The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a fundamental concept in Marketing that defines specific characteristics of products and markets at various points in their evolution.   Less common is the discussion of the company evolution and characteristics at different stages, also known as the Organizational Life Cycle (OLC).   This article discusses the stages of the OLC and specifically how it relates to high tech product development and delivery organizations, from start-up through mature companies.

The Executive Viewpoint

There have been plenty of discussions about how to measure and demonstrate the value of Product Management within companies.    From posts on other sites:

• VP of Engineering has a mandate. You need one too.
• Product Management Metrics (part 1)
• Proiduct Management Metrics (part 2)

and from a recent roundtable at the October Seattle ProductCamp, there’s an obvious challenge for the profession.

I decided to follow the prescribed Product Management protocol – I went out and talked to my customers. Here’s the feedback from some senior executives running technology companies to the following questions:

And Are You Delegating Your Company's Future?

Where do you find most product management teams organizationally within companies or divisions? The two most likely scenarios are within the Development organization reporting to the CTO or VP of Development, or in the Marketing organization reporting to the CMO or VP of Marketing.

The question is: Is this the right place in your company for this function?