Discussion of the process of taking a product from idea to launch to retirement
When sunsetting a product or feature:
» Explain why honestly and be transparent about how it will impact your users
» Be understanding as they may be disappointed or frustrated by the change
» Be responsive and supportive by answering your users’ questions and helping them with the transition
» If possible, offer your users alternative features or solutions
» Success at every life cycle stage hinges on the same challenge: being able to solve problems for your users
» Early on, focus on learning about your users and their context and the constraints that affect your problem
» Maturity is the most difficult stage for a product, so you have to make the absolute best out of what you have
» Ways to extend a product’s life cycle: frequent usage; varied usage; new users; new uses
» Sometimes removing features is more effective than adding them
» You can’t change the customer, but you can change your company’s process, strategy and culture
» Give your team time and permission to check you’re moving the right metrics
» Data is not a silver bullet and won’t solve your company’s trust issues
On 14th May, I’ll be at Product Anonymous in Melbourne, Australia to talk about the trials and tribulations of MVP (minimum viable product). Come and join us!
This week, we’ve been looking at two different lifecycles: the product lifecycle and the development lifecycle – cycles within cycles!
Over the last few weeks I’ve mostly been investigating the variety of tools available to help product managers at different stages of their product’s lifecycle. For me, the emphasis has been on speed and ease of use because my project is short-lived and I want to show some results.
Price is absolutely critical to the success of your product.
If you’ve got 15 minutes handy, here’s an engaging and useful overview of Agile Product Ownership by Henrik Kniberg over on Crisp’s Blog.
We’re looking at the kinds of information that specific groups of people need to know during the lifecycle of your product and why they’re so interested in the first place.
Last time we covered the steps from idea through to convincing people to part with some cash to build it. Now we’re going to look at building it and onwards through launch to review.
Do you spend more time writing documents about your product than actually managing it?
Many companies with some kind of product management function become all caught up in the process, drowning themselves in increasing numbers of documents. These rapidly become overwhelming to manage, contain duplicated detail and ultimately obscure the real objective of product management, namely to create successful products.
