Product management is a complex task requiring much planning, coordination, and communication. Companies use a specialized application known as product management software to make this process more efficient.

The software provides a set of tools that enable product management teams to streamline their work and bring products to market effectively and fast. This article enlightens readers about the function of product management software. They will also discover the tools product managers commonly use and the five best-rated brands in the market this 2023.

What Does Product Management Software Do?

Product management software is a suite of powerful tools designed to help teams create, manage, and launch a company's offering more efficiently. These tools let firms map out their future product marketing and development activities.

Software for managing a product also provides an in-depth visual representation of the firm's goals for its offerings. It typically provides a centralized location for collaborating and sharing of information.

Some common tasks that product management software can help with include managing the entire product lifecycle. The lifecycle is a process that involves research, planning, and development of a company offering.

The computer application also assists in prioritizing product roadmaps and sharing these details with stakeholders.

Software for product management helps teams prioritize tasks. It informs teams what they will be working on next and helps them stay organized.

Moreover, software for product management assists professionals in reviewing customer behavior. It helps these teams gather insights about how to improve the product in the future.

Tools Which Product Managers Commonly Use

Product managers use a range of tools to help them manage their work. Some of the most commonly used solutions include:

1. Roadmapping software

Roadmapping software is a type of application for creating and maintaining product roadmaps. It provides an easy way for teams to collaborate and aligns tasks around the product's vision. Roadmapping software also ensures that everyone in the product management team is on the same page.

2. Presentation software

Presentation decks are essential for communicating high-level visions and strategies to stakeholders. They are also helpful in conducting sales training and educating industry analysts about a particular product.

3. Customer survey tools

These helpful tools allow product managers to gather answers to important queries. Product managers use them in making polls and gathering feedback from clients. Customer survey tools also let professionals track and analyze poll results with ease.

4. Recording applications for client interviews

These tools make it easy to log customer conversations and reference them later. They are useful for recording important insights and novel ideas about why customers use a specific product.

5. User analysis and tracking tools

User analysis and tracking tools provide insights into how users engage with a product or website. They allow product managers to make informed decisions about a company offering's features and design.

These five useful tools product managers commonly use help teams stay organized and informed regarding a product. They can help ensure that a company's offering can succeed once released in the market.

Top 5 Best Product Management Software in 2023

There are many different product management software in the market, but five stand out as the best in 2023:

1. Productboard

Productboard is a product management system. It received high ratings for being the best product development software for consumer research. Major firms like Zendesk and Microsoft use Productboard.

This product management application's key features include the following:

a. Priority identification

Productboard helps teams understand the needs of target users. It aids in prioritizing the product features to build and when. Productboard also unifies teams from planning to quality assurance of a specific company offering.

b. Customer feedback tool

Productboard allows the effective collection of consumer comments on a product's features. Its customer feedback tool can help teams get views on the characteristics clients want to see in a company's offering.

Teams use these insights to measure the elements that resonate more with consumers. After all, clients who get the product features they want are satisfied.

c. Intuitive and simple

The Productboard product management application is easy to use. Clients remark that this option is worthwhile when getting consumer insights. The software is also helpful to engage with across Slack and other inboxes.

Productboard is an all-in-one solution. It consolidates all the important comments floating around in the other tools. Furthermore, Productboard comes with standardized prioritization and supports companies' goals. Hence, a product manager can prioritize the features customers need. Productboard provides users with a holistic perspective of a team's future ideas for a product. It ensures product objectives are met.

2. Aha

Aha is a product data management software. This solution can aid any product manager in understanding the nature of his company's offering. With this solution, managing the product becomes easy.

Aha is also a product roadmap platform. Among the tools it offers include visual roadmap-making and built-in idea management. Aha also features product strategy framework-making and release management.

Product managers use the tool for marketing strategy planning and requirements and portfolio management. Among the advantages of using Aha are:

a. Ease of use

Aha allows easy management of products where users can set a strategy, capture client ideas, and pay attention to features. Aha users can do all of these with ease. Furthermore, Aha has an idea website for users. This feature facilitates idea management and collection, story maps, etc.

b. Effective marketing planning

Aha makes it easy for marketing teams to coordinate their activities across various levels. This solution allows users to view all campaigns and programs in one place.

Marketing planning is straightforward since Aha has tools for describing all the activities. Users can assign to-dos and track dependencies. Tools for collaborating on deliverables and streamlining the approval procedure are also present.

c. Tools customization

Aha users can customize the software's tools for their needs. They can alter fields, statuses, and workflows. Users can also customize tables, layouts, and more. Aha has everything product teams need. This solution streamlines how product management teams go from product idea to delivery and focuses on customer value.

3. Ignition

Ignition is the first-ever Go-to-Market Ops platform with plenty of outstanding features. Its developers are marketing experts from Facebook and Rippling. They designed Ignition to centralize and automate each step of feature, product, and campaign launches.

The following are the benefits of choosing this software for managing products:

a. All-in-one platform

Ignition is an all-in-one Go-To-Market solution. It automates the whole product launch process. It includes planning, research, execution, and post-launch measurement in one collaborative hub.

Indeed, Ignition is a solution intended for the full product lifecycle. Users will benefit as this software is handy when it comes to managing the entire product launch process, from concept through launch. This product management software aids cross-functional groups in getting on the same page. Thus, these teams can drive more effective product launches, which lead to revenue.

b. Go-to-Market

The Ignition Go-to-Market or GTM solution generates best practice-based plans with Copilot artificial intelligence or AI. It makes a single source of truth for tasks, assets, timelines, and plans. Ignition also has deep integrations into the solution that cross-functional teams use to make a genuine truth source.

c. Embedded AI

Users will find Ignition easy to use and intuitive. After all, the entire platform features artificial intelligence or AI-powered workflows and user interface. Moreover, Ignition generates copy across important product launch assets with integrated GPT-3 workflows.

Insights get summarized in this Go-to-Market process solution. Ignition also makes strategic Go-To-Market documentation. The AI workflows make the planning and insights evaluation fast.

d. Research and insights

Ignition aids in collecting, monitoring, and analyzing competitive intelligence to inform GTM strategy and product development. Moreover, it assists in conducting customer research. Ignition builds a knowledge base featuring reusable personas.

e. Purpose-built product management tool

Ignition's developers built their solution with the product launch process in mind. They back workflows that generalized solutions cannot provide for. Ignition builds visual roadmaps and gathers product information with voting boards. It communicates releases using changelogs. Plus, this software communicates seamless context handoffs to GTM plans.

Ignition's "Connections" feature aids in passing context when handing off roadmap elements to GTM groups.  The solution gauges product launches' effects. It also optimizes processes via real-time cross-functional teams' feedback.

(Photo : Ignition)

f. Internal communications automation

Choosing Ignition lets users enjoy automated status updates and internal briefings. This perk is with the "pulse" updates feature. The latter lets users push modular updates to their stakeholders via Slack and email. Additionally, Ignition offers transparency for improving communication and cross-functional teams. Its developers built it to back cross-functional use. They have a profound integration across other groups' tools.

Ignition is accessible to every user. Its makers built it with the users in mind. Moreover, Ignition has a per-editor billing model. Thus, viewers are free. Anyone who needs to understand the latest events with a product launch can access the information.

g. Quick and dependable support

Ignition's developers collaborate with clients to maximize success. They bring decades of GTM expertise along with them. Ignition's makers also offer always-accessible support and live training.

h. Fast product velocity

Ignition's makers constantly improve their offerings. They are highly responsive to client feedback. Ignition's developers also add new features monthly. The latter include competitive reviews intelligence, launching impact reports, and AI insights analysis.

Ignition's all-in-one advantage lets users manage the whole product lifecycle from concept through product launch in a single platform. It reduces information silos and tool fragmentation.

As of May 2023, Ignition is still in its early stage. However, buyers will enjoy getting locked in present pricing. They will also relish beta access to forthcoming AI features.

Unfavorable product launches prevent revenue from coming. They also disappoint clients. With Ignition, clients can ensure that every product launch is perfect.

4. ProductPlan

ProductPlan is a straightforward way to plan, visualize, and inform teams about a product strategy. This cloud-based visual roadmap platform has the following features:

a. Attractive UI

ProductPlan has an attractive user interface and more than 25 roadmap templates. Moreover, this solution aids teams of all sizes. Users can customize ProductPlan's features using legends and timeframes. They can also use milestones, tags, and filters.

Teams can cooperate with their members on live roadmaps with this product development software's simple drag-and-drop editor.

ProductPlan allows users to customize how they view lists, tables, and timelines. Additionally, this feature lets these professionals modify how they check their portfolio layouts. Users can start a new roadmap. They can do this step by importing items from a spreadsheet, JIRA, or Pivotal Tracker.

b. Product ranking capacity

ProductPlan users laud it as a concise, simple, yet powerful product management application. Among its best features is that it can rank products for consideration. Users' filtering capabilities ensure they can share relevant roadmap information. ProductPlan makes it simple for company stakeholders to view the company's data without paying to use this tool.

Moreover, firms can send stakeholders links to editable roadmaps. This feature allows scoring and facilitates the capturing of potential opportunities.

c. Constant product improvement

ProductPlan's team constantly improves its offering. They add new and valuable features to their product data management software. They are always thoughtful and helpful when they communicate. ProductPlan is ideal for selecting the available product specification template. Users can access templates for Objectives and Key Results or OKRs and IT strategy.

They can print or export roadmaps as PDF files, spreadsheets, or images. Users can also merge these documents into a high-level project overview. Tracking changes is also possible when roadmaps get updated. Hence, users can review progress and past versions. Launch plans and executive-facing portfolio templates are also accessible. This is why major brands like Coca-Cola and HubSpot use ProductPlan.

5. Roadmunk

Roadmunk is a web-based software. This roadmap visualization platform lets product managers and their teams communicate regarding their organization's strategic plan. The following are the benefits of using Roadmunk:

a. User-friendly

Product managers who use Roadmunk can input roadmap data and milestones with ease. They can also make unlimited modifications in real-time.

Product managers have the choice of Swimlanes or Timelines as visual structures. They can use these features to communicate their product goals or present their strategies.

b. Intuitive design

Roadmunk is user-centric. Users can control the roadmap views while enjoying enterprise data security. Moreover, they can make multiple custom roadmaps ready for boardroom meeting sessions at any time.

c. Team-oriented

Teams using Roadmunk can collaborate well in planning their product's future steps. In this manner, stakeholders and managers can weigh in on their plan's development.

Using Roadmunk as a visualization solution lets product managers envision their project's progress. They can also indicate tactical accomplishments. These steps are possible by adding milestone markers to a roadmap. Roadmunk has many useful features.

Product owners can prioritize the product elements which are the most important solution for clients. They can capture client feedback as well.

Roadmunk also has JIRA integration and an open application programming interface. It is a fantastic end-to-end solution for building roadmaps with priorities based on client needs.

Teams benefit from using Productboard, Aha, and Ignition. Roadmunk and ProductPlan are also preferred choices. Deploying these five robust product management software facilitates team collaboration and productivity. Engagement between multidisciplinary stakeholders also gets boosted. These top five solutions also increase task completion rates. For these reasons, they are worthy of trying for product management teams.