Top 11 Product Management Tools for 2022
Udn Webber
Managing Editor
Developing quality products for your customers can be hard.
After all, there’s no magic recipe to cook products out of thin air, right?
However, it can be equally challenging to decide which one of the many product management tools to use while managing the entire process.
Should you go for a suite of different product manager tools ?
O r should you opt for a project management tool that can handle everything in one place?
(Yes! Such a tool exists) 🧙
Don’t worry.
In this article, we’ll highlight the eleven best product management tools to help you identify the right one for you.
Let’s dive right in!
What Are Product Management Tools?
Product management tools help teams take care of particular phases in the product life cycle. This can include activities like:
For example, a product roadmap tool helps you map out your product vision, describing the features you’ll tackle along the way.
Sorta like the milestones marking your next cross-country road trip . 🚙
However, some product manager software tools, like a comprehensive project management tool, provide a central platform for everything involved in developing and managing products.
This is important for a remote product team, as it makes sense to use a single virtual product management system that offers the right features.
What should you look for in product management tools?
Here are some essential features to look for in a product management tool:
However, those aren’t the only things you need to look at.
If you have to go through countless tabs just to see if things are moving according to your product strategy, you’ll go bonkers in no time. 😵
That’s why excellent usability is also an important factor when choosing the right product management software. Not to mention that it shouldn’t be a tool that breaks the bank!
Bonus: Check out our Product Management Glossary! ⭐️
Top 11 Product Management Tools
Here are the ten best product management software tools available today:
1. UDN Task Manager
UDN Task Manager is one of the world’s best product management software , perfect for agile teams , and an excellent collaboration tool preferred by several teams in small and large companies .
Sorta like the J.A.R.V.I.S. to your Tony Stark, UDN Task Manager can handle a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g you throw at it.
From product planning to team collaboration , this free product management software (SaaS) has got you covered!
Here’s a quick look at how UDN Task Manager can be one of the product management tools to make your life easier:
A. Sketch out your product vision with Mind Maps
UDN Task Manager ’s Mind Maps feature is the perfect place to share that mind-blowing product vision with your team.
Whether it’s connecting user stories or delegating tasks to the dev team, UDN Task Manager lets you ideate to your heart’s (or your brain’s) content!
B. Multiple views for the flexibility you deserve
You can choose from a wide variety of task view s for product development from any angle you wish while using any methodology.
It can be the:
C. Identify urgencies with Task Priorities
Label tasks with priority flags to ensure everyone learns prioritization and knows what needs immediate attention.
D. Use Lists to breakdown the product backlog
Split up product backlog items into smaller checklist items .
And then just check them off when done.
Sorta like your to-do list, but much better!
Want to learn how to manage a product backlog ?
Check out our product backlog guide .
E. Lay out your plans with Milestones
Have a major feature release in your roadmap ?
Use UDN Task Manager ’s Milestones to mark it as important and track progress with ease.
F. Stay on top of everything with Dashboards
Whether you’re a product marketing manager or a technical product manager, use our Dashboards to create your very own mission control center.
Customize it with velocity charts , burnups , burndowns , cumulative flow charts , to track the product metrics you need.
G. Get started quickly with Templates
Create your own template or select one from UDN Task Manager ’s vast collection of handy project templates.
Then, simply personalize it for your project and get started right away.
H. Use Integrations to streamline the whole process
While UDN Task Manager has pretty much all you need, there’s always room for more!
From Amazon Alexa to Zoom , integrate UDN Task Manager with tons of different apps to manage all your product-related activities in one platform.
We also take each customer feedback and feature request very seriously to make UDN Task Manager a product management software free of bugs and full of product-changing features.
Check out our roadmap to see how!
UDN Task Manager offers a Forever Free Plan that comes with a wide variety of awesome features.
For more functionality, paid plans start as low as $5/user per month.
2. Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker is an agile project management software with some handy features for defining user stories and analyzing agile team performance.
It’s another one of the many free product management tools you may want to consider to help your software product management team.
But is it actually pivotal for your product management activities?
Let’s find out.
This product data management software has a free plan that supports up to five projects and users. Paid plans start at $10/month.
Compare Pivotal Tracker and UDN Task Manager
3. airfocus
airfocus offers a modern and modular product management platform. It provides a complete solution for product teams to manage and communicate their strategy, prioritize their work, build roadmaps and connect feedback to solve the right problems. Designed with flexibility in mind, airfocus allows you to quickly customize the platform to fit your needs without disrupting the way your team works.
This product management tool offers paid plans starting at $15/editor per month and offers many integrations with dev tools or feedback tools.
4. ProductPlan
ProductPlan is a great product roadmap tool that helps you communicate your product plan and strategy through beautiful roadmaps.
Hit your brakes right there!
Besides roadmapping and limited task management features, ProductPlan doesn’t offer much.
This begs the question: “Do you really have to pay $ 3 9/user per month for a basic roadmapping tool ?”
This product management tool offers paid plans starting at $39/user per month and offers features like Microsoft Teams integration.
5. Trello
Trello is a kanban-style project management tool that helps a product management team with collaboration and organization.
But is it the right tool for you?
If you don’t mind using Power-Ups or integrations for the most basic things like a Gantt chart or time tracker. 🤷
This management software has a free plan with ten boards. Paid plans start at $10/user per month with unlimited boards.
Check out these Trello alternatives ! ⭐️
6. Jira
Suitable for agile and scrum software development teams, Jira is an excellent project management tool with issue and bug tracking capabilities.
However, when it comes to efficient management, Jira doesn’t go the extra mile.
If you want to drown in tasks and customers’ feature tickets, this Atlassian product could be the right fit.
Need more information on Jira ?
Read our in-depth Jira review and learn how to use Jira for project management .
Jira’s free plan supports just ten users. Paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Compare Jira and UDN Task Manager
7. Aha!
Aha ! is a web-based product strategy and roadmapping tool that can help you understand the why, when, and what of your products to make product management simple.
But before you say “Aha! Found the one,” you need to know two things:
One, it doesn’t have a mind map.
And two, it doesn’t support real-time time tracking.
Isn’t time money? 💰
Need more details? Check out our comprehensive Aha! product management review .
The plans start at $59/user month. They also have a special plan for startups with less than $1.5M in funding.
8. Productboard
Productboard is a customer-centric product management platform.
It can draw in all your product and customer feedback from different tools like Zendesk, Slack, Intercom, etc., into one place for better analytics, prioritization, and roadmapping.
The tool is definitely as customer-centric as it can get.
But what about employee management ?
They skipped that when they decided not to include a workload chart.
Guess working overtime will always be on the table. Yikes!
This management tool has a 15-day free trial, and their paid plans range from $20/user month to custom prices.
9. Figma
Figma is a web-based designing and prototyping tool.
Use it to co-design with your team members and create something beautiful.
But as soon as you push aside designing and prototyping, this tool isn’t much.
No task management. No app for Linux users.
You make the call!
This prototyping tool offers a free plan, and the paid plans start from $12/user per month.
10. Balsamiq
Balsamiq is a wireframe tool that lets you live the experience of sketching on a notepad or whiteboard but a computer.
Their product is called Balsamiq Wireframes that you can use to sketch out your dream app or product user interface and collaborate with your team.
However, for a tool that supports creativity, it forgot to be creative. The interface looks so simple that it’s borderline boring. Its gloomy black, grey, and white choice of color scheme is no fun.
Balsamiq prices range from $9/month to $199/month.
11. SurveyMonkey
If you need an app to gather information about your products, SurveyMonkey should help. 🐒
It’s a web-based survey tool with many types of questionnaire templates that let you put together a survey in minutes.
Then send the survey to your customers to easily track and analyze the results later.
Now, the tool’s name may be cute but are the features any good? Let’s find out.
This survey management tool offers three plans for both personal and business needs. The business plans start at $25/user per month.
FAQs About Product Management
Sure, using product management software can help you create a mind-blowing product.
But the road doesn’t end there.
For starters, teams should understand what goes into product management. Moreover, project managers must be skilled enough to handle the whole process without turning into this:
Don’t worry. We’ll answer these questions to help you out:
1. What is product management?
Product management is the process of managing the entire product lifecycle to deliver a successful product to the customer. It involves performing several activities like user research, product planning, product marketing, and more.
Check out our detailed product management guide.
2. What skills does a project manager need?
A brilliant product manager must be able to:
However, these are just some general skills an agile product manager needs.
Ultimately, it comes down to what the business or a specific project requires.
Who’s the Master Chef of Product Management Software? 👩🍳
On the surface, product management can feel like being on Master Chef.
Hundreds of tasks and steps to deal with while the timer just keeps ticking away.
Super stressful, right?
Fortunately, you can take the stress out of the process with product management software, helping you deliver better products to customers on time.
And while each tool we covered here is great, UDN Task Manager is the ultimate all-in-one collaboration and product management tool you need to get to # 1 .
From product planning to marketing and sales, this SaaS tool can do it all!
Get UDN Task Manager for free today and be on your way to cook fantastic products!