Discontinuation
Short Tip: The stage of terminating the product’s life cycle.
What is it?
It is the stage conducted when a decision has been made to terminate the product. This stage is also applicable, for example, when the product is being developed for another company, and the agreement is terminated.
Why use it?
In product development models, as a rule, efforts are focused on the previous stages, which are viewed as value generators. However, in just the same way, terminating a product’s life cycle can affect the value perceived by users.
For example, when a product is being terminated, there may be an opportunity to offer the user an alternative as a way of minimizing the negative value generated by that closure.
How to use it?
Once the decision to discontinue the product has been made, the Product Owner (PIM-Go© Agile) or Initiative Leader (PIM-Go© Hybrid) and the team and relevant stakeholders should:
- Design the Discontinuation Canvas by discussing and listing anyone potentially impacted by the discontinuation;
- In addition to users and customers (as potentially impacted groups), employees and partners should also be included;
- List on the Canvas any actions to maximize the product’s value (or reduce any negative value) for those groups;
- Capture on the Canvas the lessons learned from the product development journey which may be useful in future solutions;
- Define and execute the necessary communication actions to keep the impacted groups informed of ongoing activities and possible alternatives.