What are the most important tools for a Product Manager to use?

To me, every single product or new idea requires a Lean Canvas or Business Model Canvas to be filled out in order as part of the overall strategy. You might not have all the answers to start, but you should have the basics about the Problem, Solution, Unique Value Prop and some basics about the cost structure. Once you start to fill those in, you can quickly determine whether an idea or product has potential and therefore can continue along in the Product Vision and Roadmap. Additionally, a basic Competitive analysis, either in the form of SWOT (for you and your prominent competitors), is a requirement, early in the process.

In my experience, an effective strategy tool is lean canvas along with SWOT analysis. These two tool helps visualize the product, problems and most value for your investments and right use of limited resources. It is very important to gather data using surveys, interviews and organizational knowledge repository; analyze them and finally put together these tools to work.

A successful product hinges on a well-defined vision and a strategic approach to product management. Beyond the initial value, it's imperative to continually assess the relevance of features over time. A product's key strength lies in addressing specific problem statements rather than merely building a system. Integrate OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) as a powerful tool to gauge progress and maintain alignment with overarching goals. This strategy tool not only provides a measurable framework but also facilitates a dynamic, adaptable approach to product development. Regularly revisiting and refining your product vision, coupled with strategic use of tools like OKRs, ensures a robust and future-proof product management strategy.

The most important tool in the Product Manager's box is being brave enough to say NO to poorly thought-out ideas. No to management, no to over-vocal customers, and no to engineering who want to add their favorite new gizmo. The discipline to stick to the plan unless there is overwhelming supporting evidence is essential.

I consider analytics tools to be one of the most valuable resources. Product managers should utilize these tools to monitor and evaluate the performance of their products. By utilizing analytics tools, they can gain valuable insights into user behavior, usage patterns, adoption rates, and various metrics. This enables them to comprehend how customers are engaging with the product and make informed decisions based on data-driven insights.

Following categories of tools can be useful for design: 1. Design and Collaboration: - Figma: Cloud-based design collaboration tool for creating interactive prototypes - Balsamiq: A good starter tool for wireframing - Sketch: Good for intuitive interface, artboards, and a vast library of plugins - Miro: Good for visual collaboration, ideation, and design thinking sessions 2. User Research and Feedback: - Qualtrics: A very good tool for user surveys and collecting NPS - Typeform/ SurveyMonkey: Create surveys, collect responses, and analyze results - Hotjar / Crazy Egg: Understand user behaviour inside your app or website - UserTesting: Good for website and app usability testing, prototype testing

Even though PMs can learn to use Figma and similar tools, I for one would leave design to real Designers who are skilled in this art form and passionate about their jobs just as I would leave coding to Engineers and not Product Managers :) Every good product team should have a strong product trio of Pm, Design and Engineering so that different strengths, perspectives and interests could be considered.

There are few more tools that I find useful for creating, testing, and iterating on product concepts and prototypes: Canva covers a wide range of design needs, including creating visual marketing materials. While not specifically tailored for product design, Canva can still be useful for visualizing ideas and concepts, especially for less complex projects or early-stage ideation. Optimizely is an experimentation platform that allows to A/B test different variations of my product designs and measure their impact on key metrics. By running experiments, I can validate design decisions and optimize the user experience based on data-driven insights.

Balsamiq for quick concepts, Figma for prototypes and Medium fidelity designs! PM’s do not need to be experts in Figma, but having the basics definitely helps.

Product Managers should have the skills to create disposable user experience designs and fundamental workflows. To accomplish this, it is important that Product Managers have basic experience in a UX design tool like FIGMA, & in a workflow builder tool like Visio or smartdraw. It is more important for Product managers to develop proficiency in design principles and develop their skills in Empathy Research and user feedbacks. This will enable them to effectively guide the tech teams and ensure that the team is iteratively building the right solution.

Ensure that you A/B test your feature or improvement before scaling up. A feature launch would involve: 1. A/B Test: test your feature by releasing it to small audience size. If the feature meets the intended goals, scale it for larger audience. Use tools like firebase, Optimizely, VWO, etc to manage A/B test 2. Distribution: Distribute you app/website via tools such as Adjust, Appsflyer to track user behaviour 3. Track User Behaviour: Use analytics tools such as Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics to track user behaviour for the feature. Make changes as required 4. Educate Users: Educate users via in-app messaging, push notifications. Reach out to customers on other channels such as email and SMS

You've worked hard to build or update or improve the product you product managed. Now it's time to get the word out a celebrate! You need to shout from the rafters and use as many communication outlets as appropriate, because you are the product champion and you want the product to be successful so build your launch plan into your overall product plan from the start and don't leave it to the end. Also think about your audience, what do they look at, how might they find this information and how would they want to consume it?

Vamos exemplificar como essas ferramentas de lançamento podem ser utilizadas no lançamento de um novo aplicativo: Landing Page (Unbounce): Criar uma landing page atraente que destaque os principais recursos e benefícios do aplicativo. Incluir um formulário de inscrição para os usuários interessados se cadastrarem para receber atualizações ou acesso antecipado ao aplicativo. Utilizar técnicas de otimização de conversão para maximizar as taxas de conversão. E-mail Marketing (Mailchimp): Desenvolver uma campanha de e-mail marketing para divulgar o lançamento do aplicativo. Segmentar os leads coletados na landing page e enviar e-mails personalizados com informações relevantes sobre o aplicativo e incentivos para baixá-lo.

Feature rollout is one of the most awaited day for a PM and a lot of companie have learned an important lesson not to launch at scale because it becomes difficult to roll back if there are issues in validation or adoption. Hence it is important to choose the tool that allow you a rollout that you can control , and even test it via A/B/N testing. I suggest optimizely.

- Unbounce: Craft compelling landing pages for effective communication of your product's value proposition. - Mailchimp: Streamline email campaigns to engage, nurture, and communicate key launch details to your audience. - Buffer: Enhance your social media strategy for effective promotion and communication during the product launch. - HubSpot: Manage leads, conversions, and referrals systematically with CRM tools, ensuring effective customer relationship management.

At early stages, when you're just gaining traction, (Google/Zoom/IRL) meet with your customers. The people who use the product the most, the people who use it the least as well. Literally have a conversation, listen, and find out what actions you can take from those convos to improve the product. Why are top users seeing value and let them share opinions and ideas. Maybe even more importantly, why are some users stagnant? Do they still see the value add? This can uncover some issues and set you up for success long-term. Seems obvious, you'd be surprised how few startups do this.. To summarize; PICK UP THE 📞

I can’t understate how important it is to remember think critically, leveraging real life experience with these tools. With customer feedback it can be very tempting to react too quickly without getting a statistically relevant data set to act on. It can also be very tempting to skip identifying and evaluating whether solving the root cause issue will impact a larger range of user problems.

PMs wield a toolbox! Here are the key essentials: 1. Strategy & Roadmaps: Aha!, Trello, Lean Canvas - Define vision, prioritize features, visualize roadmap. 2. User Research & Feedback: SurveyMonkey, Hotjar, Amplitude - Understand users, gather feedback, measure impact. 3. Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, InVision - Craft intuitive interfaces, test concepts with prototypes. 4. Project Management: Jira, Asana, Monday.com - Plan sprints, track tasks, collaborate with teams. 5. Data & Analytics: Google Analytics, Looker, Tableau - Analyze user behaviour, optimize features, and measure success. Bonus tools: • Communication (Slack) • Productivity (Todoist) • Design Collaboration (Zeplin)

In my time working with products, I've found feedback tools really helpful. They let us hear directly from our users and figure out what changes to make next. It's like having a conversation with our customers, which guides us in updating our products in ways that people actually want. This has made a big difference in making users happy and keeping our products useful and relevant.

The greatest product people I've ever worked with go back to check how successful their requirements were once work is delivered. The humility pays huge dividends to the team and empowers them to speak up sooner if the PM 's work isn't resonating.

Build a negative roadmap Articulate why you aren’t those things you aren’t doing rigorously. It is super powerful for stakeholder management and for strategic customer feedback

It strikes me that this article has sections for types of tools seeming to make the assumption that each area should have a tool, how scary is that! I want to have one tool that does it all and I do! Aha! provides everything a product manager needs to be the star in your organization. Don't spend money on tools that don't work together, that will just cause frustration and wasted time!

Try the telephone. Call your Presales engineers to learn what prospects like and don’t like about your offerings so you can improve your messaging and enablement. Call your customers to learn how your products make their daily life better and build the relationships you need to turn these customers into advocates. Call your support team to learn about where customers run into problems and become their internal advocates. Call your sales team to learn what messaging works and what doesn’t, also how are your competitors positioning you to reframe the competitive playing field. Call your engineering team to share all the insight you’ve gathered and motivate them to work even harder to make their value-add even higher.

The best tools are your brain, feelings and communication skills. Everything else depends on the company, market and size of the team!

Other tools you will likely come across are: * Project Management focused, such as Asana. * Communication (one place of truth), such as Confluence and Notion