The document discusses planning for the end of life of a product. It presents a generic flow for managing a product's end that includes mapping the product, planning signals to determine when it should end, deciding whether and how to end it, staging the end, deploying it, and closing out. It provides examples of how a product could be ended, such as being mothballed, having its parts sold, or being open sourced. The discussion emphasizes the importance of planning for a product's end while it is still healthy.

1. A Generic Product
Retirement Product Plan
Slide Deck
Kill It and Dispose of the
Body, With Bullets or Love
Phil Wolff
Product Grim Reaper
Graceful Exits at Let My Data Go.org
#prodmgmt #eol
#killthepwoduct
#producthospice
#gracefulexit
#productmanagement
@evanwolf

2. Your product
won’t live
forever,
right? Let’s
have its endof-life
discussion
now.
@evanwolf

3. A generic flow
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

4. Signals
Based on
your advance
directive,
you’re
tracking key
indicators for
signals your
product is
not healthy.
@evanwolf

5. Set Triggers
Map
Plan
Signals
End?
How?
Stage
Deploy
• Choose key warning measures and
vital signs
Close Out
• Set up alerts
• Trigger Life or Death Meetings
Done
@evanwolf

6. End?
Convene your “death panel” to
choose life or death.
If life, go back to monitoring health.
@evanwolf

7. Choice: End Now?
Map
Plan
Signals
End?
How?
Stage
Deploy
• Get buy-in
• Abandon hope
Close Out
• Decide to end the product
Done
@evanwolf

8. Where does
the body go?
How?
@evanwolf

9. Choice: Disposal
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Weigh product death vs. other options
• Mothball for later revival, Sale
outright, Recycle parts internally, Sell
components, Donate to NGO,
Contribute IP to public (open source)
• Choose how your organization’s
relationship with the product will end
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

10. Choice: Disposal
How?
Just Done
Value Extraction
Now
Later
Bullets & Blood
Mind Wipe
Mothball
Graceful Exit
Chop Shop
Outplacement
Adoption
Set It Free
@evanwolf

11. Extreme Variations:
Bullets & Blood
How?
Shoot first, ask questions later
Pros:
• Rapid signals to partners, market, staff
• Rapid discovery of breakage
Cons:
Round
th
them a em up, put
gainst
the
wall, s
hoot ‘t
il d
drag th
e blood ead,
y
bodies
to a dit
ch, tos
in lime
s
. Pack
your
snacks
,g
guns, a rab your
nd leav
e.
• Preventable breakage
• Prolonged cleanup stage
• Higher risk of liability, legal challenges
@evanwolf

12. Extreme Variations:
Graceful Exit
How?
Leave the ecosystem better than you found it
Pros:
• Thorough
• Builds reputation
• Manages risk
Cons:
• More up-front work
Takes:
Do right by u
sers,
- Planning
partners, the
- Soft skills
ecosystem, &
society.
- Rea
diness for
emotional
Meaningful n
otice,
intensity
data portabi
lity,
- resource c
paths for con
ushion.
tinuity,
customer voi
ce
@evanwolf

13. Disposal variations:
Mind wipe
How?
End the product under its brand name
Relaunch under a new name or as a white label service
and
eting
Mark ing suck?
g
messa
l on
w labe
a ne
n.
Stick
y agai
tr
it and
@evanwolf

14. Disposal variations:
Chop Shop
How?
Sell the parts
Harves
t
Dump the organs.
the bod
y
Data. Plumbing. Experiences.
Relationships. Business Models.
Creative.
@evanwolf

15. Disposal variations:
Outplacement
How?
Sell the whole product to another organization
g
in
Product traffick
@evanwolf

16. Disposal variations:
Give up for
How?
adoption
Donate to an NGO
Users have continuity
Want it?
Take it.
Now.
@evanwolf

17. Disposal variations:
Set it free
How?
Put the IP into the public domain
Hand control to the customers or ecosystem
Leave remains in the
open for vultures and
historians to pick
over
@evanwolf

18. Disposal variations:
Mothball
How?
Suspend the product until better conditions
“It’s de
ad” sh
e said.
But we
k
kept h new she
im clos
et
cold st
orage i ed in
n
basem
ent. He the
might
live ag
ain.
Some d
ay.
@evanwolf

19. Dig In
Map, Plan,
Prep,
Rollout,
Respond
@evanwolf

20. Map what’s to be done
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Detail your product’s…
• Technologies
• Operations
• Business flows
• Financial flows
• Regulatory flows
• Ecosystem
dependencies
• Customer
relationships
• Media
relationships
Deploy
Close Out
Done
• Staff
@evanwolf

21. Scope and sequence
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Define completion measures (how you
know it’s dead)
• Choose how you’re going to end the
product, step-by-step
• Communications/relationships plan
Deploy
Close Out
• Technology/operations plan
• Finance, Legal, HR plan
• Define post-product needs & plan to
deploy them
Done
@evanwolf

22. Prepare for rollout
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Execute pre-closure steps
• Announcements
• IT prep, operations, testing
• Business activities
Deploy
Close Out
• Cutover design
• Post-closure setup
Done
@evanwolf

23. End the product
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
Deploy
• Flip the switch
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

24. Clean up and leave
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Rapid response to breakage
• Systems, relationships, legal, HR
Deploy
• Dispose of product remains
• Track and handoff post-life services
Close Out
• Product team debriefings, wakes
• Financial, legal, HR, real estate
closeouts
Done
@evanwolf

25. Done
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
• Final project reporting
• Turn out the lights
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

26. Done
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
So that’s
how we talk
about
putting your
product out
to pasture.
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

27. Done
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
Let me ask
you a few
questions.
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

28. Done
Signals
Map
Kill?
How?
Are you
Plan
ready to
Stage
prepare for
end-of-life
Deploy
while your
Close is
product Out
still
healthy?
Done
@evanwolf

29. Done
Signals
Map
Kill?
How?
Can you
Plan
shift to the
Stage
happily
grim
Deploy
mindset of
Close Out
a reaper?
Done
@evanwolf

30. Done
Are you,
your
Signals
Kill?
product’s
champion,
best suited
and best
prepared to
deal death
to your own
products?
Map
Plan
How?
Stage
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

31. Done
It’s
probably Kill?
Signals
time for a
new
#prodmgmt
specialty.
The Reaper.
Map
Plan
How?
Stage
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

32. Share your product death stories
to improve reaping
Your stories from real product endings
Anecdotes tell us what to test
Instrumented experiments
Share hard data
Surveys
How people think
Prediction markets
Test conclusions
@evanwolf

33. Product Reaping could become a
standalone product management
discipline
More science, less art
More ROI, less housekeeping
More brand building, less brand protection
More experience, less “ooh, that’s a wheel”
More up front planning and prep, less last minute scramble
More reaping ecosystem:
• apps (or features in #prodmgmt apps)
• markets (for selling features, products)
• services (project support)
@evanwolf

34. Done
Map
Plan
Signals
Kill?
How?
Stage
Thanks!
Deploy
Close Out
Done
@evanwolf

35. Phil Wolff
e
skype
v
t
phil@LetMyDataGo.org
evanwolf
+1-510-343-5664
@evanwolf @letmydatago
bio
cv
blog
About.me/evanwolf
Linkedin.com/in/philwolff
Letmydatago.org
Hi!
Email or tweet
your stories,
suggestions,
referrals
or just call/skype
Phil Wolff is a consulting product manager in
Oakland, California. Phil co-founded four startups,
worked as a programmer, project manager, business
analyst, technology architect, industry analyst,
operations researcher, and tech journalist at Bechtel
National, Wang Labs, LSI Logic, Adecco SA, NavSup,
and privacy NGOs.
@evanwolf

36. Phil Wolff
Hi!
Email or tweet
your stories,
suggestions,
referrals
or just call/skype
e
skype
v
t
phil@LetMyDataGo.org
evanwolf
+1-510-343-5664
@evanwolf @letmydatago
bio
cv
blog
About.me/evanwolf
Linkedin.com/in/philwolff
Letmydatago.org
Phil Wolff is a consulting product manager in
Oakland, California. Phil co-founded four startups,
worked as a programmer, project manager, business
analyst, technology architect, industry analyst,
operations researcher, and tech journalist at Bechtel
National, Wang Labs, LSI Logic, Adecco SA, NavSup,
and privacy NGOs. He volunteers in Code for
America’s #OpenOakland brigade.
@evanwolf