Tools to Make Product Management More Efficient in 2024

Every product manager knows that the key to doing their job well is a well-stocked arsenal of product management tools and software. PM management tools are programs that make it easy for product teams to increase productivity and take a product through all parts of its life cycle, from planning to research and development, launch, customer satisfaction, and beyond.

Product management tools also help with developing prototypes, developing product road maps, mapping out customer journeys, performing customer research, feature prioritization, data analysis, creating mockups.

We are going to provide you with the ultimate list of PM tools in 2024. The tools that we are going to give you have been organized into categories so you can easily find exactly what you’re looking for:

• Collaboration
• Product Roadmap/Discovery
• Project Management
• Productivity
• Consumer Research & Feedback
• Wireframe/Prototyping 

Tools for Collaboration

Collaboration tools help product teams stay on track with where a product is at on its journey along the roadmap. They allow multiple team members to participate in the same action at one time, or at their own convenience. These tools help product team members to stay on the same page so the whole team can follow along with a product’s progress.

Examples of collaboration tools 

Confluence: Confluence is a fully customizable tool with tons of templates so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Confluence knows what you need to increase productivity and keep everyone on the same page.

Google Sites: Google Sites is a tool that lets users quickly and easily create a website for your team to collaborate on, a space where everyone can get updated or make their own updates, and build individual project pages. Google Sites can help you essentially create an intranet for your company.

Slack: Slack is one of the most popular productivity tools for the product manager job and beyond – especially during COVID-19. It is a secure messaging platform that allows all members of a team to communicate with each other, instant messenger style. Users can also connect the apps they need to use, search previous conversations, utilize video and audio calls, and more.

Loom: It’s not a traditional product management-only tool, but this video platform allows you to efficiently record and share messages. A top choice for asynchronous communication, PMs can quickly record a video of a bug, send it to engineering, or even go over their sprint cards async and send links to the team. And that’s just the start.

Tools for Product Roadmap & Discovery

A product roadmap clearly communicates what a product is going to deliver, where it is going to go throughout its life cycle, and why. Product discovery involves determining a consumer problem and a solution for that problem.

A visible roadmap helps product managers ensure that their product is traveling through its life cycle the way it’s supposed to be – creating public excitement, meeting benchmarks along the way, and delivering what it’s supposed to.

Examples of product roadmap & discovery tools 

Airfocus: Airfocus is an all-in-one tool that allows product managers and teams to create roadmaps, capture feedback, plan for the future, and more. Airfocus can be accessed by multiple team members from anywhere in the world and can be integrated with other tools like Asana, Azure, and Trello.

ProdPad: ProdPad is a roadmapping tool that has plenty of templates so product managers can quickly create roadmaps that have vision and clear objectives. The tool is collaborative, so entire teams work together, offer and receive feedback, and organize tasks and responsibilities. Apps like Slack, Twitter, Zendesk, and Intercom can be integrated with ProdPad so your team can keep everything in one place.

Aha!: Aha! Is a roadmapping tool built with strategy. Your team can easily set business goals and high-level initiatives with Aha!’s templates and then share the plans, track progress, and even do some crowdsourcing to gain insight from the community.

ProductBoard: ProductBoard makes it easy for PMs to understand what consumers need and then helps them develop roadmaps for products that will meet those needs. The platform allows consumers to provide feedback that product managers can use to track progress and adjust the roadmap, if necessary.

Zeda.io: Zeda.io is a platform designed to help PMs and entire product teams craft and execute product roadmaps. It is designed for B2B and SaaS businesses and leverages the power of AI to help you discover user pain points, determine useful product improvements, and shape revenue-driving roadmaps. Zeda.io also offers integration capabilities with various popular tools, ensuring integration and accessibility for teams worldwide.

Project Management

Project management involves all members of a cross-functional team. Teams apply their skills, knowledge, and experience to achieve a specific goal that has been laid out by the product manager or CEO. Project management is different from project management in that it has a finite lifespan. A product manager’s job never ends. 

Cohesive project management is important to ensure that a product is traveling down its roadmap according to plan. It also makes sure that all parts of the team are working together to produce results.

Examples of project management tools 

Asana: Asana is a planning tool that allows teams to design A/B testing, communicate without email, assign and prioritize tasks, conduct analyses, and more. The majority of Asana users say that Asana has improved their teams clarity, accountability, and ability to hit deadlines.

Basecamp: Basecamp helps to make teamwork and remote work as organized as possible with message boards, auto check-ins, digital bulletin boards, instant group chats, collaborative scheduling, and to-do lists. The level of organization that Basecamp provides allows teams to move through their tasks with the confidence that everything they need is one place.

Blossom: Blossom was made for teams that are spread out across cities and time zones to give a clear overview into who’s doing what and why. It provides eight workflow best practices and performance analyses so ensure your team and project is on track.

Jira: Jira is a tool that was designed to integrate well into any workflow. There are templates that you can use or users can create their own. Jira allows product managers to connect their roadmap and workflow tables so everything can be in one place.

Sprint.ly: Sprint.ly is a tool that allows users to see exactly what everyone on their team is working on in real time. There’s no need to waste time gathering status reports because everyone can view the same information from any computer. Tasks can be assigned to a particular user, tracked, and shared with the whole team.

Trello: Trello has a dashboard made up of “cards” that make it easy for project managers to see everything that’s happening within their team in one look. There are tons of customizable features so users can curate an experience that is as unique as their team.

Productivity

PM tools for productivity help product teams stay on track with their tasks, and do so efficiently. It can be easy to get overwhelmed when there are so many moving parts in a project. PM tools for productivity help keep everything organized in one place so projects are as streamlined as possible.

Examples of productivity tools 

Product Monkey: Product Monkey offers an AI-powered solution to streamline your engineering workflow. Upload your design files and receive detailed task tickets ready for Jira, Asana, Trello, and other project management tools. With this time-saving tool, you can stay focused on your project’s scope and boost productivity.

Airtable: Airtable is like a spreadsheet and database all in one. It helps teams keep all of a project’s information in one place. Airtable is completely customizable, so a product team can manipulate it to meet their specific needs.

Notion: Notion is an excellent digital planner and notebook all in one. Product teams can increase productivity by organizing their tasks, setting reminders, writing notes to themselves and each other, setting goals, and more. 

Coda: Coda helps product teams put all of the apps they use in one place. There’s no more switching between documents, spreadsheets, and chat rooms. Coda helps connect every app and even allows users to publish to other apps.

Evernote: Evernote is like the ultimate scrapbook. It can help product teams boost productivity because they can use Evernote to keep track of pages they’ve found online, PDF documents, meeting notes, and more.

RescueTime: Product managers can increase their team’s productivity by helping then eliminate distractions and manage their time effectively. RescueTime has built-in distraction blockers, time trackers, and even offers time management training courses.

Monday.com: Monday.com is a great way for teams to keep track of their to do lists, track their progress, input data, automate tasks, and more. Users can choose from their hundreds of customizable templates and get exactly what they need out of Monday.com

Calendly: Save time throughout the day with this PM tool that helps the product manager job go smoother. Product managers can quickly, easily, and automatically schedule meetings without having to deal with back-and-forth emails.

Zapier: Zapier is an online automation tool that boost productivity by allowing product managers to connect all of their team’s apps and services. Apps can be connected with ease and without any coding.

Consumer Research & Feedback

Consumer research discovers what the public needs and is used by PMs to determine what kind of product they need to create next. Consumer feedback gives PMs a chance to hear the public’s honest opinions about a product. Consumer research and feedback is very important to the product manager job because it tells PMs what they need to prioritize, what they are doing correctly, and where they can improve. 

Examples of customer research & feedback tools 

Intercom: Intercom helps organizations build relationships with their customers through bots, apps, product tours, and more. With this app, product managers can offer conversational support, engagement, and marketing.

Google Forms: Google Forms is a free and easy PM tool that product managers can use to create custom surveys about one of their potential or existing products. Google Forms can also be used to gather insight into consumer needs, which can then be used to brainstorm new product ideas.

Gainsight: Product managers can use Gainsight to collect user feedback, and create in-app engagements like walkthroughs and guides that drive onboarding, adoption, and retention. It is also an excellent PM tool for understanding trends and risks, optimizing revenue, and collecting customer surveys.

UXCam: UXCam empowers teams with fast, contextual, and high-fidelity insights. Product managers can use this tool to perform session & event replays, embed analytics, analyze screen flows, develop heatmaps, and issue analytics quickly. 

FullStory: FullStory does what its name implies: helps make a product perfect by allowing product managers to see its full story. This tool can be used to figure out where users are having issues and then PMs can prioritize bug fixes, updates, and experiments.

Wireframe & Prototyping

Wireframes and mockups help save time, money and frustration. It’s a chance for PMs to experiment with a product before they throw any real weight behind it. Think of them as blueprints for a product. They are visual guides that allow product managers to arrange the different elements of a product before prototyping begins. Whereas prototypes are the very first installment of a product that is typically used to sort out issues, gather feedback, and make improvements. We have combined these two stages of product development because many applications allow you to perform both with a single PM tool.

Examples of wireframing tools

Marvel: Marvel is a collaborative PM tool that allows multiple team members to participate in the design and prototype process. PMs can wireframe a product and test it with users once the product is in the prototype phase. 

Axure: Axure is a PM tool that has been developed to create prototypes and specifications for websites and apps. With this software, product managers can drag and drop the placement of different elements as well as resize and format them.

Protoshare: ProtoShare is a collaborative PM tool that helps product teams take a look at a product’s requirements with wireframes, interactive software, and mobile prototypes in real-time. This is a collaborative tool that allows team members to work together to perfect their wireframe and prototype.

Final Thoughts on PM Tools

There are still many other product management tools out there that help make the product manager job easier, increase productivity, and promote collaboration, but this list is an excellent place to start if you’re looking for the best PM tools! Each one of these tools is tried and true, and many of them are heavily relied on by worldwide organizations. You really can’t go wrong if you choose one of the PM tools on this list!

PMExercises has everything you need to perform your product management job to the best of your ability, including coaching, mock interviews, and common interview questions. We will help you be the best product manager you can be!

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