Product managers everywhere know that having the right tools can make or break their success. With so many options out there, it can be tough to figure out which solutions are must-haves. The good news is, after testing many of the options, a few winners have emerged that every product manager should have in their toolbox for 2023.
Source: ClickUp
ClickUp: The All-in-One Product Management Tool
ClickUp is an all-in-one product management tool designed to make life easier for product managers. With ClickUp, you get project management, task management, collaboration, and time management features all in one place.
For organizing product roadmaps and priorities, ClickUp offers custom statuses, tasks, subtasks, start and due dates, dependencies, and milestones. You can view tasks on an interactive Gantt chart to get an overview of what’s on schedule and what’s not. ClickUp also provides portfolios, epics, and sprints to help structure work and keep product teams in sync.
ClickUp shines for daily task management and collaboration. Comments, mentions, and threaded conversations keep everyone in the loop. Statuses like “In Progress” or “Review Needed” give visibility into what’s actively being worked on. Attach files, set reminders, schedule meetings, and automate workflows to avoid dropping balls.
Time tracking is another essential feature for product managers. In ClickUp, you can set estimates, start timers, and log time spent on tasks each day. Reports give insights into how you and your team are spending hours so you can make better plans and schedules going forward.
With an intuitive interface, broad functionality, and affordable pricing, ClickUp has everything product managers need to organize work, communicate with stakeholders, and build great products. The all-in-one nature means you won’t have to juggle multiple tools to get the job done. For product management in 2023 and beyond, ClickUp should be at the top of your list.
Price: Starts from as low as $5 per month for paid team accounts
Free Trial: No free trial but free account available for personal use
Source: Trello
Trello: Simple and Visual Project Management
For simple and visual project management, Trello is a top choice. This flexible, collaborative tool makes it easy to organize and prioritize your work.
With Trello, you create digital boards that contain lists of cards. Each card represents a task, feature, or project. You can add descriptions, due dates, files, checklists, and more to the cards. Then organize the cards into lists like “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done.”
Drag and drop the cards between lists as progress is made. The visual layout gives you an instant overview of where everything stands. Trello’s open, flexible system lets you customize the boards to suit your needs. You can create boards for specific projects, products, teams, or clients.
One of Trello’s best features is its collaboration options. Invite team members, clients, and stakeholders to your boards so they can follow progress, make comments, upload files, and help get work done. With the built-in activity log, you’ll never lose track of who did what.
For managing day-to-day tasks or large, multi-stage projects, Trello helps you break big ideas into small, concrete steps. Its simple yet powerful set of tools make it a must-have for any product manager’s toolbox. Staying on top of all your work and collaborating with others has never been easier.
Trello integrates with many common tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack. It offers paid plans with more advanced features for teams and enterprises. But for most product managers, the free version should work just fine. Give Trello a try—you’ll wonder how you ever managed your projects without it!
Price: Free. Paid accounts are available for additional features but the free one works well for small teams.
Free Trial: Available
Source: Jira
Jira: For Large-Scale Product Planning and Delivery
Jira is a popular project management tool used by many product managers and teams, especially at large companies. It offers robust functionality for planning and delivering products at scale.
Jira allows you to organize work into projects and track progress with an agile board. You can create stories, epics, and tasks to represent work items, then move them through columns on the board to show progress from idea to launch. With Jira, product managers gain insight into their team’s workload and pace to keep projects on schedule.
Within projects, Jira permits in-depth planning with roadmaps, backlogs, and releases. Product managers can map out key dates, priorities, and dependencies to build a comprehensive product plan. They can then break down the roadmap into actionable backlog items and releases to work on incrementally with their teams.
For visibility across the organization, Jira offers advanced reporting and dashboard features. Product managers can create dashboards to monitor key metrics, spot trends, and share updates with stakeholders. Jira’s metrics and charts provide data-driven insights to help guide decision making and gain executive support.
While Jira has a bit of a learning curve, its powerful features are ideal for product managers at large companies or working on complex products. The tool scales to handle thousands of users, projects, and work items. For product managers looking to level-up their planning and delivery processes, Jira is a proven solution that helps bring order to chaos at an enterprise level. With the right investment in setup and training, Jira can be an invaluable asset for any product organization.
Price: Free account available with up to 3 team members. Paid accounts start from as low as $10 per month.
Free Trial: Available
Source: Productboard
Productboard: Centralize Your Product Insights
Productboard is a product management tool designed to help companies build better products. It allows product managers to centralize all their product insights in one place.
Productboard makes it easy to capture and organize ideas from multiple sources. Product managers can gather feedback and suggestions from customer interviews, support tickets, sales calls, and internal team members. They can then analyze all these inputs to identify patterns and prioritize what to work on.
Having all this information in one central location provides a few key benefits:
A single source of truth. Everyone across the organization has visibility into the product roadmap and priorities. This avoids confusion and ensures alignment.
Data-driven decisions. With all insights and feedback aggregated in Productboard, product managers can make objective decisions based on real customer needs and business impact.
Improved collaboration. Internal stakeholders can comment on and vote for ideas, allowing product managers to understand what’s most important to the team. Cross-functional teams can then work together more efficiently.
Better visibility. Executives and key stakeholders will have an overview of what customers want, the team is working on, and how it all maps to company goals. This high-level perspective helps ensure the product strategy is on the right track.
Prioritized roadmaps. Productboard makes it easy to organize ideas into portfolios, epics, and roadmaps. Product managers can then prioritize what to build based on value, effort, and dependencies. These interactive roadmaps keep everyone aligned on what’s planned and what’s actively being worked on.
For any product manager, having a tool to help gather insights, identify patterns, and build roadmaps is essential. Productboard is a helpful solution for bringing all these key activities together in one place.
Price: Starts as low as $20 per month
Free Trial: 15-day free trial
Source: Aha!
Aha!: Set the Product Vision and Build Roadmaps
Aha! is a roadmapping tool designed specifically for product managers. It helps teams define their product vision, build visual roadmaps, and outline key milestones.
Product managers use Aha! to set the vision and strategy for their products. They can create an interactive product roadmap that maps out key features, releases, and initiatives over time. The roadmap acts as a single source of truth for the entire team to align on priorities and timelines.
With Aha!, product managers have a central place to capture ideas, requests, and feedback. They can then evaluate, prioritize and plan the features and releases that will drive the most value. Aha! provides a framework for product managers to think through key strategic questions like:
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- Who are we building this for?
- What key features or capabilities will our solution require?
- How will we measure success?
Aha! offers useful features like:
- Customizable roadmap templates to get started quickly.
- The ability to visualize product roadmaps in timeline, chart or board views.
- Tools for gathering feedback and making data-driven product decisions.
- Integrations with work management tools like Jira to keep roadmaps up-to-date.
- Portfolio management features to plan at a multi-product level.
For product managers looking to set a strong vision and build visual roadmaps, Aha! is an excellent choice. It provides a purpose-built set of tools to help product managers think strategically, communicate effectively, and build products customers will love.
Price: Start from as low as $9 per month
Free Trial: 30-day free trial available
Conclusion
With so many options out there, finding the right tools to manage products can feel overwhelming. But focusing on solutions that provide an intuitive user experience, flexibility to adapt to different workflows, and insightful analytics will set any product manager up for success. The tools on this list are battle-tested by product teams around the world, helping them build remarkable products through streamlined collaboration, data-driven insights, and roadmaps that bring vision to life. While no two product managers work exactly alike, having a robust set of tools at your disposal ensures you have the means to get the job done in a way that works for you.
If you want to master these tools and more on your road to becoming a product manager, sign up for our WSQ Product Management course! We will teach you the fundamentals you will need to level-up your Product management and Agile skillset. Singapore citizens and PRs can get up to 70% off in subsidies when signing up. Wait no longer, get started on your product management journey today with us!