Why Your Lifecycle Strategy Looks Great on Paper But Fails in Practice

I see it often, while most organisations have well-thought-out lifecycle strategies, execution remains a nightmare. With over 20 handoffs from product to customer and 7 silos involved in delivery across your business, the disconnect between lifecycle strategy and reality is costing companies their most valuable asset: customer outcomes.

This article explores how a product operating model with with pragmatic lifecycle governance framework can bridge this gap, delivering meaningful results for CEOs through improved customer outcomes, product compliance, and operational efficiency.

The Execution Gap: Where Strategy Meets Reality

The Problem: Organisations excel at product lifecycle strategy but struggle with execution. Teams rely on tools like Jira for managing product sprints and roadmaps, but these solutions fall short when it comes to:

• In-market commercial outcomes monitoring
• Compliance management across the product lifecycle
• Customer communication lifecycle management (regulatory, marketing, and service)
• Product compliance requirements coordination

The result? Disconnected processes, misaligned customer experiences, and missed opportunities for meaningful engagement.

Part I: Designing Better Products Through Lifecycle Governance

Understanding the Customer as Your Greatest Asset

Traditional product development operates in silos, with each team optimising for their specific metrics rather than overall customer outcomes. Lifecycle governance reframes this approach by positioning the customer as a strategic asset requiring coordinated investment and management.

Key Elements of Customer-Centric Product Design:

• Compliance by Design: Embedding regulatory and product compliance requirements into the development process rather than treating them as afterthoughts
• Integrated Feedback Loops: Automatic routing of customer insights to lifecycle owners for early risk identification and collaboration
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Breaking down the 7 traditional silos to create unified customer outcome metrics from the product out to customer.

Streamlining the 20+ Handoff Challenge

Each handoff in your business represents a potential point of failure in customer experience. Lifecycle governance creates:

• Unified Customer Journey Mapping: Clear visibility into every touchpoint from product conception to customer delivery and eventual sunsetting
• Automated Workflow Management: Reducing manual handoffs through intelligent process automation across complete lifecycle
• Single Source of Truth: Consolidated customer data and product information accessible across all teams
• Product Operating Model: Brings together lifecycle, operating model and product processes together - in context of compliance.

Part II: Monitoring In-Market Products for Optimal Outcomes

Beyond Product Delivery: Ensuring Alignment at Every Touchpoint

Once products reach market, the real work begins. Lifecycle governance ensures that:

• Commercial Metrics in signed-off business case are monitored and optimised
• Marketing materials align with the latest product releases
• Terms and conditions remain current and compliant
• Customer communications maintain consistency across all channels
• Regulatory requirements are continuously monitored and addressed

Real-Time Customer Outcome Monitoring

Traditional monitoring focuses on product performance metrics. Lifecycle governance expands this view to include:

Customer Asset Performance:

• Lifetime value optimisation through coordinated touchpoint management
• Proactive risk identification through integrated feedback systems
• Continuous alignment between customer expectations and product delivery

Compliance and Risk Management:

• Automated compliance monitoring across all customer touchpoints
• Real-time regulatory requirement updates and implementation
• Integrated risk assessment and mitigation strategies

The CEO Value Proposition: Measurable Business Impact

Customer Outcomes as Your Biggest Asset By implementing lifecycle governance, CEOs can demonstrate clear ROI through improved customer retention, increased lifetime value, and enhanced customer satisfaction scores. When customers experience consistent, compliant, and valuable interactions at every touchpoint, they become advocates rather than just purchasers.

Products That Stay Compliant Automated product compliance monitoring and management reduce regulatory risk while ensuring products remain market-ready throughout their lifecycle. This proactive approach prevents costly compliance failures and maintains market access.

Operational Efficiency and Headcount Optimisation Lifecycle governance eliminates the time-consuming manual processes that drain productivity:

• No more Excel spreadsheet management for tracking customer communications
• Automated Dashboards & Healthchecks for stakeholder reporting
• Intelligent approval workflows replacing email chains and lengthy governance meetings
• Reduced meeting overhead through automated status updates and exception-based management

Teams can focus on value-creation activities rather than administrative overhead, resulting in effective headcount optimisation. You become efficient and ensure only the popel that need to touch product governance and communications that need to.

The Path Forward: From Execution Nightmare to Strategic Advantage

The transformation from fragmented lifecycle management to integrated governance doesn't happen overnight, but the benefits compound quickly. Organisations that successfully implement lifecycle governance ( in 8-12 weeks) see improvements in customer outcomes within the first quarter, with full ROI typically realised within 6 months.

Wrap-Up: Transform Your Lifecycle Management with Skyjed

While the benefits of lifecycle governance are clear, the path to implementation can seem daunting. This is where Skyjed makes the difference. We specialise in taking organisations from lifecycle strategy to flawless execution, removing the execution nightmare that keeps CEOs awake at night.

Our platform integrates seamlessly with your existing tools while providing the lifecycle governance guardrails layer that Jira and other operational systems cannot deliver. We help you transform those 20+ handoffs into smooth, automated workflows and break down the 7 silos that fragment your customer experience.

With Skyjed, your lifecycle management evolution from strategy to execution becomes efficient rather than an operational headache. Let us help you unlock the full potential of your customer assets through intelligent lifecycle governance.

Cheers until next edition!

Want to know exactly where your lifecycle management stands and what specific gaps might be costing you customers? I'm offering a free lifecycle management maturity assessment tailored to your business - no generic templates, just real insights into your unique situation.

Message me to get started. Our proven 8-12 week implementation blueprint, guided by our customer success team, can have you moving from lifecycle strategy to results faster than you think.

Leica

Contact Skyjed today for a personalised demonstration.

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