Product retirement refers to the process of discontinuing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product and removing it from the market. It involves the deliberate decision to stop offering a product to customers and taking necessary steps to wind down its operations.
Examples
- Google Inbox: Google retired Inbox, an email app, in 2019. They communicated the retirement well in advance and provided alternative options for users.
- Microsoft Windows XP: Microsoft retired Windows XP, an operating system, in 2014. They stopped providing updates and support for the product, encouraging users to upgrade to newer versions.
Importance
Product retirement is an essential aspect of product management. It allows companies to focus their resources on developing and supporting more relevant and profitable products. By retiring a product, businesses can avoid the costs associated with maintaining and updating outdated software. It also enables companies to align their product offerings with market demands and technological advancements.
How to Use Product Retirement
- Evaluate product performance: Assess the product's performance, including usage metrics, customer feedback, and market trends. Determine if the product is still meeting customer needs and if it aligns with the company's long-term strategy.
- Communicate with stakeholders: Notify customers, partners, and other stakeholders about the decision to retire the product. Clearly communicate the timeline, reasons, and any alternative solutions or migration paths available.
- Plan for transition: Develop a comprehensive plan for the retirement process, including a timeline, resource allocation, and steps to ensure a smooth transition for customers and any associated data or integrations.
- Execute retirement plan: Follow the established plan, ensuring all necessary actions are taken to retire the product, such as disabling access, terminating contracts, and archiving data.
- Evaluate post-retirement impact: Continuously monitor the impact of product retirement on customers, revenue, and market position. Use this feedback to improve future product retirements.
Useful Tips
- Timing is crucial: Plan the retirement well in advance, considering factors such as contractual obligations, customer adoption of alternatives, and any dependencies on the product.
- Provide alternatives: Offer customers alternative products or services that may fulfill their needs. This helps maintain customer loyalty and mitigates the impact of retirement.
- Communicate effectively: Use multiple communication channels to inform customers about the retirement, ensuring they have sufficient time to migrate to alternative solutions.
- Consider data migration: If applicable, provide customers with options to export or migrate their data from the retiring product to alternative solutions.
- Learn from the retirement: Collect feedback from customers and internal teams to identify lessons learned and improve future product retirements.
- End-of-life (EOL)
- Sunset policy
- Product decommissioning
- Legacy product
- Customer migration
- Product lifecycle
- Product obsolescence
- Product replacement
- Deprecation
- Product versioning