Product management teams have to work with new processes and best practices regularly to stay up to date with the market and push product improvements faster than competitors. Having the right set of tools becomes a must to set your team up for success throughout the product's lifecycle.
From streamlining project timelines to ensuring seamless communication across teams, the right product management tools are more than just helpful—they're essential. In this article, we'll explore the 10 product management tools to check out in 2024.
Each tool offers unique features that cater to the diverse needs of product managers looking to stay ahead in a competitive market. Refine your strategic approach or optimize day-to-day operations with these tools by optimizing your product management process.
1. Bash
Bash solves the blank page problem by turning your meetings, documents, and information into actionable insights and shareable topics. Work with a suite of tools for writing reports and strategies through features like summarization, meeting minute writing, and a robust template library.
Bash is a must-have if you’re looking into tools for product managers because:
- Tool integration: Bash offers a suite of tools specifically designed for product management tasks, such as a PRD generator, user story generator, and buyer persona generator, all aimed at streamlining the planning and execution phases of product management.
- Track the latest updates: Receive the latest blogs, news articles, Reddit posts, email newsletters and Google alerts in one view and turn information into something new with the help of AI.
- Actionable insights: Turn meetings, documents, podcasts and other forms of data into actionable insights and shareable content to keep the product team informed on the latest updates and insights.
- AI-Powered efficiency: You’ll never stare at a blank page again when AI writes the first draft of your meeting minutes, action plans, and summaries. You’ll significantly reduce product management workload while maximizing productivity.
- Customizable templates: Over 60 built-in templates are available to quickly create and customize documents for the sales, customer success, marketing and operations teams. Write product descriptions and sales materials inspired by product information used in internal workflows.
- Collaboration and sharing: Product managers can consolidate their findings into AI-powered topics that come with a dedicated Q&A chat. Other team members or stakeholders can use AI to ask more in-depth questions or brainstorm on the findings from your product team.
2. Notion
Notion offers a workspace that combines note-taking, task management, databases, and a calendar in one place. Users can create custom workflows using kanban boards, tables, and other flexible tools to manage projects and organize information effectively.
Notion supports real-time editing, sharing, and integration with other popular tools, making it a go-to solution for teams and individuals who need an all-in-one productivity boost.
Notion has versatile features that make it a standout when it comes to product information management tools:
- Versatile documentation: Product managers can create, store, and manage all documents—from product requirements documents and roadmaps to meeting notes and project timelines—in one accessible, organized place.
- Customizable workflows: Notion supports various project management methodologies. Adapt to the specific processes and changing needs of a product team rather than the other way around.
- Collaborative features: Real-time editing, comments, and notifications are essential to keep everyone from developers to stakeholders in sync. A collaborative environment ensures that updates, feedback, and changes are communicated instantly, improving team efficiency.
3. Linear
Linear is a project management tool designed to streamline the software development process with a focus on speed and a keyboard-first user interface. Work with customizable workflows, issue tracking, and integrate with other tools.
Teams can maintain a clear focus and drive projects forward with capabilities like automatic issue tracking in cycles and strategic planning with Roadmaps.
Linear stands out as an exceptional product lifecycle management tool for several reasons:
- Efficiency and speed: Linear is designed with performance in mind, offering interactions as quick as 50 milliseconds and real-time synchronization. Speed enables product teams to work with minimal delay thus improving productivity and responsiveness.
- Keyboard-first approach: A keyboard-first interface with extensive shortcuts for virtually all actions allows users to manage tasks quickly without relying on a mouse.
- Structured workflow customization: Teams can define unique issue states tailored to their specific processes. You can also set up automated features like backlog management, where issues are auto-closed and archived, helping maintain a clean and efficient workspace.
4. Miro
Miro is a visual collaboration platform for diagramming, process mapping, whiteboarding, and real-time data visualization. Product teams can use Miro for strategic planning, product development workflows, and synchronous or asynchronous teamwork.
Miro is highly effective if you’re looking for product management tools for several reasons:
- Visualization tools: Use a suite of visualization options like whiteboarding, mind mapping, and customer journey mapping that help in planning and strategizing complex product roadmaps.
- Integration with popular tools: Integrate with numerous management and development tools such as Jira, Asana, and Slack, streamlining workflows and ensuring that product management processes are interconnected.
- Agile workflows: Miro supports agile practices and offers features tailored for product development such as lo-fi wireframing, estimations, and scaled product planning.
- Real-time data visualization: Visualize data and content in real-time to always make informed decisions and ensure all team members have access to the latest information.
5. Amplitude
Amplitude is a product analytics platform that helps companies track and analyze user behavior across digital products to drive engagement and growth. Features include deep data analysis, user journey mapping, real-time analytics, and A/B testing to help organizations understand customer interactions and optimize product features.
Amplitude is highly regarded as an effective tool for product management due to several key features:
- User journey analysis: Amplitude allows teams to understand the full user journey through detailed analytics, helping to identify critical touchpoints and optimize user flows.
- Experimentation & optimization: Robust A/B testing and experimentation capabilities enable teams to test, analyze, and scale optimizations effectively to improve product performance.
- Integrated customer data platform: Unify data across different teams and systems to get a single source of truth for user behavior.
- Advanced segmentation and real-time insights: Segmentation tools and real-time data visualization allow product managers to make informed decisions quickly and tailor strategies to meet customer needs.
6. Figma/Figjam
Figma is a design tool that enables users to create, prototype, and collaborate on digital projects in real-time. Product teams can streamline the design process with vector networks, auto layout, and dynamic overlays. Design everything from simple icons to complex interactive applications.
Product teams can work together seamlessly from different locations, making it a popular choice among designers, developers, and product managers.
Figma/FigJam are excellent tools for product management for several key reasons:
- Unified design & prototyping: Figma integrates design and prototyping in a single tool, allowing product managers and designers to swiftly move from ideation to interactive prototypes without switching software.
- Real-time collaboration: Both Figma and FigJam offer real-time collaboration features, enabling teams to co-create and iterate on designs and strategies simultaneously.
- Dev mode: Dev Mode bridges the gap between design and development, providing tools that allow developers to translate designs into code efficiently, enhancing collaboration across departments.
- Versatile use cases: From UX/UI design to wire-framing, product marketing and strategic planning, Figma and FigJam cover a broad spectrum of product management activities.
7. Gong
Gong is a revenue intelligence platform that leverages artificial intelligence to analyze customer interactions across calls, emails, and meetings. Product teams get actionable insights by capturing and interpreting data, helping businesses understand customer behavior, optimize sales strategies, and improve forecast accuracy.
Gong can be a great pick for your team If you’re looking into tools for product management because the platform offers:
- Data-driven insights: Gong captures and analyzes customer interaction data across multiple channels to provide real-time insights, helping product managers understand customer needs and market trends.
- Forecasting accuracy: Product managers get support in predicting market movements and make informed decisions regarding product development and adjustments.
- Streamlined communication: Customer interactions are logged and accessible, helping product teams stay aligned and responsive to feedback.
- Optimized deal execution: Analyze deal risks and performance, which can help product managers tailor their strategies to improve product offerings and sales tactics.
- Strategic initiative tracking: Strategic planning and initiative tracking enable product managers to set clear goals, monitor progress, and drive product success in the market.
8. Coda
Coda is an all-in-one collaborative workspace that combines documents, spreadsheets, and custom applications into a single platform. Streamline work by centralizing communication, project management, and data analysis in one place.
Features like real-time collaboration, extensive integrations, and customizable templates help teams stay productive and make it one of the best tools for product managers.
Coda is highly recommended for product management due to several compelling features:
- Integrated workspaces: Combine documents, spreadsheets, and apps into a single platform, allowing product teams to centralize documentation, roadmaps & task management.
- Customizable templates: Work with a variety of templates specifically designed for product teams, such as product roadmaps, decision docs, and $100 voting exercises.
- Real-time collaboration: Teams can work together in real-time, making it easier to update plans, track progress, and make decisions.
9. Cron
Cron is a next-generation calendar application designed for professionals and teams, aiming to streamline scheduling and time management. Recently, Cron has been integrated into Notion, becoming known as Notion Calendar, which combines robust calendar functionalities with Notion's collaborative workspace capabilities.
Cron, now integrated as Notion Calendar, offers several compelling features that make it stand out as one of the best product manager tools:
- Advanced scheduling features: Cron provides sophisticated scheduling capabilities that help product management teams organize meetings, deadlines, and product launches efficiently.
- Team collaboration: Teams can share calendars, set reminders, and synchronize schedules in real-time.
- User-friendly interface: Cron is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, making it simple for product teams to plan their workflows, visualize project timelines, and track important milestones.
- Customization and flexibility: Teams can customize calendar views and notifications to suit their specific project needs.
10. Arc
Arc is a modern web browser designed to replace traditional browsers like Chrome, focusing on customization, organization, and privacy. Unique features such as Spaces and Profiles help users organize their activities in one window.
Built with privacy and security as core principles, Arc does not track users' site visits or searches, providing a clean, intuitive, and personalized browsing experience.
Arc offers several features that make it one of the best product management tools, enhancing productivity and collaboration:
- Spaces and profiles: Users can create spaces for different projects or aspects of work, enabling product managers to organize tasks, resources, and research efficiently in separate, easily accessible environments.
- Customization options: Teams can multitask by customizing their browsing experience to fit their workflow needs with features like Split View and Themes.
- Privacy and security: Sensitive product development information remains secure. The browser does not track what sites are visited or what is searched, adding an extra layer of security for proprietary work.
- Intuitive interface: Reduce the learning curve for teams and increase adoption rates across product management groups.
