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Let's start with a question that might make you wonder: Do you actually know what's happening with your product lifecycle right now? How are your more than 7 silos executing on product lifecycle strategy and compliance?

Not the high-level dashboard version your team shows you in quarterly reviews. I mean the real, granular reality of how products move through development, compliance approval, and market release and end of life in your organisation.

If you're like most CEOs I talk to, the honest answer is probably "not really." And that's not your fault—it's an embedded silo issue that's been hiding in plain sight across industries for years. 

The Million-Dollar Manual Problem 

Think about your last major product launch. Somewhere in your organisation, there was probably one person—let's call them Sarah from Product Governance or Operations—who manually tracked every approval, chased down every stakeholder, and essentially became the human bridge between your strategic vision and market reality.

Sarah's great at her job. But Sarah is also your single point of failure.

When she's on vacation, approvals slow down. When she changes roles, critical knowledge walks out the door. When your product volume doubles, Sarah hits a wall that no amount of coffee or overtime can break through.

This isn't just an operational headache—it's a strategic vulnerability.

The Real Cost of "Poor Lifecycle Execution

The numbers are impactful once you add them up. Organisations typically lose:

Time: Manual reviews and approvals create bottlenecks that can delay product releases by weeks or months. In fast-moving markets, that delay often means losing first-mover advantage to competitors who've automated their processes.

Money: Every delayed launch represents lost revenue. Every compliance error that slips through manual oversight can result in regulatory fines that make your CFO lose sleep.

Talent: Your brightest product minds are spending 30-40% of their time on administrative tasks instead of innovation. That's like paying senior-level salaries for junior-level work.

Risk: Manual processes lack consistent audit trails and version control. When regulatory agencies come knocking, or when something goes wrong in the market, can you quickly trace every decision and approval that led to that moment?

The Lifecycle Execution Gap

Here's the paradox that many executive teams face: The more successful you become, the more ungovernable your product portfolio becomes with new features bi-weekly and large product portfolios.

What Best-in-Class Organisations Do Differently

Automated workflows handle routine approvals and scheduling, freeing up your team to focus on strategic decisions that actually require human judgment.

Built-in governance controls provide automated version control, approval gates, and regulatory documentation—creating that audit trail you need without the manual overhead.

Real-time oversight gives leadership teams instant visibility into what's happening across the entire portfolio. No more waiting for weekly status meetings to understand if you're on track.

The Strategic Lifecycle Control & Execution Advantage

This isn't really about product management tools or workflow optimisation. This is about organisational DNA and having a lifecycle management approach that you can actually execute - not something in slide deck.

Companies with mature product lifecycle governance can:

• Launch products faster and more consistently across 7+ silos in business
• Execute or operationalise their lifecycle management without the administrative overhead
• Respond quickly to regulatory changes and market opportunities
• Maintain cost advantage through operational efficiency

Companies still relying on manual processes become increasingly fragile as they grow. They hit scalability constraints that force difficult choices about growth pace and market opportunities.

Your Next Move

The question isn't whether you'll eventually need to solve this problem. The question is whether you'll solve it proactively or reactively.

Proactive means recognising that your current manual processes are already limiting your potential, and investing in systematic solutions before you hit a crisis.

Reactive means waiting until a major compliance issue, a key person leaving, or a missed market opportunity forces your hand—usually at the worst possible time.

The CEOs I respect most are the ones who look around the corner and see these operational challenges before they become strategic constraints. They understand that sustainable competitive advantage often comes from excellence in areas that competitors find boring or complex.

Product lifecycle governance might not be as exciting as your next major product launch, but it's probably more important to your long-term success than you realise.

Know Where You Stand: Get Your Free Product Lifecycle Maturity Assessment

Here's what I've learned from working with hundreds of executive teams: You can't improve what you can't measure.

Most CEOs have an intuitive sense that their product lifecycle management could be better, but they lack the framework to understand exactly where the gaps are and what the potential impact of fixing them would be.

That's why we've developed a comprehensive Product Lifecycle Maturity Assessment that gives you:

✅ Clear visibility into your current lifecycle management capabilities across all critical dimensions

✅ Benchmarking against industry best practices and peer organisations

✅ Quantified impact analysis showing the potential ROI of improvements

✅ Prioritized roadmap for addressing your highest-impact opportunities first

✅ Strategic recommendations tailored to your specific organizational context and growth stage

The assessment takes about 30 minutes of your time and gives you the kind of operational intelligence that typically requires months of internal analysis to develop.

Most importantly, it gives you the data you need to make informed decisions about where to invest in operational improvements and what the business case looks like for systematic product lifecycle management.

Ready to see where your organisation stands?

Reach out to me or the Skyjed team for a free lifecycle maturity assessment. We'll show you exactly where the handoffs are breaking down, what the real cost is to your strategic time, and how other executives in your industry have solved this challenge.

Cheers and until next edition

Leica

Contact Skyjed today for a personalised demonstration.

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