Product Management Tools
Product Management is no easy task. Leading a product from start to finish is not an easy task, and Product Managers deserve an easy way of doing this. In the past, there were limited resources, and most of them would rely on things such as presentation decks, spreadsheets, and general tools that would help them with roadmaps and prioritization of features and Predictive Success.
Well, things have changed, and now there are well-designed tools available in the market to make Product Management and development extremely easy for managers. These tools include everything from the product strategy set up to the more technical and tactical tools that help with creating wireframes and building the features.
A good Product Management tool should be able to help the Product teams in all phases of the product lifecycle. It should also help them assess, launch and iterate the product. They can be used for all or any of the following tasks;
- Defining the roadmap
- Prototyping.
- Mapping the user journey.
- Product road mapping.
- Customer research.
- Managing sprints.
- Analyzing product data.
- Feature prioritization
- Process mapping
- Managing product releases.
A Review of Product Management Tools
The Product Strategy Tool
This Product Management tool provides a well-composed product strategy, which is one of the success tools to Product Management. When your team does not know what they need or where to find it, then Productfolio becomes an integral part of their development.
Each team member and stakeholder usually has access to the strategy, which does not just refer to a static written document. Still, the information it defines is an integral part of all the other aspects of product development.
The goals/objectives in the strategy usually help in scoring opportunities that are considered for the roadmap. The themes help in the collection of ideas and requirements for the product and can also reference the customer profiles in the descriptions.
The Product strategy also anchors or “tent pegs,” the product development. It includes themes which are groupings for the ideas and requirements of the product.
With Productfolio, you can define all of the requirements upfront, which sets the stage for a detailed and integral plan that is reflected all through.
The customer-centric tool.
This is a Product Management tool that is comprehensive and built to meet customer needs. It is the first-ever customer-centric product Management tool. The Product Managers usually use this tool to harness all inputs from the stakeholders across the organization.
They then use the input they have received to make better decisions on product prioritization. If you do not know how to make quick decisions within the product team, this is one of the best tools to use.
Some of its main features;
It offers some key user insights at the right time – if you feel that you have been putting too much time and effort into coordinating the user interviews to get their insights, this is a tool that will make all of that easier.
Enables you to prioritize what to build next – with customer insights, you are in a better position to understand what the users want and use this information to your advantage in the subsequent product development.
Helps you appreciate what you have built – when customers respond positively to your product, you are in a great position to appreciate what you have done and also celebrate your achievements. This is the goal of every product development.
It helps preserve the existing workflows – with ProductBoard, you can consolidate the feature ideas, user inputs, and other customer touchpoints such as Zendesk and intercom. This definitely makes your work easier.
The Product Roadmapping Tool
This tool is essential for Product Managers as it defines the when, why and what of products, even before the building starts. As a tool, it establishes the strategy, captures all ideas, creates details, shares roadmaps with stakeholders, and updates the product’s status.
It is the solution to most Product Management Roadmap problems. More than 400,000 users and more than 5,000 companies trust this tool.
Here are a few features to appreciate about AHA
- Strategy – This is the first thing you do with this tool. You must know where you are going so you can get there. This AHA helps you identify the goals and initiatives of the projects through the roadmap.
- Work detail helps you define the work detail and precisely what needs to be completed at each stage. The AHA tool will help you drag cards into order and then quickly drill in more information in the status update.
- Plan for success – it will visualize for you the progress and timings for each deliverable.
- Crowdsource ideas for capturing the stakeholder’s ideas into one place are possible by using this PM tool. It also ranks them to add value to each concept.
The Prioritization Tool
This Product Management Tool enables the Product Manager to build great products by use of the powerful roadmapping and prioritization tool. It is ideal for both large organizations as well as individual teams, and it is an extremely easy-to-use tool.
It enables the users to collaborate on the product strategy, prioritize the roadmap, and manage the many advanced workflows within the team. You are better positioned to integrate the tool with popular solutions such as Trello, Jira, Azure DevOps, and Asana. This keeps track and evaluates your progress at each stage of the development.
A few Features of AirFocus
It is powerful in prioritization – this makes it possible for the team to make the right decisions. It offers a framework which can prioritize strategic criteria.
Effective roadmapping – with this tool, you can create some of the most effective roadmaps which clearly communicate the product strategy. The board helps you plan the roadmap and share it with everyone using a simple drag and drop button.
A seamless integration, collaboration, and support – this is a tool that will allow you to build better products and fast. All you need to do is collaborate with the many contributors and users. They have inbuilt features to make this easy, and additionally, you can be able to view what is in progress and give feedback to the team.
The Backlog Tool
This product management tool is ideal for giving you a clear understanding of your backlog and helps you make the right decisions on what should be prioritized at all times. It is a roadmapping tool for users, and it is designed to take care of all possible problems that relate to roadmapping, launching, and branding the new product.
This is a high-efficiency tool for Product Management. Since its launch in 2012, it has dramatically evolved worldwide, and it is mainly used in Europe.
Now, Product Management Tools are the way to go for any product development. ProdPad ensures the Product Managers can effectively design and execute their product campaigns to turn their ideas into profitable products.
Here are some more benefits
It is a collaborative system – predominantly, this is where all the team members can share their ideas on a specific product. It collects their suggestions from the members, so the team does not miss out on any valuable opportunities.
The backlog then stores all of these suggestions for quick access.
Easy to use interface – this is an attractive feature in the tool that is worth mentioning. The timeline view is a layout that displays all of the happenings within the product development. The team members can be able to view and always be informed.
Import/export from different formats – this is a handy feature and does not necessitate you to input all the data in the system. All you have to do is an import from formats such as CSV onto the system.
Intuitive feature – this makes it easy for you to strategize the product launch effectively, and offers options for the creation of mobile apps for the product. You can also share the product on social media platforms in order to get a better understanding of the user’s perception.
The Integration Tool
The ProductPlan Management tool enables you to track your progress as the team and measure its impact. It also securely integrates all of the essential data on to one platform for easy access and use at all times.
Now, the challenge in Product Management is that; when you do not have an effective tool that can replace or integrate other systems, then it becomes difficult to align the team, measure the impact of your work and collaborate on the roadmaps.
To reduce the amount of time wasted in building the roadmap platform and to focus on what matters the most, the ProductPlan tool comes to the rescue. Its mission is to empower the team to own its successes and also to communicate the strategy in an integrated way.
The Customer-driven Roadmap Tool
This tool was essentially created to enable organizations to align their roadmaps as per the customer’s feedback. It is, however, changing tune and focusing more on Product Managers and not the market as such.
It has an easy-to-use platform that manages all of the user’s requests under one roof, and its chrome extension makes it easy for the sales and support teams to capture this feedback and deliver it to the team of developers.
As a result, it becomes easy for the team to prioritize on what needs to be created next. Once the feedback has been collected and stored, it can easily be analyzed for the actual user needs, which becomes the basis for the subsequent product development.
Conclusion
These tools are designed to make life easier for Product Managers. It is wise to choose the right tool for the job and effective in your Product Management lifecycle. Our review above will give you some critical insights into the most popular Product Management tools. All the best.
