When should you retire a product from your portfolio?
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As a product manager, you have to make tough decisions about your product portfolio. Sometimes, you have to retire a product that is no longer relevant, profitable, or aligned with your vision. But how do you know when it's time to say goodbye to a product? In this article, we'll explore some of the factors and criteria that can help you decide when to retire a product from your portfolio.
One of the most important sources of information for your product decisions is your customers. You should always listen to their needs, preferences, and feedback, and monitor how they use your product. If you notice that your product is losing traction, satisfaction, or loyalty among your customers, or that they are switching to other solutions, it might be a sign that your product is no longer meeting their expectations or solving their problems. You should also consider the market trends and the competitive landscape, and evaluate whether your product is still relevant and differentiated in your niche.
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Jason Masai
Head of Product - Digital @ M-Pesa Africa I Africa's Number 1 Fintech I Product Management I Agile I Innovation I Payments I Partnerships I Financial Inclusion I Mobile Money
One thing I have found helpful is checking whether the product is still fulfilling the customer #need it was intended for. This is very critical as sometimes in situations when a #product has not evolved to keep pace with the changing customer needs it can be overtaken by events as customers tend to migrate to alternative solutions that meet their needs. In such a scenario if the product cannot be evolved to keep up with customer needs it may need to be retired.
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Ankur Bansal
Product@UKG | Experienced in Enterprise and Consumer Products | Product Growth, Mentor & Storyteller
Retiring products is a crucial but overlooked process. Neglecting this process can be a costly mistake that inhibits innovation. Actively seeking out products that are no longer delivering value can reveal the under-utilized value that has growth potential. Investing in declining products leads to opportunity costs that can negatively impact future opportunities. Redirecting capital to the top of the innovation funnel is a strategic investment that should be encouraged.
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Another key factor to consider is your product performance and profitability. You should track and analyze your product metrics, such as revenue, growth, retention, churn, cost, and margin, and compare them to your goals and benchmarks. If your product is underperforming, losing money, or draining resources, you should investigate the root causes and potential solutions. Sometimes, you might be able to improve your product performance by making some changes or optimizations, but other times, you might have to accept that your product is no longer viable or sustainable in the long run.
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Garry Sands
I Help Create The Best Games In The World 🕹️👾🎮|| Product Manager || Driving Innovation, Strategy, and User-Centric Solutions for Success || Apple Alumni || Executive MBA || Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Product retirement decisions should consider product performance and profitability. Key reasons include: 1) Declining profitability, 2) Performance issues, and 3) Opportunity cost. Retiring unprofitable or problematic products can free up resources and maintain portfolio competitiveness
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Satya Prakash Pati
Sr Manager, Product Management at Verizon || ex-Google
Retiring a product or EOL (End of Life) decisions are as crucial as Product launch and must be taken with deep deliberation. There could be multiple reasons for retiring a product depending on the type Hardware/Physical product: - Supply chain issues, - Parts not available - regulatory/safety/compliance/geopolitical issues - Distribution/Service related issues - Cost of BOM increases Services product: - Attrition/manpower issues - Competitive pressure - QoS issues - Compliance/ Govt related issues - loss of margins/Increase of costs Software product: - Change in tech/competition - QoS/Upgrade/Legacy Software issues - Vulnerablity/Compliance/Regulatory issues - Company decision/strategy change - Profitability
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A third factor to consider is your product vision and strategy. You should have a clear and compelling vision for your product portfolio, and a strategy to achieve it. Your vision and strategy should guide your product decisions and priorities, and help you align your products with your mission, values, and goals. If you find that your product is no longer aligned with your vision and strategy, or that it is conflicting or competing with your other products, you should reconsider its place in your portfolio. You might have to pivot, reposition, or integrate your product, or you might have to retire it altogether.
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Amol Marathe
Follow for Unusual Wisdom Hacks in Tech World | Group Product Manager | B2B, SaaS, Tax & Accounting | xDassault 3DEXPERIENCE
I’m not happy but logically proud that in my experience, there were 2 products I decided to shutdown as a Product Portfolio Manager and it turned out to be the right decision for the business. Most important factors that lead me to the decision were: - Declining Demand - High Maintenance Costs - Technological Obsolescence One needs to remember that the decision to retire a product should be made after careful analysis of its performance, market conditions, and future potential. It's a strategic move that can free up resources and pave the way for more successful ventures.
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Pouriya Jalali
COO@Khanesarmaye
To determine product retirement from a vision and strategy perspective, assess if the product aligns with the company's future direction and market trends. If it no longer fits the evolving strategic goals, target market needs, or technological advancements, or if it hinders investment in more promising areas, it may be time for retirement.
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A fourth factor to consider is your product lifecycle and roadmap. You should have a good understanding of the stages and phases of your product lifecycle, and how they affect your product decisions and actions. You should also have a realistic and feasible roadmap for your product development and evolution, and communicate it clearly to your stakeholders. If you see that your product is reaching the end of its lifecycle, or that your roadmap is no longer relevant, feasible, or desirable, you should evaluate your options and alternatives. You might have to extend, revive, or innovate your product, or you might have to retire it gracefully.
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Edward J.
General Manager at Klüber Lubrication Australia
Having a good, clear product strategy develops a set of tactics. These then deliver a roadmap and lifecycle. Adapting over time as slow-burner products build share; as your star products burnout faster than expected; as operational factors influence products viability; all needs to be accounted for. Develop your roadmap and lifecycle analysis to ensure it's clear when EoL activities start. This way, all the extensions, revisions and adaptions of the product have been completed to know it's time for product retirement.
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Dhanush Shetty
Product | Entrepreneurial Spirit
Lifecycle and roadmap are the blueprints guiding a product's evolution. From a technical perspective, retirement is a phase that involves evaluating the obsolescence of technologies, dependencies, and architectural constraints. Understanding where a product stands in its technical lifecycle and aligning with the technical roadmap ensures a smooth transition towards newer, more efficient solutions.
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Finally, if you decide to retire a product from your portfolio, you should have a process and a plan to do it smoothly and effectively. You should consider the impact and implications of your decision for your customers, employees, partners, and other stakeholders, and address their needs and concerns. You should also define the scope, timeline, and budget for your product retirement, and assign roles and responsibilities for your team. You should communicate your decision and rationale clearly and transparently, and provide support and guidance for your customers and users. You should also capture and document the lessons learned and best practices from your product retirement, and celebrate your achievements and successes.
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Jamie S. Z.
Product & Project Management | Customer Success | Account Management | Delivery Operations, Cprime (Goldman Sachs | Everstone Company)
A well-structured product retirement plan is essential. Make sure you also consider stakeholder impact, define scope, timeline, and budget, communicate transparently, capture lessons learned, and celebrate successes.
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Adam Nemeth
Product Discovery Strategist for User-Centered B2B/SaaS | Digitalization | AI | UCD
A sensible product retirement also considers what happens with the data: once the company stops giving the service of the product it loses the right under GDPR to retain the data it processed in order to run the product. In case that data is important to the customers, you should give an easy option to download it before you have to erase it from your systems.
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Jordi Trafí
Business Development | IVD marketing | Diagnostics portfolio management | Market insights | Biomarkers
In my opinion, it is important to have a 360 degrees view of the portfolio and how a single product impacts the rest of a complex portfolio. A product with performance below customer needs and wants can reduce the traction of other products, specially if they are in the same sales bundle. On the other hand, a great performing product can generate pull-through revenue of other products. In my experience, one of the errors in many EOL business cases is to look only to the revenue streams of the impacted product (old and replacement versions). I advocate to look at the delta for the full business when comparing the options of continuing with the old product or discontinuing it (with or without replacement)
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Rahul Chakraborty
Director Sales I P & L Maverick I Solutions Architect I Go to Market Leader I Business Consultant I Business Leader - South Asia I Digital Health Solutions I Guest Speaker
A product should be retired from a company's portfolio when it no longer aligns with the company's strategic objectives, fails to meet financial targets, or no longer satisfies market needs. This can be due to various factors such as declining sales, increased competition, technological obsolescence, or shifting consumer preferences. Additionally, if the product requires resources that could be better utilized on more profitable or promising offerings, or if maintaining it poses a risk to the brand's reputation, it may also be time to consider discontinuation. The decision should be based on thorough analysis, including financial metrics, market trends, and overall fit within the company's product strategy.
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