If Captain America has a vibranium shield, Thor has Mjöllnir, and Hawkeye has his bows & arrows, what does a Product Manager have? Well, PMs have some amazing product management tools that ensure their firm grasp on the market and customer-related trends and facilitate robust road mapping and strategy-building processes. And even if you are not a Marvel buff, we are pretty sure that our initial comparison of PMs with superheroes will not throw you off as it takes no less than superhuman abilities to perform multifarious crucial tasks on a day-to-day basis as a Product Manager does. But what are these tools that we are talking about and how do they boost a Product Manager’s efficiency? Let’s find out!
Different Types Of Product Management Tools And Why They Are Important?
Before we dive into the specifics of the Best Product Management Tools of 2022, let's quickly glance over the various categories they belong to:
- Industry research and analysis tools for determining the feasibility of product ideas, performing competitive analyses, deciding on which new features to roll out, and building a rough product plan.
- Roadmapping tool for laying down the accurate structure of the product plan, defining customers, determining milestones, tracing trajectory, and flowcharting different relevant processes.
- User research, survey, and analysis tools to understand customers’ needs, expectations, backgrounds, and habits. Also to track their buying trends and reactions.
- Team communication & collaboration tools to bring various teams together, allocate tasks, know and incorporate suggestions, and ultimately work together seamlessly.
The Best Product Management Tools Used By Seasoned PMs
So, now that you know which areas of product management these tools are going to help you with, it's time for their much-awaited introduction. Drumrolls please……..presenting the Best Product Management Tools that PMs swear by!
1. MURAL
MURAL essentially is an agile collaborative tool that works wonders for companies with an asynchronous and remote setup. Developing a product is not a one-day or a one-man job and requires great innovative, collaborative & strategic efforts from every member of cross-functional teams. That’s where MURAL comes to the rescue.
Offering a great range of templates, MURAL simplifies your work as a Product Manager in almost all the product development aspects. With each template dedicated to a specific product task, it keeps workflows separate, accelerates resource building process, makes navigation easier, and boosts overall productivity.
Some examples of Product Management templates offered by MURAL are:
- Product Requirements Document
- Feature Prioritization Template
- Resilient Product Roadmap Template
- Customer Journey Map Template
- Product Launch Template, and more
The best part? You can easily integrate and connect MURAL to your existing workflows and enjoy a hassle-free working experience.
2. Balsamiq
Wireframing is a standard practice at the initial stage of the product development process and extends many benefits like inducing clarity about the product, mapping out its features, visualizing its final look and feel, cutting down reworks at later stages, and so on. Balsamiq mockups are one such low-fidelity wireframing tool that helps product managers create simple mockups, check the viability of ideas, point out improvement areas, ensure effective collaboration, and obtain feedback- all in one place!
The ease of use offered by Balsamiq explains its popularity among product leaders and makes it one of the Best Product Management tools out there. Whether you are a small to medium business owner or a product manager involved in the evaluation of ideas regularly, Balsamiq will come in pretty handy for you.
3. Draw.io
Talk to any Product Manager and they will tell you how crucial a diagramming tool is in their day-to-day work. Draw.io is an extremely easy-to-use diagramming tool that comes with an intuitive interface and a great collection of icons, shapes, and tools that will meet your flowcharting and mapping requirements just perfectly. Whether it’s to prepare a flowchart/map for your own reference or for presentation purposes in formal meetings with team members and clients; this tool will help you create professional-grade charts in a breeze.
4. SQL
When opinions clash, impacts are blurry, and results seem difficult to comprehend, it’s DATA that speaks the loudest! One cannot emphasize enough the significance of data in business operations today and Product Management is no exception to it.
SQL is undoubtedly one of the best tools to pull and analyze data. As a product manager, you don’t really have to master this database-specific programming language but just know enough to read data, understand it, and put it to use in mapping out your product development plan. Knowing this tool will also give you an upper hand when you are competing for a job role.
5. Power BI
Product Management is still at an evolving stage in India and the lines defining the functions, roles, and responsibilities of a Product Manager are still hazy. Given that, a PM today is expected not only to lead the product team and make critical decisions throughout the lifecycle of a product but also coordinate between different teams, and stakeholders, and analyze data to reach the roots of customers’ needs. In such a scenario, a business intelligence tool like Power BI proves to be extremely useful for PMs and helps them make data-driven impacts.
Power BI helps PMs build meaningful insights with the help of numerous data visualization tools and built-in AI capabilities. These insights further help them improve products by developing features that cater to customers’ needs effectively. So if you are looking at acquiring in-demand product management skills to bag the biggest PM roles, mastering Power BI will definitely give you a competitive edge.
Wrapping Up
A sound Product Management structure is the lifeblood of any business and its vital nature puts the role of Product Manager at the center of every product-related process. That is why one should learn and use the Best Product Management Tools
to unlock higher management efficiency and ultimately a groundbreaking product success.
We are pretty much convinced that if you chose to read this article, you already are familiar with the great scope of this role and wish to kick off your journey towards a successful career in this domain. Well if that's the case, AltUni has got you covered.
If you are sure that Product Management is your calling, we are sure that our expert certification program can give you the exact guidance you need to break into your dream PM role. Here’s how we have planned to set you in the direction of success:
- 80+ Hours Of Learning With Industry Experts Who’ve Worked With Booking.com, Atlassian, Microsoft, Flipkart, Etc.
- Get Industry Exposure With 2 Live Projects With Industry Partners
- Master In-Demand Product Management Tools Like Mural, Balsamiq, Draw.io, SQL, & Power BI
- 1:1 Mock Interview & Profile Building Sessions With Expert Product Managers
- Job Search Assistance - Become an AltUni Alumnus & Get Access To Exclusive Job Opportunities
- Interview Opportunities With Recruitment Partners
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