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The market has grown customer-centric like never before, and this has also intensified the dependency on product managers. Product Managers are the people who hear and understand the customers’ voices and customize the product to their requirements. Their customer-centric approach enables the product team to develop and deliver better-designed and higher-performing products. At every phase of a product’s life cycle, from development, positioning, and pricing to customer delivery, a product manager’s role is crucial as the customers’ advocate.

If you are into the role of product management, you understand that one of the key facilitators that let you do your job more efficiently is a product management software. For creating tailored products/solutions for the customers, you need to hear all sides of a story. Before arriving at a clear decision, you need to synthesis and assess different perspectives.

Read: Product management jobs and their career prospects.

In the process, you require taking up different roles like a subject expert, a growth hacker, a retention strategist, and a solution seeker. To do all of it correctly, you require being handy with the best product management tools within the esteemed time frame.

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Prospering in the Field of Product Management 

The promising career path from Product Manager to Chief Product Officer and beyond starts with the ability to formulate and ask the right kinds of questions that identify the customer issues and eventual market opportunities. The final goal of product management is to present a product that emphasizes users.

To be an efficient product manager, you need to master skills like market research, user design, analytics, engagement & growth, product development, and planning. Along with all these skills, you need a comprehensive product management software to assist you in handling the different responsibilities that this role entails.

If you are already into the career of product management, then here is a list of five product management tools that you must check out to increase your work efficiency.

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5 Product Management Tools that you Should Include in your Product Stack

1. Productboard

Everything related to product management can be handled using this ProductBoard. The software makers claim that it can help you get the right products to the market faster. The software is instrumental in helping you understand the users’ needs, prioritize what to build next, share your roadmap, monitor progress, and engage with the customer community.

It facilitates all these with its features like insights repository board, scoreboards, user impact scoreboard, user segmentation, competitive analysis, status monitoring, data visualization customizable boards, app integration, etc. You can check out the product through its free trial, available on their website.

2. GoodDay

GoodDay is much more than just a product management software; it is a comprehensive work management one-stop platform with amalgamated tools for managing different. These jobs include planning, task organization, product or project execution & management, track, and ing progress KPI, productivity growth, and results. The interface of the software is highly user friendly.

It provides you around 20 ‘at-a-glance view’ layouts like Task List, Gantt Chart, Workload, Pastdue, etc. These layouts are related to task management, planning & resource management, events & milestones, management views, etc. These layouts let you quickly view what’s going on, get an overview of your overall workload, comprehend current priorities, streamline the work pipeline.

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3. Aha!

Aha is a product management software that is popular for building product road maps. You can opt for a free trial on their website. This software has prebuilt strategy templates for SWOT analysis, creating business models, articulating value prepositions, etc.

Using these templates, you can create a vivid picture of your vision, set the goals and initiatives. You can customize the templates by prioritizing the right features. Data visualization is made easy with user story maps, custom feature scorecard, backlog board, etc.

4. Backlog

The backlog is another popular product management software. Its highlight is that it brings project and code management together. The software is an all-in-one solution for project management, task management, issue & bug tracking, team collaboration, remote work, and others.

The interface is simple enough to be quickly adopted by anyone. It is a powerful collaboration platform for product managers to connect with remote developers, clients, and other teams. Assessing and tracking progress is comfortable with at-a-glance visuals like boards, Gantt charts, Git graphs, and burndown charts.

Check out: Product Manager Salary in India

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5. Pendo

It is a user tracking and analysis tool that can be an invaluable source of intelligence and insight throughout your product journey. It is an end-to-end product management software that lets you live-communicate with customers and spot risks related to customer retention through product engagement, surveys, and feedback.

It also lets you increase the product’s efficiency by optimizing trial conversions and user onboarding in-product. The website’s interface is quite visually representative, so it is easy to understand. You can better understand the product by taking up visual product-tour available on Pendo’s website.

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What You Should Look for in Product Management Software?

As businesses strive to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market, harnessing the power of product management tools has become essential for success. Product management software has evolved as an essential tool for excellent product managers wanting to optimize operations, improve collaboration, and produce amazing products. 

Let’s look at the features and benefits of product management tools and how it is changing how things are conceptualized, created, and delivered.

Improving Communication and Collaboration

Product management software improves communication and cooperation significantly by offering a centralized platform for product managers, designers, developers, and stakeholders to engage and collaborate towards a single goal. These software solutions improve communication among cross-functional teams, providing a collaborative atmosphere where ideas can be shared, comments can be received, and everyone can work together to make the product successful. 

Efficient Task and Project Management

Product data management software automates task and project management, allowing product managers to manage activities and projects from inception to completion. These software solutions include sophisticated functionality for task creation, assignment, and tracking, allowing product managers to distribute resources effectively and keep projects on schedule. Product management software boosts productivity and supports on-time product delivery by streamlining tasks and project management.

Roadmap and Strategy Simplified

Product management tools give product managers the tools to develop strategic roadmaps and link their product vision with business goals. Product managers can make educated judgments, respond to changing market dynamics, and ensure their products are aligned with customer expectations if they can prioritize features, track dependencies, and manage resource allocation.

Scalability and integration

Product management software is frequently integrated with other critical tools, including project management platforms, problem-tracking systems, and communication channels. This interface enables smooth data flow, reducing duplication of work and ensuring information is up to date across several platforms. Furthermore, when organizations develop, and product portfolios evolve, product management software expands, allowing new features and functions to suit changing demands.

Customer-Centric Product Development

Understanding and addressing client demands is fundamental to effective product management. Product management software includes capabilities that make obtaining consumer feedback, user research, and data analysis easier. Product managers may make data-driven choices, verify concepts, and tweak their products to provide better user experiences by incorporating consumer insights into product development. Product managers may also utilize these technologies to track user acceptance, assess feature usage, and gather feedback to iterate and continually improve their offers.

Prospering in the Field of Product Management 

These software solutions optimize the whole product management process by providing a centralized platform for task and project administration, supporting strategic road mapping, empowering customer-centric development, and delivering integration and scalability. Harnessing the potential of product management software has become critical for success as organizations struggle to remain ahead in a continually developing market.

Conclusion

The tools mentioned above and their powerful features clarify the relevance and importance of product management software to efficiently handle the entire product cycle. Knowledge and competency in these tools are beneficial for those who are already into product management or aim to build a career. 

Product management is one of the fastest-growing careers as customer-centricity has become the driving factor in product and service-based industries. Freshers and working professionals who wish to leap into this career can check out the upGrad Post Graduate Certificate in Product Management of 6 months.

This program is relevant to marketing professionals, sales professionals, project leads, project managers, software developers, technical managers, UI-UX design, analysts, consultants, entrepreneurs, and business development managers.

If you’re eager to learn about Product Management and interested to become a great product manager, you need to demonstrate qualities of leadership, check out the Post Graduate Certificate in Product Management for it is you who’ll guide your team towards the path of success