Launching a new product has many moving parts. Ideation to completion of the product itself is just the beginning. After the product launches in the market, teams have to figure out how to generate sales and create longevity to support the overarching business goals. There’s so much that goes into the development of a product, the last thing a company wants (or needs) is for the new product to flop.
To put your best foot forward, it’s important to understand the life cycle of a product so that you can plan accordingly.
What are the stages of the product life cycle?
The product life cycle is a concept that describes the various stages a product goes through from its introduction to its eventual (and inevitable) decline. Below are the four stages of the product life cycle, and what they mean for your business.
Introduction
In this stage, the product is newly launched in the market (congratulations!). The focus should be on creating awareness and generating interest among potential customers. To do so, teams may position the product as innovative, unique, and capable of solving a specific problem or meeting a need. In the introductory stage, it’s important to highlight its key features and benefits to create a strong first impression.
Growth
During the growth stage, sales of the product are beginning to increase rapidly. Here you’ll want to emphasize the product's success and popularity in the market. To drive the point home, you may opt for customer testimonials, case studies, and positive reviews to build credibility and trust. It’s also worth showcasing any improvements or additional features that have been introduced to further enhance the product's value.
Maturity
The maturity stage is self explanatory: the product has officially reached its peak sales and market saturation. To differentiate your product from competitors, focus on highlighting its unique selling points and value proposition. To win more sales, present data and statistics that demonstrate the product's reliability, durability, and customer satisfaction. You might also offer incentives like discounts or loyalty programs to maintain momentum and customer loyalty.
Decline
What goes up must go down. In the decline stage, sales will start to decline due to an oversaturated market, or the emergence of newer and better products. A decline is inevitable, but you can focus on the product’s longevity and history of customer satisfaction to stay top of mind for consumers. As a last-ditch effort, businesses will often offer limited-time promotions or discounts to entice remaining customers and clear out inventory.
How to present the product life cycle
When presenting the stages of the product life cycle to key stakeholders, a presentation deck can act as a vessel to deliver important information. Like in any presentation, packaging up the product life cycle as a story can keep audiences engaged and highlight the product's journey throughout each stage more effectively. Since you’ll likely have a lot of metrics to share, using strong visuals such as graphs or charts to illustrate the sales trajectory can help make the metrics more digestible to your audience.
Still not sure where to start? The following presentation templates can be used to tell the story of your product. Each template is fully customizable, but you may also use DesignerBot to create an AI presentation from scratch specific to your product’s journey.
Product roadmap template
A product roadmap presentation can outline the life cycle of various products in the queue from ideation to decline. This template is perfect for bringing your vision to life, and has all the essential elements for a successful product presentation: vision and strategy, goals and objectives, launch timelines, and more.
Our product roadmap template can also help you pitch new products to investors and customers, visualize the trajectory of research and development work, inform and educate your sales team of up-and-coming products, and showcase the product life cycle.
Product launch strategy template
You have a new product idea, now what? A product launch presentation is used to help get your new product off the ground— the introduction stage— and into the hands of the consumers as seamlessly as possible. Teams can strategize how and when to launch their new product, and predict the life cycle, with the help of Beautiful.ai’s product launch presentation example.
A successful product launch presentation can help internal teams and partners— like investors— align on things like new product ideas, stages, and go to market strategies.
Our product launch template can also help you share new product ideas with key stakeholders, create an actionable timeline for the launch, and get investors or internal departments up to speed on the stages of the launch and growth.
Project retrospective template
A project retrospective, or product reflection, helps teams dive in on completed projects— and assess what worked well and what missed the mark— to inform future planning. Project managers can create a product reflection presentation in half the time with Beautiful.ai’s project retrospective template to evaluate the product life cycle.
Our project retrospective template can also help you share new products with other departments or stakeholders, acknowledge product life cycle wins, and provide a guide for expectations and improvements on future launches.
