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In this demanding environment, traditional approaches to product management or 'feature factory' mindset fall short. Businesses require a new paradigm to effectively manage their products from beginning to end - which now includes eventual end use.

Enter strategic lifecycle management, a game-changing methodology. Strategic lifecycle management encompasses a holistic approach to product management, considering every aspect of a product's life cycle, from ideation to retirement. It transcends the conventional focus on development (Feature Factory) and marketing, offering a comprehensive perspective for CEOs. 

Unlocking the Potential of Strategic Lifecycle Management 

By adopting strategic lifecycle management, businesses can unlock a multitude of advantages, tailored to meet the needs of CEOs and their organizations: 

Enhancing Product Quality and Customer Satisfaction: 

A holistic approach ensures that products align with customer needs throughout the entire life cycle, resulting in improved quality and higher customer satisfaction. 

Driving Cost Reductions: 

Streamlining the product development process and enhancing product quality lead to reduced costs associated with bringing new products to market, bolstering the bottom line. 

Expanding Market Share & Revenue Growth: 

Through the development of customer-centric products, businesses can target and capture their desired market segments, driving revenue growth and increasing market share. 

Embracing the Challenges and Overcoming Them 

While strategic lifecycle management offers numerous benefits, it is essential to address the challenges associated with its implementation: 

Complexity: 

Strategic lifecycle management demands a deep understanding of the product lifecycle process, the market, and the customer. Overcoming this complexity requires a strategic and collaborative approach. 

Change Management: 

Implementing strategic lifecycle management necessitates a shift in the organisational mindset and culture surrounding product management. This transformation can be intricate and time-consuming, but it lays the foundation for long-term success. 

Investment: 

While strategic lifecycle management involves investment, the long-term advantages far outweigh the initial costs. By strategically allocating resources to scalable software tools like Skyjed, businesses can secure a strong return on investment. 

Implementing Strategic Lifecycle Management: A Roadmap for CEO Success 

To effectively implement strategic lifecycle management, CEOs and Chief Product Officers CPO can follow a targeted roadmap to address their business goals. The following steps provide a relevant and actionable approach: 

Define Business Goals: 

Begin by defining your business goals in waves, prioritising key areas such as streamlining portfolios, ensuring compliance, or embracing responsible lifecycle management to combat greenwashing. Establish a clear vision for each phase of implementation. 

Evaluate Product Portfolios: 

Undertake a strategic review of your product portfolios to establish a baseline. Start with strategic products that have significant impact and work your way down. Identify potential products for exit or optimisation, considering factors such as product strategy, business models, market demand, profitability, and alignment with sustainability goals. 

Train the Team and Introduce Digital Tooling: 

Equip your team with the necessary skills and knowledge to drive strategic lifecycle management and remove time consuming manual tasks. Conduct 'masterclass' sessions to enhance their understanding of the methodology and its implementation. Integrate digital tools and platforms, such as Skyjed, to streamline data analysis, risk assessment, and decision-making processes. 

Measure, Evaluate, and Take Action: 

Implement a robust measurement framework to assess the performance of each product in your portfolio. Regularly evaluate key lifecycle metrics, including customer satisfaction, product quality, sales channels analysis, supply chain, market share, and compliance adherence. Use the insights gained to set strategic actions and mitigate risks. Prioritise products that align with your business goals and address emerging market trends. When exiting products - ensure you have transition or go-to path for your sales teams to communicate in the market.

Continuously Optimise and Evolve: 

Embrace a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability. Regularly reassess your product portfolios, refining strategies and action plans as needed. Leverage feedback from customers, supply chain, stakeholders, and industry trends to guide your decision-making process. Incorporate new technologies, market insights, and sustainability practices into your strategic lifecycle management approach. 

The Unique Value Skyjed Offers 

As leaders seek to embrace strategic lifecycle management, Skyjed provides a distinctive value proposition tailored to their needs. Skyjed's cutting-edge platform equips CEOs with the tools and insights to thrive in this age of complexity. Skyjed empowers product teams to make informed decisions throughout the product life cycle by leveraging automation, AI-powered analytics and comprehensive data. 

Wrap up reflections

As a leader of product portfolios across innovation and new development and lifecycle of mature portfolios, I have seen firsthand the benefits of strategic lifecycle management (SLM). SLM has helped me to improve product quality, reduce costs, and increase revenue.

One of the most essential benefits of SLM is that it has helped me to keep my products aligned with the needs of my customers. By taking a holistic approach to product management, I am able to identify and address potential problems early in the product development process. This has helped me to create products that are more user-friendly and transition or migrate products when I need to exit.

SLM has also helped me to reduce costs. By streamlining the product lifecycle process and remaining consistent in product reviews i also ensure that my products are compliant with regulations, I have been able to save my company money removing the 'hidden costs' in customer operations, supply chain and sales channels associated with complex product portfolios and thousands of product variants.

Finally, SLM has helped me to increase revenue. By understanding how my customers use my products, I am able to develop a targeted strategy and innovation plans that meet their customer needs and generate additional revenue.

 If you are a leader of product portfolios, I encourage you to consider adopting SLM. It is a powerful tool that can help you to improve find profitable growth as you launch and improve existing products.

Here are some additional thoughts from my perspective:

• SLM is a continuous process. It is essential to regularly assess your product portfolios and make adjustments as needed - My mantra is - launch monitor, optimise and win.
• SLM is not a one-size-fits-all solution. You need to tailor your approach to the specific needs of your business.
• SLM requires a commitment from everyone in your organisation. You need to get buy-in from your team - product, sales, marketing, risk, legal, supply chain.

If you are willing to make the step, SLM can be a valuable asset to your business. It can help you to manage products that are more user-friendly, that meet the needs of your customers, and that generate more revenue.

I hope you enjoyed this article on strategic lifecycle management. If you found it helpful, please share it with your network. I would also love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What are your experiences with strategic lifecycle management? What are your challenges and successes? Please leave a comment below and let me know.

Until my next article have great week.

Skyjed is a lifecycle and governance platform.  We are a full end-to-end SaaS lifecycle management platform using Ai-machine learning technologies.  Skyjed enables our clients to make more strategic lifecycle decisions to launch, monitor, optimise and win with brilliant products. Our industry leading platform has received numerous awards and recognition from clients and industry bodies, demonstrating our commitment to innovation and excellence.

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