Knowledge Byte: The Journey of Digital Products

The digital product goes through various lifecycle stages, as shown in the following figure.

Let’s discuss the various activities that take place during each phase.

1. Exploration:

• The service provider researches and develops the product and service offering.
• The service consumer becomes aware of the existence of a
• The product assesses it as desirable and then proceeds with the agreement.

2. Onboarding:

• The service provider installs an instance of the product to make it available to the consumer (or onboard the user organization). Sometimes with a transition from a replaced product.

3. Cocreating:

• The service consumer uses the product and experiences increasing, stable, or decreasing value. It eventually leads to a decision to replace or retire the product.
• The service provider delivers and supports the product and experiences increasing, stable, or decreasing return on investment. It leads to an investment decision to buy, hold, or sell.

4. Offboarding:

• The service provider uninstalls the instance of the product to make it unavailable to the consumer (or offboard the user organization). Sometimes with a transition to a replacement product.

5. Retired:

• The service consumer no longer uses the product. Other consumers may use it.
• The service provider no longer offers or supports the product.