features with a small set of users to get feedback on how well your design is working.

If your research uncovers new features that could be added, evaluate them fully before committing to anything extra. Are these features absolutely critical to add right now, and what kind of time and labor will it take to add them? Keep an eye on your requirements to avoid scope creep, which can bloat and delay a project, and stay in regular communication with stakeholders on progress and any changes to the initial plan.

As you get to a near-final product, make time for quality assurance testing to ensure it works properly in its intended environments, including on different devices and browsers.

Growth

I like to think of growth as two phases: post-launch and expansion.

When you roll out your product to your full user group, even after applying all the lessons you learned from working with smaller audiences, expect a barrage of new information about how the product works for your users. Be prepared to document and prioritize bugs and other feedback. The product launch might require internal and external communication strategies, user guides, training, or other support.

During product expansion, product growth is controlled and planned. But in what direction? What metrics matter the most? Focus on the users (and user behavior) that are of most value to your organization. If you’re working in an agile framework, you might continue developing your product as you get feedback from real users.

Maintenance

Things always break. And yet maintenance is one of the sneakiest and most neglected parts of the product lifecycle. Plan for maintenance, and be prepared for it to eat up more time than you expect. Some questions to keep in mind as you get ready for the maintenance phase:

• Who will maintain the product and with what regularity? At some organizations, an entire person or team is devoted to maintenance. At others, everyone pitches in.

• What documentation do we need for maintaining the product?

• What constitutes a maintenance emergency?

• How will we solicit feedback from our users, and how will we share maintenance-related updates with them?

• How much time are we currently devoting to maintenance vs. making new products? Should this be adjusted in any way?

Sunsetting

There are many reasons why it might be time to say goodbye to a product. Is your product no longer needed or used by your audience? Is it no longer worth maintaining? Do you want to free up resources to work on something else? Don’t feel bad. It might be time to archive, pause, or end your product.

Flavor Graveyard
Credit: benjerry.com

Sunsetting a product can sometimes be as political as making one, so think of your sunsetting process as a mini product lifecycle process unto itself. Check in with your stakeholders, get a good communication plan together, let people know why you are sunsetting (and why it benefits them) — and maybe even celebrate the end of your product’s life, like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream does with its discontinued flavors graveyard.

TERMS

Definitions for product terms referenced in this guide are sourced from NPA’s crowd-sourced product glossary

Iterative Process

A series of steps used to build on and improve a product throughout its lifecycle. In development, this often means short cycles of testing with audience feedback early on to guide progress and future updates.

Scope Creep

A change in requirements, often at the request of a stakeholder, that may result in additional time or resources needed to complete the project.

Stakeholder management

The process of identifying the needs of stakeholders and aligning competing priorities.

RELATED READINGS / RESOURCES

Product development process: The 6 stages (with examples) - Alicia Raeburn

Just Enough Research - Erika Hall

Making sense of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) [VIDEO] - Henrik Kniberg

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susannah Locke

Susannah Locke has been a journalist at the intersection of editorial, design, and technology for 13+ years. Currently, she’s the editor of special projects at Vox.com and its in-house expert in product and process. Previously a reporter, print editor, and scientist, she nerds out about user research, product and project management, custom storytelling, CMS development, and fountain pens.

Puedes leer la guía traducida y adaptada al español aquí: Comprender el ciclo de vida del desarrollo de productos

Você pode ler o guia traduzido e adaptado para português aqui: Compreendendo o ciclo de vida do desenvolvimento do produto