The life of a product

Everything has a life cycle, and your product is no different! There are many terms and systems for defining the cycle, let’s pick a set of terms and begin walking through them.

1. Proof of Concept (POC)

2. Concept Validation (CV)

3. Design Validation (DV)

4. Production Validation (PV)

5. Sustaining Engineering (SE)

When you reach the end, you either keep making it until it stops making money, or (more commonly) you begin again on a product variation or next generation product. Often your business is in multiple overlapping development cycles, one for each generation or product line.

Each step in the cycle requires a slightly different team composition. Different skills, tools, and procedures are necessary as your product matures. The move fast and break things attitude that can be very valuable in the POC phase can cost you big time in production.

Where are you in your product life cycle? Is your team the right fit for where you are? If not, let’s talk!

-Brian Schoolcraft