To make management easier, there is a wide variety of tools known as Product Management Tools. Let’s first understand what we mean by Product Management.
Well, whenever an organization produces a product, it simply is not a demand and output process, but the product goes through a complete lifecycle. Product Management is responsible for the guidance of that lifecycle.
To make a product, which includes everything from making a product strategy to building the features of the product.
It is a very mandatory task to choose the correct tool to serve the desired need of the product.
Topics that will be covered:
For a brief understanding, have a look at
What is Product Management?
The simple definition of Product Management is that it is an entity that takes care of all four stages of a product lifecycle, starting from the introduction of the product to its growth, taking care of its maturity till the retirement of the product from the market.
Let’s further understand the four stages of the product lifecycle in brief to get a quick idea.
4 stages of the Lifecycle
Introduction:
- It is the foremost stage of the product lifecycle. Once a product is developed, the next important task is to introduce it in the market.
- This is a do-or-die stage in a product lifecycle because sometimes the predicted success of the product fails, leading to its complete failure.
- The company needs to create a huge demand for its product.
Growth:
- This stage is completely dependent on the customers. Popularity decides its growth.
- The more it is used by the users, the more demand will rise in the market. However, sometimes it becomes very hard for the product to survive in the competitive market.
- Competition leads companies to make changes in the product so that it can get more attention and outstand other similar products.
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Maturity:
- This is the stage of the product where it gets old, indicating that the market has begun to reach its saturation point.
- The profit margin of the product starts to get thinner.
- The main task in this stage is to defend the product from its competitors and bring as much profit as it can give.
Decline:
- In this stage, the sales drop due to changes in the demands of the user as they get dynamic with their expectations and needs over time.
- It forces the company to retire its product from the market.
- This is the lifecycle of every product. Throughout the span, it will see hikes as well as pull-downs.
Instances of Product Lifecycle
With the help of the examples, we will understand how they are introduced into the market and how it goes through different stages.
Virtual Reality Headset:
- VR headsets are currently in the growing stage, hence their demand is picking up in the market.
- These products are generating great revenue for the company.
Google Glass:
- A product launched by Google but got failed in the market because it lacked in the introduction phase and the customers didn’t find its requirement at that time.
- The major reason that it was not accepted by the users as it has no clear functioning, it had battery issues and used to get heated up over time.
Typewriter:
- It got phased out after the advent of computers, laptops, and eventually mobiles.
- As the demand for typewriters declined it attained maturity and eventually retired from the market.
Hope these illustrations improved your understanding.
Now, with the clarity of product management and lifecycle let’s get started with the tools that will help users in product management.
The product management tool is used to develop and improve the business’s product quickly and efficiently.
These tools ease the task of Product Managers.
The product management team can use these tools to gather new ideas and develop thorough plans to turn them into finished products.
A variety of capabilities are available in product management tools to help organize and carry out product planning.
Let’s now evaluate how to choose a proper tool according to the needs.
You’ll discover a shortlist of tools, and considerations to keep in mind as you choose the Product Management tool for the business and an in-depth review of each product.
The principle is to select the fewest number of tools necessary to suit the team’s needs.
It does not matter what stage of the product lifecycle you are in, seek tools that offer the broadest range of functionality you need to design and deliver a winning product.
It is very important to have knowledge of the product tool so that you can maximize the value of the product created by the development team.
There are plenty of tools available over the market to make product management an easy task.
Tools are grouped into specific categories according to their work.
One by one you will find different categories and their best tools.
We will be talking about the 11 best Product Management Tools and how they are categorized according to their work.
Product Strategy & Road mapping
One of the primary tasks for the product is to create a high-level vision and explicitly communicate it to the development team.
A clear roadmap provides a foundation for developing a high-level product vision.
It is like a blueprint of the product that must be followed in order to get maximum profit. Brings effectiveness to the product.
Tools that are used popularly for road mapping are:
- Monday.com
Which enables users to plan, track, and manage their tasks. It is an easy-to-use agile platform giving the flexibility to work from anywhere for a single team.
Monday.com supports milestones, task dependencies, and Gantt and Kanban views.
It provides the integration of 40+ tools which allows two-way synchronization of data.
Companies that are using monday.com are Wix, Loginno, Ofcdesk, and Discovery Inc.
- Roadmunk
It is a customer-driven road mapping tool, used by product teams to visualize product strategy, and also provides the offer a 14-days free trial period and the basic plan starting from $19.
It allows you to capture customer feedback and prioritize what they want to build next and create boardroom-ready roadmaps to communicate their product strategy to the entire team.
The best part is that Roadmunk comes with built-in Jira integration and offers a Roadmunk API for integration options.
A few of the many companies that are using Roadmunk are Amazon, Autodesk, Nike, Mastercard, and Slack.
- ProductPlan
It is a product roadmap platform with a beautiful user interface where one can easily visualize and communicate product strategy.
The pricing of this tool starts from $39 and has a 14-day free trial period.
One can easily build and edit visual road maps with a simple drag-and-drop editor and share different versions of the roadmaps with different audiences in just a few seconds.
It offers more than 20 roadmap template options for launching plans, portfolios, and IT strategies.
The companies that are using ProductPlan as a road-mapping solution are Microsoft, Spotify, Sony, and Adobe.
Learn about the document required for product management from our blog on Product Management Document.
Collaboration & Productivity
The task of communicating with customers, business managers, and the development team is done by Product Owners.
To make sure the vision collides with the exact objective of the product, we use tools for collaboration & Productivity.
A collaboration tool used for these tasks is
- Confluence
This tool is a web-based and remote-friendly workspace where you can create, capture, and collaborate on any project or idea.
Every team member has visibility and can access the information they required for their work.
It offers seamless integration across the Atlassian suite and gives an agile working place.
It also provides a free plan for both cloud hosting and on-premise deployment.
One can easily host a fully functional copy of confluence on own system for 30 days without spending any penny.
Organizations like Audi, NASA, Docker, and LinkedIn are using this tool.
Prototyping & Wireframing
Prototyping is a process where the design team executes the ideas into tangible forms from paper to digital.
The wireframe is a two-dimensional skeletal outline of a web page or application.
It provides a clear overview of the page structure and its functionalities.
The tool that is used for Prototyping & Wireframing is
- Balsamiq
It is an industry-standard wireframing software that enhances the experience of sketching on a notepad but by using the computer, it is useful for simple visuals.
It is quick and easy to use, has interactive Prototypes which easies the linking between the pages, and has the ability to download pre-made components from a central database in order to make a balance among different designers.
The company gives a subscription of $9 per month and also gives a free 30-day trial period.
Companies that use the Balsamiq tool are Skype, eBay, Cisco, and Adobe.
Want to know the career path of a product manager? Check out our blog on Product Manager Career Path
Project & Task Management
Taking the project and its different tasks from starting stage to the ending stage should be done with proper management so that one can attain a proper output with fewer further amendments.
One of the best Project & Task Management tools is
- Jira Software
It is one of the most widely used agile tools with rich features that make
The whole process of project management is quite seamless.
The tool comes with the feature of customized scrum and kanban boards, real tie reporting, and integrated roadmaps.
It can customize the workflow that matches the working way of one’s company.
It offers free plans for cloud hosting as well as for on-premise deployment.
Visa, Delta, Hubspot, and Cisco are four of its many customers.
For more understanding of the above tool, kindly go through
Prioritizing Tasks & Time Management
It is the most essential work category that should be attained by any means because prioritizing your tasks and managing the time required to complete those tasks is the most mandatory task which cannot be compromised.
The most popular tool that is used to manage these tasks is
- Airfocus
It is designed to build comprehensive products with powerful prioritization and clear roadmaps.
Allow users to set their priorities according to their project demand.
It provides a drag-and-drop interface, two-way integrations, and presentation-ready roadmaps.
Also, it offers a free plan with a 14-days trial. However, the basic plan for its subscription starts from $24 per month.
Companies that are using the Airfocus tool are Coca-Cola, IBM, eBay, and Viacom
Data Management & Analytics
Raw data is of no use until it is managed and manipulated to bring out accurate information from it.
The data management tools allow you to access data, accurate analytics provides invaluable sources of intelligence.
Tools used for the above task are:
- Amplitude
It is a popular product analytics tool that is used to understand user behavior and rapidly releases better product experiences.
It helps you to solve critical problems that are occurring while product development.
It provides real-time analytics, cross-platform tracking, and powerful user behavior.
One can access almost all core analytics features for free though there is a monthly limit on them.
Brands like PayPal, Atlassian, Adidas, and Cisco are using amplitude for data management and analysis.
- Airtable
Airtable is a tool, which is a hybrid form of the spreadsheet and the database. It does look like a spreadsheet but it has much more functionalities.
Powerful customization features, flexibility, and intuitiveness are the pillar of this tool.
It can be used for free as well as can be used as a paid tool with complete features.
Netflix, Autodesk, Expedia, and Shopify are their users.
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User knowledge & Feedback
It is our last category for tool differentiation.
What’s the fun of providing services unless you are not getting proper feedback and user knowledge? You neither will be able to modify it nor will it allow you product innovation.
These drawbacks can be cured with the help of the tools that are used for user knowledge & feedback, such as
- Zendesk
Which is a customer support tool that provides direct interaction between the customers and the brand.
It integrates multiple communication channels like mail, voice, community forum, and other third-party business tools into one platform.
It is quick to implement, easy to use, and scaled to fit the needs of the user.
It also lets you deliver rich content which could be automated and engaging. It improves problems and resolution rates.
Its customers are Tesco, Slack, Siemens, and Venmo.
Want to know what is the scope of production management? Check our blog on the Scope of Production Management
- SurveyMonkey
This is another tool used for feedback purposes and is considered the most trusted tool hence making it a global leader in survey software.
It is an online survey development cloud-based software that captures the voices and opinions of people.
It provides the excess for almost 200 expert-written survey templates that speak to the target audience.
Leading brands that are using SurveyMonkey are Cisco, Lionbridge, Johnson&Johnson, and others.
Kindly go through our How to Become a Product Manager?
Conclusion
Up to this point, we have discussed the top 11 product management tools that are influencing the digital world of today.
The categories in which these instruments fit are also addressed.
I hope this blog post has given you a solid understanding of these tools so you can choose one with total confidence for your product.
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