What is product lifecycle management (PLM)?
Airtable's Product Team
5 min read
Managing a product from first idea to retirement should be seamless—but in reality, it rarely is. Design teams build in CAD, engineering manages specs in ERP systems, marketing plans in spreadsheets, and operations handles pricing and procurement separately. The result is fragmented workflows and decisions made without full context. When information lives in silos, design updates don’t reach procurement, BOM changes get lost, testing data comes in too late, and teams face slipping timelines, higher costs, and quality risks.
Product lifecycle management (PLM) solves this disconnect by unifying product data, teams, and workflows in one system. With real-time visibility across the entire lifecycle—from concept and design to sourcing, production, and launch—PLM streamlines collaboration, accelerates decisions, and helps companies deliver better products faster. This guide explains what PLM is, how it works, and why modern PLM platforms are critical for today’s product-driven organizations.
What is product lifecycle management (PLM)?
Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of connecting every phase of a product’s journey—from initial concept through development, launch, and eventual retirement. It gives teams a shared framework and technology stack to coordinate work, data, and decisions across each step of the lifecycle.
At its core, PLM establishes a single source of truth for all product information. Instead of scattered files and siloed systems, PLM synchronizes updates across engineering, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, and marketing. It integrates key tools like CAD, ERP, CRM, and project management platforms so every team works from the same real-time data, reducing risk, accelerating execution, and enabling more informed decision-making.
Accelerate your product lifecycle with a ready-to-use roadmap template
Why is product lifecycle management important?
Every product decision has a ripple effect across your business. A design tweak changes material and resource costs. A supplier delay impacts delivery timelines. A missed SaaS update in one system can cascade across other dependent business systems. Over time, these disconnects erode product profitability, quality, and trust.
By connecting product development functions, PLM gives teams a complete view into how design choices, costs, and schedules influence each other. Engineering and operations collaborate on bills of materials. Procurement teams see project changes instantly. Marketing gets visibility into product launch readiness. The entire business operates from a shared roadmap that creates visibility across the product portfolio.
And no one understands the importance of effective product lifecycle management better than Airtable customers. Take Benchling, the life sciences platform supporting more than 200,000 scientists worldwide. Their product organization uses Airtable to centralize key workflows across development, giving product, engineering, and customer-facing teams a shared source of truth.
Today, more than 300 product managers and field team members collaborate in a single workspace to manage roadmaps, plan launches, and connect customer feedback directly to product decisions, ensuring every improvement is grounded in real-world insight.
A brief history of PLM
The concept of PLM emerged when companies started developing more complex products that moved through distinct market phases. Initially, these were known as pioneering, competitive, and retentive.
As organizations realized the need to coordinate these phases across engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain teams, PLM evolved from a technical discipline into a strategic framework that connects people, processes, and data throughout a product’s entire lifecycle.
Stages of product lifecycle management
As product management matures, so do the phases that shape it. While every organization approaches product development differently, most products move through four core stages—each with distinct objectives, handoffs, and challenges.
Introduction and development
The product launches and enters the market. Early adopters begin evaluating its value and providing critical feedback that informs refinement. During this stage, teams focus on sharpening positioning, validating demand, and ensuring a seamless early customer experience. Analyst coverage, product reviews, and user testimonials play a key role in shaping market perception and accelerating adoption.
Growth
Adoption accelerates and the product moves into the mainstream. Demand increases, new competitors enter the market, and the priority shifts to scaling efficiently. Teams focus on optimizing production, strengthening processes, and delivering continuous product enhancements to maintain momentum. Customer support and success programs become essential, and real-time data guides prioritization of improvements. As visibility grows, the product begins appearing in industry comparisons, market reports, and analyst maturity curves, further validating its place in the market.
Maturity
The product reaches peak market presence, and the focus shifts to maximizing efficiency and profitability. Analyst rankings, customer satisfaction, and renewal rates become key indicators of sustained performance. Teams prioritize continuous improvement, operational efficiency, and cost optimization to maintain competitiveness, while simultaneously investing in next-generation innovations to extend the product’s lifecycle and fuel future growth.
Decline
Demand begins to slow down as new technologies or changing customer needs reshape the market. Profit margins shrink, and companies face a business decision: continue to support the product, acquire and replace it with a newer solution, or gradually sunset the offering. This is the final phase of the lifecycle.
The product lifecycle management process
Success at every stage of the product lifecycle depends on having the right process in place. PLM builds the framework that transforms daily operations into meaningful outcomes: satisfied customers, stronger profits, and sustainable growth.
Concept and ideation
Every product begins with an idea before it’s introduced to the market. Teams capture customer needs, perform market research, and evaluate feasibility. Start by gathering early insights, defining business goals, and turning them into measurable requirements that set the stage for your product roadmap.
Development
Turn your vision into reality through feature prioritization, simulation, and prototyping. As you test and refine, version control keeps dependencies visible and ensures every team works from the same real-time data
Launch
When testing and validation confirm your product meets requirements, it's time to launch. Synchronize production, documentation, and go-to-market activities to guarantee launch readiness.
Service and support
Launch marks a new phase, not the finish line. Teams continue to ship updates, analyze performance data, and deliver customer support as the product matures. Centralize this information to accelerate problem-solving and fuel smarter iterations.
Retirement
Eventually, every product reaches the end of its lifecycle. PLM helps teams plan phase-out strategies, such as gradually ending support, replacing the product, or offering customer incentives like trade-ins. The goal is to manage the customer transition smoothly while learning lessons for future development.
Key components of effective product lifecycle management
Successful PLM balances three essentials: people, process, and technology. When aligned, they create a unified framework that optimizes the product journey for stakeholders and customers alike.
People
PLM connects everyone involved in the product journey around shared goals, timelines, and data. When teams collaborate within the same system, information flows seamlessly, accountability strengthens, and customers receive faster updates and better experiences.
Connect design, engineering, procurement, operations, sales, and go-to-market teams in one workspace. Capture lessons learned and design history to accelerate future development.
Process
PLM structures creativity through consistent workflows, change management, and quality control standards:
Product and data management (PDM) establishes a single source of truth for designs, documentation, and product-related assets.
Supply chain and procurement coordination integrates with ERP and supply chain systems to manage suppliers, materials, and logistics.
Governance and compliance embeds regulatory standards directly into workflows for complete traceability and auditability.
Technology
Technology connects people and processes. Modern PLM platforms integrate data across CAD, ERP, CRM, and project management systems to create a real-time view of the entire product lifecycle.
Look for platforms with automation features that streamline revision control, approvals, and notifications, helping teams move faster with fewer errors. Prioritize security and permissions that protect intellectual property through role-based access controls and comprehensive version history. Choose tools with analytics dashboards that track time to market, cost variance, product quality, and customer satisfaction.
Future trends in PLM
AI-powered decision-making becomes standard: AI is already here but 76% of product leaders expect their investment in AI to grow, according to our research. AI is transforming PLM from documentation into intelligence—writing product briefs in minutes, matching roadmap initiatives to strategic goals, automating launch updates, and predicting supply chain delays. Teams that treat AI as a side project will fall behind. The future belongs to organizations that embed AI into every phase of the product lifecycle.
From features to revenue accountability: Our research also revealed that 92% of product leaders now own revenue outcomes—more than double from just a few years ago. PLM can no longer exist in isolation. Success requires integrating product data with go-to-market systems like Salesforce, Marketo, and Snowflake to connect what's being built with how it performs in-market. Product leaders must track pipeline, customer feedback loops, and metrics that tie directly to revenue and retention.
Smarter feedback loops at scale: 40% of product leaders still rely on human teams to manually parse and analyze growing volumes of customer feedback. AI changes this by automatically synthesizing feedback across reviews, support tickets, surveys, and social channels, helping teams spot trends in real time and prioritize with confidence rather than reacting to the loudest voices.
AI workflows as the new operating model: Only one in three product teams say their workflows are truly efficient and repeatable. High-performing teams are automating manual tasks like reporting, data syncing, and feature prioritization. This isn't marginal improvement—it's a fundamental shift in how product organizations operate, enabling teams to scale with less effort while making faster, smarter decisions.
Careers in PLM
PLM manager: Oversees the entire product lifecycle strategy, from concept through end-of-life. They coordinate cross-functional teams, establish governance frameworks, ensure products meet business objectives, and drive continuous improvement throughout each lifecycle stage. This role requires both strategic vision and operational expertise to keep products on track from ideation to retirement.
Product lifecycle engineer: Focuses on the technical aspects of managing products through development, manufacturing, and maintenance phases. They work with CAD systems, manage engineering change orders (ECOs), optimize BOMs, and ensure design data flows seamlessly into production. This role sits at the intersection of engineering and operations.
Supply chain and procurement specialist: Manages the sourcing, supplier relationships, and material flow that keep products moving through their lifecycle. They coordinate with PLM systems to track component availability, manage vendor performance, mitigate supply chain risks, and ensure products can be manufactured cost-effectively and on schedule.
Quality and compliance manager: Ensures products meet regulatory standards, safety requirements, and quality benchmarks throughout their lifecycle. They embed compliance checks into PLM workflows, manage audit trails, oversee testing and validation processes, and maintain documentation that proves adherence to industry regulations like FDA, ISO, or environmental standards.
Product lifecycle analyst: Analyzes product performance data across the entire lifecycle to drive data-informed decisions. They track KPIs like time-to-market, cost variance, defect rates, and customer satisfaction, identify bottlenecks in processes, and provide insights that help teams optimize product strategy, improve profitability, and extend product longevity.
How does a PLM system work?
A PLM system works by creating a central hub where all product information lives—designs, specifications, bills of materials, test results, and documentation. It connects everyone involved in the product journey, from engineers and manufacturers to sales teams and suppliers, ensuring they all work from the same real-time data. The system automates workflows like design approvals and change requests, routing tasks to the right people and updating related documents automatically. It also integrates with other business tools like CAD, ERP, and CRM systems so data flows seamlessly across departments without manual transfers.
As a product moves from concept to launch and beyond, PLM tracks every stage and maintains complete version control and audit trails. Engineers can access current designs, manufacturing pulls accurate production instructions, procurement sees material needs, and quality teams document compliance—all within one platform. The system manages dependencies so when one thing changes, all related elements update accordingly. Essentially, PLM acts as the operating system for your product, coordinating all the moving parts to get products to market faster and keep them performing well throughout their lifecycle.
Product lifecycle management tools
PLM isn't about adding more software—it's about creating an integrated system aligned with your processes and business strategy. Some companies connect multiple specialized tools; others consolidate everything in a single PLM platform.
Design and engineering tools like CAD and simulation software enable teams to design, prototype, and test products before production.
Product management platforms such as Airtable ProductCentral connect your entire lifecycle, from strategy through execution.
Project management tools track work, dependencies, and milestones across teams.
Customer and feedback systems including CRM and support platforms capture user insights and usage data.
Analytics and reporting tools measure performance, quality, and time-to-market through dashboards and BI systems.
AI capabilities automate workflows, categorize feedback, and generate product roadmaps.
When integrated, these tools create a powerful ecosystem: design data flows seamlessly into manufacturing, customer feedback shapes the next release, and analytics drive smarter product decisions. This transforms PLM from disconnected software into a dynamic system that helps organizations plan, build, launch, and improve products faster.
Common PLM challenges
Because PLM spans many people, workflows, and systems, challenges arise at different stages of the product lifecycle. The key is adapting your process as the product evolves.
Concept and introduction stage
Challenge: Fragmentation—teams capture customer needs, market research, and prototypes but store them in disconnected places, losing insights between departments
Resolution: Establish a shared workspace and clear data structure early to keep teams aligned from day one
Growth stage
Challenge: Misalignment as new users join and priorities shift, especially when PLM is treated as "just an engineering tool" rather than a business-wide system
Resolution: Position PLM as a shared business framework with leadership support and embed it into everyday routines across all teams
Maturity stage
Challenge: Data chaos—years of accumulated designs and documentation create inefficiency without proper governance
Resolution: Implement naming conventions, ownership rules, and approval paths to ensure reliable document management and scalability; integrate analytics for data-driven decisions
Decline and end-of-life stage
Challenge: Discipline fades as teams shift focus to new products, neglecting phase-out planning and knowledge capture
Resolution: Use PLM to manage phase-out systematically, document lessons learned, and close the loop for future product cycles
Manage your product lifecycle with Airtable ProductCentral
Successful product lifecycle management requires connecting everything and everyone—which is nearly impossible without the right platform. That's where Airtable ProductCentral comes in.
ProductCentral unifies every stage of the product lifecycle in one flexible workspace. Teams manage roadmaps, launches, and feedback while design, operations, and marketing stay aligned around a single source of truth. Built-in automation and AI insights transform data into action—helping teams plan smarter, move faster, and deliver better products.
With ProductCentral, PLM becomes simple, connected, and intelligent. Spend less time managing systems and more time building what's next.
Book a demo to see ProductCentral in action.
Accelerate your product lifecycle with a ready-to-use roadmap template
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