The most successful product managers are organized so that your thoughts can be organized. If you have an organized mind you can communicate more clearly and being a great communicator is the key to success as a product manager.
If you aren’t naturally talented at communicating, you can go very far by focusing on being organized.
The best way to stay organized is to rely on tools to help you do the job.
Here are all the types of tools that most product managers have in their toolbelt and suggestions for apps and websites for each type of tool.
Feature and Bug Tracking
Sometimes also referred to as “issue tracker” or “issue tracking” tools. These are software applications that are used to keep a backlog of features that the product management team wants to create, the developers are in the middle of creating, or are created.
Usually a feature tracking tool integrates functionality to track bugs that are reported either internally or externally by users.
Roadmap Planning
Roadmapping helps you plan out your product’s features over the course of months and even years. It’s important to keep an organized roadmap using a roadmap planner so you can get a high level view of what features need to be implemented and when they can be implemented.
As a product manager you’ll be referring to the roadmap frequently when internal stakeholders (like executives and sales people) and clients want an idea of what’s to come.
Wireframing
Wireframing is essentially a draft or a sketch of the feature or product that you’re building. You can use these wireframes to validate the feature or product before it get’s built and also to communicate how you want the product or feature to work and look to your developers.
- Balsamiq
- Mockingbird
- Pencil
- Axure
- Good old pencil and paper
- More options: http://theappentrepreneur.com/54-amazing-wireframing-tools-apps
Multi-Purpose Product Management Tools
- Aha!
- ProdPad
- ProductOffice
- ProductForce