Product Managers have to take care of a lot of things. After all, taking a product from idea to reality is no small task. All this becomes possible only when you have great tools at your disposal to facilitate your work. Nowadays, Product Managers can look beyond spreadsheets and presentations for their work because of the innumerable tools in the market aimed specifically at them. Some of these tools are essential for every Product Manager, whether he is just starting out or has been in the game for years now.
The tools that we are going to mention now are going to address and help you in all aspects of Product Management, be it developing the product roadmap or improving the user experience or marketing the product. We have divided the tools in certain categories depending on the part of Product Management they address. And yes, when we say the most essential tools for a Product Manager, we have not included the quintessential Excel and Powerpoint. You already know you need these. Now without further ado, let’s dive straight in.
Not long ago I spent a significant amount of time reviewing all manner of project/product management tools. At my previous job I had grown comfortable with my toolset, but when I came to Forbes it was time to reevaluate. I took to this with a furiosity known only to those who create work in order to put off other, more demanding, work.
There has been a huge amount of development in team-focused SaaS products (just check out Product Hunt some time), and as a result there is an endless number of choices with only the slightest changes differentiating one from another. After all, what product manager or developer hasn’t considered building their own tools?
Finding the best project management software is a daunting process when there are hundreds of different options, online tools, and apps available: both free and paid.
Whether you are just starting out or are an experienced project manager, let’s face it: we all struggle with project constraints and need the top project management software that will help us throughout the project, from concept to reality.
Companies Adopting Product Management Methods
Gartner’s recently released Market Guide for Product Management and Roadmapping Tools reports a continued uptick in adoption of a product-centric-delivery model. By 2022, Gartner claims, 70% of organizations will have made this shift and let go of older project management practices in favor of more integrated product management methods. In addition, by 2023, 75% of product managers “will rely on product management and roadmapping tools to improve planning and communication with IT and business stakeholders”. Product leaders should take advantage of the moment to review how their team manages every phase in the product life cycle and determine areas that could benefit from current solutions on the market.
While the threats that have motivated large organizations to transform are existential in nature, the leaders who will help guide those organizations to success are right under their noses: product managers. The product management role itself is undergoing a tremendous evolution—a shift that bodes well for large organization.
We recently surveyed more than 250 product managers to uncover both how their teams are transforming and how their teams are transforming their organizations. This article covers three key insights on the role of modern product managers in 2019 and beyond.
One of the most vital and necessary practices within any business is the ability to manage their product effectively and efficiently. Deadlines need to be met, time frames utilized, and, of course, product needs to sell.
Like any well-oiled machine, management must work in a system in order to not only survive, but thrive. It’s not just about getting information jotted down, it’s about sharing content and critiquing where needed.
Product Managers are often considered the “CEO of a product”, and just like successful CEOs, successful data-driven product managers need a variety of different tools, skills, and capabilities that cut across many domains.
As a product-centric company building a behavioral analytics platform used by many product teams, we originally started creating this list for ourselves as an internal company spreadsheet. As it’s grown over the years and we’ve filled it out with our notes, we thought it might be a valuable resource for others to accelerate their own data-driven product management process.
Below we’ve broken out the list by category of tools with an explanation of how we define them. They are listed in order of each step of how the product management process operates, from product ideation all the way through to analyzing user engagement with your finished product.
Product managers wear many hats. They collaborate with designers, developers, and a variety of stakeholders in their organization. They design prototypes and survey users to inform their roadmaps. And they analyze key performance metrics to make better product decisions.
Fortunately, there are a wealth of product management tools that make this work easier, and, in some cases, enable product managers to things that were virtually impossible before. There are so many tools on the market, that’s it’s almost become overwhelming to find the best tool for a given need.
Drawing from the results of our 2018 Product Management Insights survey, and interviews with several founders and executives of companies that serve product managers, here seven of the best product management tools, and how you can utilize them to build better products.
Stories about humble beginnings have become legendary in tech. A couple of geniuses, a garage and an ambitious vision: all it takes to kick-start a digital revolution.
Do you really think this is how most people do it?
Face it, we are not all destined to change the face of tech. Or maybe we are; but most of us work hard, one day at a time. And you are going to appreciate every help you can get. A great team, better management and a cool product will make things easier. But you cannot really choose them. Most of the time, you will be joining existing operations with their own problems and challenges.
Ever since our team at UX Studio started using product management tools, the time spent on communication surprisingly decreased. We all hate email: endless exchanges with our colleagues to reach decisions... We’ve all seen that. Here are some tried and tools for team collaboration, product analytics, issue tracking, and user feedback collection. Hand-picked by our UX researchers, UX/UI designers, and product managers.
As a product manager, you know the drill. Coordinating designer and developer teams simultaneously while reporting to the boss via email becomes a drag.
13 best product management tools can help you become a better resource for your cross-functional product team, from outlining your roadmap to building your wireframes.
Leading a product from conception to completion is not easy, and we deserve using better product management tools that help to improve the work efficiency & productivity. But the reality is many PMs have scarce resources to do this great work, and we relied on general project management software, such as spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, etc.
The toolkit below includes everything you need as a product manager, from outlining your roadmap to the tactical side of making your wireframes/prototypes. They together will definitely help you become a good resource for your product team. The tools are generally divided into the following areas:
If you’re a product manager or planning on becoming one, your company is going to rely on you to ensure that their products are well designed, functional and perform as intended. Product managers are often responsible for the strategy, roadmap and features that’ll be included in product releases, which is a lot of responsibility.
This means you’ll have many different tasks you’re responsible for, ranging from finding opportunities for new products and designing, creating and launching them, to overseeing your existing products, and even winding down outdated features that aren’t making the cut.
When we talk about product management tools, we’re usually referring to the standard few that most product managers use every day: a spreadsheet, a project management software, and a purpose-built roadmap tool.
But a product manager’s job involves a lot more than tracking the backlog, overseeing the progress of her teams, and reviewing her product roadmap. Most product managers will need a much wider range of tools than the few that we typically associate with the job.
Leading a product from conception to completion is no easy task — and product managers deserve their own toolkit.
In the past, product managers had limited resources to help them do this great work. They relied on spreadsheets, presentation decks, and general project management software to create roadmaps, capture ideas, prioritize features, define requirements, and more. However, these tools were not created with product managers in mind. This adds more time-consuming work to an already challenging job.
Today, a wide variety of tools are available to make product management easier. This includes everything from setting product strategy to the tactical side of building out features and creating wireframes.