How I think about product work

Product Lifecycle

Seven stages of building a product, and the concepts I use at each.

Every product I have worked on - at Zistre, Huzzle, or independently - moves through the same seven stages. The stages aren't strictly sequential; products move backwards and forwards through them constantly. But the work at each stage is distinct. The concepts and frameworks below are the ones I have found genuinely useful, named so they can be referred to and applied.

01/ 07

Conceive

“What should we build?”

Identifying real user problems, market gaps, and opportunities before building anything. The goal at this stage is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution - and to validate that the problem is worth solving before committing engineering and design resources to it.

Concepts at this stage · 9

Problem Discovery vs Solution Obsession Falling in love with the problem before falling in love with the solution. Customer Persona Creation Building a realistic snapshot of a user segment to focus product decisions. User Interviews & Research Talking to real users to understand needs that data alone can't reveal. Hypothesis Creation & Validation Turning product instincts into testable hypotheses and validating them with users. Market & Competitor Analysis Mapping the landscape a product will compete in before committing to a direction. Opportunity Sizing & Market Potential Estimating how big the addressable opportunity is before committing resources. Jobs To Be Done ● guide Understanding why users hire a product - and why they fire it. Value Proposition Design Articulating why a user would choose this product over the alternatives. Product Vision Alignment Connecting product decisions to a coherent longer-term vision.

02/ 07

Plan

“Is this the right thing to build - and how will we build it well?”

Validating ideas, aligning teams, and strategising the product path before moving into execution. The focus is on translating the validated problem into a buildable plan - defining what's in scope, what's out, how success will be measured, and how teams will work together to ship it.

Concepts at this stage · 9

MVP Definition & Scope Setting Defining the smallest version of a product that delivers real value and tests a real hypothesis. Feature Prioritisation Techniques Choosing what to build next from a longer list of candidates. Writing Good OKRs Setting objectives and key results that focus a team on outcomes that matter. Stakeholder Alignment & Buy-In Getting the people who matter on side before execution begins. Product Roadmapping Mapping what gets built when, and what gets traded off in service of it. Defining Success Metrics Choosing the metrics that will tell you whether the product is working. Assumption Mapping & Risk Reduction Surfacing the unverified beliefs underneath a plan and testing the riskiest ones first. Setting Product Goals Defining the outcomes a product is trying to achieve in a given time period. Creating a Pre-Launch Plan Defining the milestones, dependencies, and readiness checks that precede launch.

03/ 07

Develop

“Let's build it right - with clarity, speed, and collaboration.”

Turning validated ideas into a working product through specs, collaboration, trade-offs, and execution. This is where the PM's role shifts from defining what to build to enabling the team to build it well - writing clear requirements, removing blockers, managing scope, and protecting quality.

Concepts at this stage · 12

Writing a Great PRD Producing a product requirements document that aligns teams and reduces rework. User Stories & Acceptance Criteria Writing requirements that engineering and design can act on without ambiguity. Agile, Scrum & Kanban Iterative delivery frameworks that structure how teams plan, ship, and adapt. Scope Creep Handling Holding the line on what's in and what's out as a project unfolds. Engineer & Designer Collaboration Working with engineering and design as partners, not as resources. Tracking & Unblocking Progress Spotting where work is stuck and clearing the path forward. Managing Technical Debt Balancing the velocity of shipping against the long-term cost of shortcuts. Design Handoff Transferring design assets to engineering in a way that preserves intent. QA Planning Structuring quality assurance so it catches issues before they reach users. User Acceptance Testing Verifying with real users that the product meets the original requirements. Accessibility Building products that work for users with disabilities through inclusive design and standards. Instrumentation Setting up the analytics that will let you measure what matters after launch.

04/ 07

Qualify

“Does this product meet quality, usability, and user expectations - before it goes live?”

Ensuring what you've built is functionally correct, usable, accessible, and aligned with user needs. This stage is the bridge between development and launch - a structured pre-launch validation that what you've built will hold up in the real world.

Concepts at this stage · 6

Usability Testing for PMs Watching real users attempt to use a product to find where it breaks down. User Acceptance Testing Verifying with real users that the product meets the original requirements. Bug Triage & Severity Prioritisation Deciding which bugs block launch, which can wait, and how to communicate the call. Pre-Launch Go/No-Go Decision Framework Structuring the call on whether the product is ready to ship. Beta Testing & Early Feedback Loops Releasing to a controlled group before general launch to catch real-world issues early. Regression Testing & Rollback Plans Verifying that new releases don't break existing functionality, with rollback paths if they do.

05/ 07

Launch

“Let's bring this product into the world - confidently, clearly, and cross-functionally.”

Internal readiness, external communication, user onboarding, and first-response monitoring. Launch is not just shipping code - it's orchestrating product, engineering, design, marketing, sales, support, and analytics to land the product successfully in users' hands.

Concepts at this stage · 6

Coordinating a Cross-Functional Launch Orchestrating product, engineering, design, marketing, sales, and support to land a launch. Customer Communication & Feature Announcement Telling users about a new feature in a way that drives adoption. Feature Flagging & Gradual Rollouts Releasing new features to controlled cohorts before exposing them to all users. First-Response Metrics & Live Monitoring Watching the metrics that tell you whether a launch is going well in real time. Onboarding Experience for New Features Introducing a new feature to existing users without disrupting their workflow. Internal Enablement: Sales, Support, and Ops Preparing internal teams to support and sell a new product.

06/ 07

Deliver

“What happens after launch? Let's ensure adoption, learning, and iteration.”

Moving from shipping to sustained impact through adoption, retention, feedback loops, and data-driven iteration. A launch is only successful if users actually use the product over time - this stage is about compounding what works and fixing what doesn't.

Concepts at this stage · 6

Measuring Adoption & Retention Tracking whether users actually use the product over time. Collecting & Synthesising User Feedback Turning scattered user input into patterns that drive product decisions. Post-Launch Experimentation & A/B Testing Running structured experiments to learn what improves the product. Identifying & Addressing Drop-Offs Finding where users abandon a flow and diagnosing why. Continuous Improvement Roadmapping Building an evolving post-launch roadmap that responds to real usage data. North Star Metric Review & Long-Term Success Revisiting whether the metric you chose still captures what matters.

07/ 07

Retire

“Is it time to sunset, pivot, or evolve this product?”

Making product decisions with clarity and data - even when it means letting go. Not every feature or product deserves indefinite life. This stage is about detecting low adoption, high cost, strategic misalignment, or tech debt that justifies deprecation - and managing the transition responsibly.

Concepts at this stage · 5

Identifying When to Sunset a Product or Feature Detecting the signals - usage, cost, strategy - that justify deprecation. Evaluating Pivot vs Sunset vs Maintain Deciding whether a struggling product should change direction, be killed, or be maintained. Communicating a Product Sunset to Users Telling users a product is being retired in a way that preserves trust. Data Migration & Transition Planning Moving user data and workflows safely when retiring a product or feature. Capturing Learnings & Postmortem Insights Extracting durable lessons from a product or feature that didn't survive.

The lifecycle is one entry point. The Frameworks library lists every concept above as a flat, searchable index - useful when you know what you're looking for.

Browse the Frameworks library