12 Best Product Management

Tools, Managers Must Know

A business will have difficulty growing without product management. Why is that? Because product managers are responsible for product innovation. In carrying out their duties, they are assisted by a set of product management tools, so that work can be made easier.

One thing to remember, make sure to choose tools that suit the needs of the team, not just prioritizing UI design, that’s in the second place. The question is, what tools can be used to increase work productivity? Come on, see the following review!

A Brief Explanation of What Product Management Is, and the Role of a Product Manager

A product manager is someone who does product management. This management includes road mapping, strategy, and features of a product. You could say they are like a product information center.

They have an understanding of product development, budget, management, marketing, and sales. In essence, all information related to the product.

A product manager is also tasked with communicating information to various internal teams, customers, and external stakeholders.

12 Tools Used in Product Management and Their Uses

From the brief job description above, it can be concluded that the scope of a product manager’s duties is very broad. Therefore, product management tools are needed to make their tasks easier, you can choose from the following tools and find the one that best suits your needs:

1. Customer Interview Recorder

Example: GoToMeeting, Zoom

• Using tools like Zoom and GoToMeeting allows you to record interviews with customers.
• Always make sure the recorder is active, because no one knows when the customer will mention important input. You can also play back the recording for further study.

2. Idea Recording Tool

Example: Evernote

• Creative ideas often come at inappropriate times, such as when taking a shower, when going to bed, and most commonly when not holding paper. Luckily, there are many note-taking applications that can be installed on your cellphone.
• So you don’t have to bother looking for a pen and paper to write down the ideas that came up earlier, just open your cellphone, and ideas can be poured into words.

3. Messaging Tools Between Teams

Examples: Slack, Confluence

• Communication tools play a fairly important role in product development, there may be team members who take the initiative to propose something or there is a problem that needs to be solved together.
• That is why product managers must be communicative in conveying messages. Tools like Slack and Confluence can help facilitate communication between different teams or between team members.

4. Flowchart Maker Tools

Example: Visio

• Flowcharts are often ignored, even overlooked. In fact, this product management tool is an easy way to describe a detailed customer journey map.
• Starting from the first time a user visits the website, to using the product or making a purchase.
• If created with the right arrangement, a customer journey map can provide new insights into the customer experience while interacting with the company. You can also improve the quality of the company if there are difficulties experienced by customers.

5. Customer Survey Research Tools

Examples: Typeform, JotForm, FullStory, SurveyMonkey, UserTesting

• You may have been told that customer survey research is only done in the early stages of product development. In fact, customer information is still needed until the product is marketed.
• This is useful for finding existing problems and ensuring that customer needs are met. In this digital era, customer survey research is easier to do in just a few clicks.

6. Customer Analysis Tools

Example: Pendo, Amplitudo

• After getting customer information through survey media, of course the data is not left alone. The data is processed to produce information that can help solve problems.
• Pendo and Amplitudo are two applications that can track customer activity in cyberspace, with this application, you can find out what their reviews are of the product. This information is very useful in improving product quality.

7. Wireframing & Mockup Tools

Example: Sketch

• Wireframing and mockups are the responsibility of the product manager to display the final result of a website visually before entering the coding and design stage.
• The Sketch application is very useful for the digital media industry. If there are any shortcomings, wireframing allows these defects to be fixed.

8. Management and Collaboration Tools

Examples: Jira, Trello, Pivotal Tracker

• Working in a team is inseparable from collaboration. Especially product management, the following product management tools can be a bridge between teams.
• Set a plan and communicate product development progress on applications such as Jira, Trello and Pivotal Tracker, so that all team members can see it and not miss information.

9. Product Documentation Tools

Example: Google Docs

• Things that need to be documented in product management include requirements documents, product specifications, road maps, product positioning, product personas and others.
• Placing these documents in Google Docs or similar applications will make it easier to share documents with certain parties.

10. Road Mapping Planning Tools

Example: Aha!

A road map will help describe the product management strategy into a visual form, and Aha! is the right application for that.

11. Metrics & Analytics Tools

Example: Google Analytics, Optimizely

• Knowing how customers interact with the products you create can increase the chances of a successful marketing campaign.
• To get this important information, you need analysis tools such as Optimizely and Google Analytics. The results of the analysis will show new information that can be used to improve the product.

12. Feature Flagging Tools

Examples: LaunchDarkly, Split.io

• Feature flagging tools are useful for helping teams organize the launch of new features, fix problematic features, or test certain features/aspects.
• The mechanism is that the team can “turn on and off” certain features, even though the application has entered the production stage. This tool is suitable for use in the software/application development industry.
• If you are interested in becoming a product manager, you should know the product management tools above. Of course, the work will be more organized, have a flow and purpose. This is included in efforts to avoid immature planning due to unclear workflows.

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