Must-Have Product Manager Tools to Drive Project Success

Product managers are responsible for the entire life cycle of a product, from idea to release. This includes overseeing the design process, conducting market research, managing staff, setting goals, and monitoring progress, which requires a great deal of organization, time, and resources. Product management tools have become an essential part of the process as an effective way of managing workload, increasing productivity, enhancing collaboration, and keeping track of tasks.

Discover product manager tools covering several key business areas and explore tips on how to select product management tools that meet the needs of your organization. 

Understanding the role of a product manager

As a product manager, you oversee the development of products at all stages, including the initial ideation and design process, market research, production, marketing and pricing, product launch, and customer feedback. Common duties and responsibilities of a product manager include the following:

• Conducting market research on products, customer interests, and competitors

• Developing strategies and outlining goals and timelines

• Identifying product price points

• Managing a team of product development staff

• Communicating with stakeholders and management at all stages

• Analysing progress on KPIs and making changes due to feedback

• Making recommendations for future products

The scope of the product manager role is wide, with lots of elements to manage and track. This is where product manager tools and software play a key role. 

Key categories of product manager tools

As a product manager, you’ll find a range of tools to support you in your role. Most likely, you will utilize more than one, as these tools fall into several categories depending on what you’re looking for.

Project management software

Project management software supports product managers with organization, resource allocation, monitoring progress, streamlining processes, and enhancing collaboration between team members. With this type of software, look for functions to monitor performance against KPIs in real-time and the ability to create reports that are easily shareable. Automation is key, with many project management software allowing you to automate workflows and complete low-level tasks.

Trello: A Kanban-like project management tool for organizing tasks, collaborating with team members, assigning and managing tasks, and automating workflows

Asana: Popular project management tool for assigning, sharing, and managing tasks using features such as shared to-do lists and automated workflows

Jira: Agile and Scrum project management tool for software development with built-in automation functions, allowing you to track work and plan sprints

Communication and collaboration tools

As a product manager, you will collaborate with multiple teams, professionals, and stakeholders and oversee a team of product development staff. Communication and collaboration are key, and so many people work as part of a process. Product management tools can aid this aspect of your role and help collaboration at every stage of the cycle. Tools in this category allow virtual meetings, file sharing, accessing shared calendars and whiteboards, and easily sending messages.

Google Workspace: Collaboration, storage, and file sharing with Google Docs, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, chat functions, and other tools 

Slack: Multiple options for communication, such as forums, chat, messaging, and video meetups

SurveyMonkey: Platform for collecting customer feedback on products through polls and questionnaires

Data analysis and visualization tools

As a product manager, you’ll collect and analyze data as part of market research and monitor product effectiveness. Data analysis and visualization tools can support this element of your work, allowing you to effectively draw trends and patterns from your data and create visualizations to help you make informed, data-driven decisions. 

Google Analytics: Option to analyze data across platforms and the web to create visualizations, inform decisions, and track performance and goals

Tableau: Analytics platform for producing visualizations to answer questions about data and inform decision-making 

Mixpanel: Product manager tool for analyzing user behavior data, discovering trends, and creating data visualizations 

Roadmapping tools

As a product manager, roadmapping is an important element of your role as an effective way of communicating strategy and tracking progress. Roadmapping is constructing a plan for your team to follow, incorporating goals and objectives, and creating a timeline. You’ll find several product manager tools that will support this element of your work. 

ProductPlan: Allows you to outline your strategy, product plan, and timeline by creating visual roadmaps to share with your team. 

Airfocus: A customizable platform offering a complete product management solution, including building roadmaps and collaborating with team members to provide and manage feedback 

Aha!: Aha! Roadmaps is a suite of tools that allows you to create visual roadmaps to outline your strategy while incorporating the ability to crowdsource ideas and gather feedback from team members 

Choosing the right tools for your needs

With so many product management tools available, it’s important that you spend some time evaluating the tools and selecting those that meet your specific requirements. Think about the different categories of tools and consider which are essential for your business requirements, workforce, and the complexity of your projects and products. Some tools perform specific tasks, and others span a variety of categories covering comprehensive product development.

Set your budget

Product management tools vary in price, so it's imperative to have a budget set so you know what is affordable. When evaluating costs, look at monthly subscription costs and upfront costs, but also consider any ongoing or additional costs such as licensing fees, staff training, and the price of integrations. 

Assessing team needs and preferences

Before selecting your tools, work with your team to establish their needs and preferences. Take into account the size of your team, working processes, any tools that are already in use, and any specific areas that will be significantly improved through the use of a product manager tool.

Considering integration capabilities

Select a product manager tool that integrates into your current workforce software, such as your customer relationship management (CRM) software, project management software, and any collaboration tools you have in place. Effective integration is important for your efficient workflows and data exchange.

Some product management tools act as a suite of software, offering multiple product management capabilities in one. These can be easier to integrate into your existing technology structure than incorporating multiple software. However, it’s important to consider whether your business will benefit from multiple functions and the cost implications.

The impact of using the right product manager tools

Businesses spanning multiple industries are using product manager software as an essential part of their processes. The global market for product management software is expected to grow by 15.7 percent by 2030 [1]. This indicates that businesses around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of product management tools. 

Discovering the most effective product manager tools for your business can bring many benefits, including streamlining workflows, tracking and monitoring product performance, enhancing collaboration, and identifying and making improvements.

Enhancing your product management skills with Coursera

Product manager tools bring many benefits to the product lifecycle and enhance workflows. If you’re looking to enhance your skills in product management or learn more about product manager tools, consider taking an online course or Professional Certificate. Check out the IBM Product Manager Professional Certificate available on Coursera.