Top 7 Product Management Tools
Product management covers many things, but it’s mainly concerned with ensuring efficient resource allocation and delivering winning products. There are a variety of applications available to product managers and product teams to help them do this more effectively. However, product management tools that are perfect for one organization may not be for another.
Some businesses, for instance, may be more in need of a tool to help with roadmapping. Also, some tools are built with startups more in focus while others target larger enterprises. Here are the best product management tools, based on our detailed product management tools comparison sheet, for 2021.
Productfolio
We may be a little biased but Productfolio is one of the most complete product management tools on this list. It is not just a tool for creating effective roadmaps. You’re going to find it quite helpful for setting your product strategy and running a smooth discovery process. Having defined your long-term strategy, you can start to assess your ideas against the objectives.
While some other alternatives may facilitate roadmapping and disappoint for requirements management for example, this one does very well in both areas. You can use the requirements backlog to capture all requests and requirements for effective planning.
Another aspect in which Productfolio shines is the ability to have multiple products per account, role-based permissions, and import/export. It also offers a shareholder portal, among others. The one area Productfolio is still a little light is with extensive 3rd party integrations but the basics are covered and this too will soon be rounded out.
Productboard
You can check out this one if what you’re looking for are product management tools that go beyond roadmaps. In addition to helping to create great roadmaps, Productboard makes an excellent choice for the discovery process. It will be useful for understanding your target users, prioritizing, and aligning everyone around the roadmap.
It gives you the ability to collate customer feedback and product insights from multiple sources. You can gather this information from emails, CRM software, and social media, among others. Productboard should work well for you when you need to maintain an unbroken feedback loop.
It looks to be useful when it comes to identifying patterns in user behavior. It lets you unearth features that are most popular with users so that you can prioritize well. However, you’re limited to a Kanban-like view for your roadmaps. That’s a notable downside if your team works with or prefers a different view, such as a list.
It is also worthy of note that Productboard only lets you share your roadmap as a PDF file with stakeholders. That’s limiting. You are going to find this application more useful if your organization is a large enterprise. Basic users pay $20 a month while it’s $100 monthly for Pro users. You’d need to put a call through for the enterprise option’s pricing information.
If you work in a startup, Productfolio will be especially perfect for you. It has a free plan for EDU and startups while pricing starts at just $15 a month. The Pro plan will cost you just $49, which is only the starting price for some rivals. You also get a best-in-class 30-day trial.
ProductPlan
You have here one of the product management tools you may check out if you require one for more than roadmapping, although it has its shortcomings.
ProductPlan impresses when it comes to creating your strategic documents. It makes it easy to build striking roadmaps with its drag-and-drop user interface. You have the freedom to choose whether to include rigid timelines or eliminate them. Plus, it is possible to color-code items to show how they are connected.
ProductPlan offers unlimited viewing so you don’t feel inhibited when looking to share your document. You can create diverse roadmap versions for stakeholders and bring everything together in a master plan.
Unlike Roadmunk, this tool helps a little with requirements management. It offers some help for release planning. You might find this sufficient if you’re planning to use a different tool specifically for your requirements management.
ProductPlan isn’t suitable for product discovery. You will also not find it much helpful, if at all, for setting your product strategy.
Pricing starts at $39 a month for the team plan. ProductPlan seems more targeted at enterprise users. It doesn’t have a startup plan or a basic user plan. The tool offers you a trial period of 14 days.
Aha!
Renowned for its capability in creating appealing and helpful roadmaps, Aha! is one of the better product management tools available to PMs. While it may be known more for roadmap creation, it helps with more than that. The tool is useful for strategy and discovery while also boasting support for generous integration options.
Aha! offers you a selection of templates for your roadmap and you can get rolling by simply dragging and dropping. And when you’re through with creating your document, you have more than one option for sharing with stakeholders. You can share as a PDF or an image document or use a secure web page option.
This tool will help to a significant extent in showing how everything combines for a complete picture. You can use it to set goals and initiatives. Collate customer feedback and product insights to come up with user stories that will go on your roadmap.
The list of integrations supported includes Jira, Trello, Confluence, GitLab, and Azure DevOps, plus Zapier and REST API for more options. In terms of Accounts, Aha! looks like one to not disappoint as well.
You will need a bit of patience to get the tool running and to get used to it. You’re also practically not covered if you needed an application that helps with requirements management.
Aha! targets both startups and large enterprises. It offers a free startup plan and a 30-day trial, just like Productfolio. Its price is higher, though, with the basic plan going for $20 per user each month and the Pro available for $100 a month. You need to call for the enterprise option.
ProdPad
You have here another capable option if you’re in search of product management tools that can help you to clearly articulate your strategy. It should also prove useful in the discovery process. With it, you should find it easier aligning your team on the “What” and “Why,” plus the direction you have in focus.
A good tool of this sort for product managers should make capturing ideas less difficult – ProdPad doesn’t disappoint in this regard. You may not regret choosing it if idea management is a key consideration in your buying decision.
What’s more? You have access to integration options that are probably more than you’ll need. Among them are Pivot Tracker, Jira, Trello, UserVoice, Confluence, Dropbox, and Slack. You can integrate with more than 1,000 options using Zapier. Like Productfolio, it supports multiple products per account, role-based permissions, retrievable archives, and import/export. It may be worth noting that ProdPad won’t help you with requirements management. Also, when it comes to roadmapping, it is a bit lightweight.
We think large enterprises might find this tool more appealing than startups, with prices starting at $149 a month for three users. It’s $1,299 per month for 50 users. The trial period lasts 14 days.
Airfocus
Preferred by some top corporations including Shell, Airfocus is a roadmap-centric product management tool. It aims more to make the process of creating beautiful, clear roadmaps seamless. Also, it is designed to help you prioritize more effectively.
With the aid of impressive integrations supported, you can start putting your roadmap together in no time. Airfocus supports drag and drop editing, which contributes greatly to make the process easier. It offers more view options (compared to some rivals), including Kanban and Gantt views.
Priority Poker not only makes prioritization more efficient but also an exciting affair. Stakeholders are enabled to prioritize according to the scoring criteria they settle for. You can use a multidimensional chart to display your priorities.
Integrations include Azure DevOps, monday.com, Trello, Jira, Asana, and Wrike. You can access many more through Zapier.
A major downside is that you can’t use this tool for setting your strategy. It will also not help for discovery and requirements management.
You may think of Airfocus as an affordable but lightweight tool for enterprises – no free startup plan. Its prices start at $19 per month for basic users and go up to $79 for Pro users. You are to call for the price of the enterprise plan. The tool offers a 14-day trial.
Roadmunk
If you’re looking for a tool for seamless roadmapping, Roadmunk is one of the options that could work best for you. Most product managers who rate it highly mainly do so due to how it simplifies roadmap creation, although you may struggle with the UI at first. It helps you to develop visual roadmaps that promote effective collaboration for planning and managing the product.
This tool offers three major types of views: Timeline, Swimlane, and Master. The Timeline view is designed for traditional roadmaps. As for Swimlane, it is Kanban-like and will work better for Agile teams. The Master view provides a high-level view of multiple roadmaps.
Roadmunk lets you show stakeholders what matters most to them. Take note, however, that this application will not be helpful for requirements management. You cannot rely on it so much during discovery, although it supports idea and feedback management.
For a startup, Roadmunk might not be the best, especially since it offers no free plan for such. It does offer a 14-day trial, though, with monthly pricing starting at $19 for basic users.
Conclusion
There are several product management tools to choose from but hopefully this demonstrates the pros and cons of each, and gives you a good sense of the key competitors and how they stack up. In fact, it is our sincere believe that Productfolio comes out on top, considering the low price and everything it has to offer. If you haven’t already, give Productfolio a try!
