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Top 10 Product Manager Tools

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Free curated list of easy to use, must have top 10 Product Manager tools. These product management tools are recommended to help you become a successful PM!

Free curated list of easy to use, must have top 10 Product Manager tools. These product management tools are recommended to help you become a successful PM!

Speaking of success, do you know the personality traits that make Elon Musk such a good Product Manager?

These tools are a part of the daily routine for most Product Managers.

By the way, whether you are a Product Manager or a Project Manager, these tools should be helpful to you.

In other words, even if you are a Scrum Master or PMP certified professional, these tools will be necessary for you.

Now is also a good time to make sure you know the following –

Best Product Manager Tools

As a Project Manager, you may be familiar with Microsoft Project, but it is good to be aware of the other tools out there.

Free curated list of easy to use, must have top 10 Product Manager tools. These product management tools are recommended to help you become a successful PM!

The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.

Benjamin Franklin

But how do you choose the right tools?

Remember, there is no “standard” product management tool.

Various aspects of our job require us to use various tools. It is important to choose the right tool within that particular aspect of our job.

The first step to choosing the right tools is actually understanding all the key product management skills.

You may already be familiar with most of them.

Or you may be new to the field of product management.

Either way, it is always a good idea to refresh your memory with these required skills.

Learn how to grab opportunities like Warren Buffett!

Skills

I also want to focus a little bit on the core skills of product management. These are your manager tools basics, that we need to cover.

You can check out a detailed list of all the necessary Product Manager skills.

All the tools in the world will not help if you do not take time to understand the basics of product management.

For example, do you know how to influence without authority?

If you are new to product management, have you invested time in researching the top 9 courses on product management?

You know what they say –

A bad workman always blames his tools.

I am sure that after you do your research, the above will not be applicable to you!

If you look closely, each category of tool can easily correspond to an essential skill of product management.

Now, let us focus on the different tools that we need in the art of product management.

Product Manager Tools – Categories

Tools for product managers can be divided into the following 10 categories –

  1. Task Management
  2. Requirements Gathering
  3. Customer Interview/Feedback
  4. Mock Ups
  5. Product Roadmap
  6. Meetings or Video Calls
  7. Team Communication
  8. Presentation
  9. Customer Onboarding
  10. Heatmap Testing

I will be providing examples of the best tools within each category of product management tools.

Product Management Tools – Best Examples

I would not say that there is a single product management software. Instead, the product management process is achieved through a combination of various product manager tools.

With that being said, let’s review the essential product manager toolkit.

Task Management

You don’t want your task management tool to be too complex. The tools is only a means to an end.

It should not become a process in itself.

So, it should be easy and not take too much of your time (learn the basics of Jira).

You don't want your task management tool to be too complex. The tools is only a means to an end.
Trello board example.

Here are the top 4 task management tools –

  1. Jira
  2. Trello
  3. Asana
  4. Rally

Requirements Gathering

Yes, every product starts off with this step.

  1. Confluence
  2. Microsoft Word
  3. Google Docs

Customer Interview & Feedback

Every good Product Manager knows the importance of constant customer feedback.

Conducting an efficient interview process is the hallmark of efficient product management.

Basically, this should be a part of every single release.

Conducting an efficient interview process is the hallmark of efficient product management.

Following tools help with the customer feedback gathering process –

  1. SurveyMonkey
  2. Typeform

Mock Ups or Prototypes

Since you are a PM, it is important to give a visual idea to your stakeholders.

  1. Moqups
  2. Balsamiq

Roadmap Creation

Also important to have a strategy in place, I recommend Google’s OKR Strategy.

  1. AHA
  2. ProductPlan

Meetings or Video Calls

As a Product Manager, it is critical to meet stakeholders as often as possible.

Face to face meetings work best.

But, video calls have become very important during situations when people have to work from home.

As a Product Manager, it is critical to meet stakeholders as often as possible. Video calls are the new normal.

Many major companies have announced permanent work from home.

Many other companies have announced that employees can work from home and come to the office only when necessary.

Zoom is probably the only company that has significantly outperformed the market because of its criticality during work from home situations.

Here are the top 5 video conferencing tools –

  1. GoToMeeting
  2. Webex
  3. Zoom
  4. Skype
  5. Google Meet

Team Communication

Since you are a Product Manager, learn how to communicate like a champ Product Manager.

  1. Microsoft Teams
  2. Slack

Presentation

A great Product Manager can easily convey his or her ideas to diverse audience with ease.

In fact, making solid presentations is an art in itself.

A good presentation is more helpful in convincing stakeholders than endless email chains.

Don’t forget the PPT KISS principle!

A good presentation is more helpful in convincing stakeholders than endless email chains.

Here are 3 great tools for crafting good presentations –

  1. PowerPoint
  2. Keynote
  3. Prezi

Customer Onboarding

This may or may not be applicable to your product, especially if it is an internal company tool.

  1. WalkMe
  2. Appcues
  3. Hopscotch

Heatmap Testing

There is a myth that heat map testing is not for small companies or is too complex.

Far from it, heat mapping is not only easy, but it is a must for for any client facing product.

There are great tools available out there that help in efficient heatmapping for any website or app.

Heat mapping is not only easy, but it is a must for for any client facing product.
Source

To understand user experience, some of these tools are very good.

  1. Hotjar
  2. Optimizely
  3. Adobe Target
  4. Helio

That was a list of the most popular tools used in agile software development. This is also a good time to understand the differences between Agile and Waterfall.

Best Product Management Tools

We have covered some of the best tools for product management.

Your job is to setup your own individual product management system, choosing the right product planning tool that is best suited for your needs.

You should also familiarise yourself with the following –

There are many free agile tools available out there, including open source Kanban tools. Even though I may have listed a tool under a particular heading. Most of these tools perform multiple tasks.

For example, creating a Jira product roadmap is a common practice and most developers in the agile product management environment are comfortable with a Jira roadmap.

Basically, try to be versatile and not limit your knowledge to only a few tools. This is similar to being product agnostic!

Life Cycle Management

It is also important to note that different tools may be required during different stages of the product life cyle (PLC).

I recommend checking out the ultimate guide to the product lifecycle.

For example, you don’t need tools to conduct A/B testing when your product is mature.

Or for that matter, you would prefer doing a market competitor analysis before launching your product, not during the growth stage.

A great Product Manager is always aware of his or her surroundings and keeps a keen eye on the product lifecycle.

After all, the product lifecycle is solely the responsibility of the Product Manager and nobody else.

So, make sure you arm yourself with the right tool during each stage of the product life cycle.

Product Management Tools and Techniques – Summary

You should now have a good idea about product management tools and techniques.

As mentioned before, you have a variety of tools to choose from and that there is no standard product management tool.

Also, knowing which tools to use depends entirely on your individual product management workflow. As a follow up, aha product management is useful.

So, you now have the necessary tools to create your next product plan or your next software roadmap.

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