Product management is an overwhelming job profile, requiring multi-tasking at every stage. They are at the core of processing a product from beginning to end. They face challenges but do not shy away from confrontation. For this, product managers need to be daring enough to confront a problem head-on. In the fast-paced world, finding solutions requires effective decision-making to switch from one role at a time to another. The varied roles for product managers are organizers, strategists, researchers, visioners, and many more.

Product managers face some common challenges that become a hurdle in generating a product.

Some Of The Challenges Faced By Product Managers Are Listed Below:

• Communication

Product managers lead a diverse team of individuals, including researchers, designers, engineers, developers, and testers. This complex cross-functional team needs effective communication to leave no scope for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. To resolve these, product managers need to understand that- everyone is unique, the group involves two-way communication, and feedbacks are essential. Better communication allows the product management organization team to work towards desired goals without getting lost in team conflicts.

• Timelines And Deadlines

Finishing a product needs a roadmap to devote enough time for iteration and re-iteration until the product is final. Collaborating with all departments to achieve the short goals in desired time is a cumbersome task for product managers. Handling this pressure requires adequate planning and structuring. For ensuring cross-team alignment, scheduling tools are best.

• Keeping Pace With Technology

Product managers are multi-taskers with diverse skillsets; however, expecting too much from a single human is extreme. Technology is changing every day, making it hard for product managers to catch up to the latest trends. Hence, including tech-savvy people in the product team is the best way to stay up-to-date.

These are a few common issues product managers face in their everyday work life. Technology paved the way for a simplified version of everything to address these and many other challenges. Knowing which tool or software is best for a specific problem is needed.

Tools and software

Before selecting any tools and software, it is crucial to understand the demands of your product management organization’s respective challenges and capacity. For instance, startups may not afford a high-efficiency expensive tool and prefer a free model or other options. Product managers thus, make decisions depending on the scale of their organizations. In general, product management involves-

• Prototyping
• Roadmapping
• Prioritizing
• Task management
• Sprinting
• Data management
• User research

Depending On The Issue And Need, Here’s A List Of The Latest Tools To Make Product Management Easier:

Figma

It is a web-based graphics editor and prototyping tool used for wireframing, designing, prototyping, crafting, and everything in between. It is a fantastic solution for every product management team serving its multi-purpose needs like brainstorming, designing, and building a product. It allows real-time collaboration with features like a whiteboard, FIGJAM, real-time collaborations, dynamic overlays, to name a few.

Airfocus

It is a modern and modular product management platform used for roadmapping in product management. It enables product teams to build, run and scale their product workflows on one flexible platform. It allows accessible communication, leadership, collaboration, road mapping, and feedback.

Craft

Effective decision-making and vision are at every stage of the product life cycle. Craft.io is a product feature prioritization engine with workflow planning, feedback capturing, and road-mapping. It allows users to prioritize critical decisions, define product specs and manage workload capacity.

Jira

It is one of the leading software development tools for agile teams, allowing planning, monitoring, and building a product. It offers features like agile reporting, roadmaps, customizable workflow, and scrum boards. This prioritization tool helps the team get back on track and guide future tasks.

Mixpanel

Product managers need to justify their decisions for which experience alone does not work. The next important thing is the inclusion of analytics to explain choices, reasons for findings, and test hypothetical designs. For data management solutions, mostly use google analytics; however, to get more details, mixpanel can be used. Mixpanel is an analytics service provider where product managers can track user interactions and run A/B tests. It offers features like interactive reports, limitless segmentation, and group analytics.

Asana

Asana is an important step in building a product. It allows a team to share their views, iterate, and again prototype. It allows better planning, tracking, and managing team projects from start to finish. It offers a calendar, workflow builder, timelines, and kanban boards. It is a device-friendly tool to sync all tasks on different devices.

Wrapping Up!

The addition of one of the tools mentioned above will ease the burden on the shoulders of a product manager. There are other tools and software like Heap, Pendo, Sprig, Agilean, Binfire, to name a few. Product managers can select these tools based on their usability, features, functionality, and cost. It makes the task of the product management team flexibly easier, giving enough time for iterations to produce the best product.