Due to the extremely large temperature and energy density reached in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, a hot and dense state of matter is produced, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), in which quarks and gluons are deconfined. Due to these properties, this short-lived state shows a very different behaviour compared to ordinary hadronic matter. In this contribution, the typical evolution of a heavy-ion collision is described, from the onset of the QGP phase to the production of final-state particles. Recent experimental results from the LHC Collaborations, allowing us to characterise the various system stages, are reported. Particular focus is given on the hadronisation stage, in which the transition from deconfined partons to hadrons occurs.