Top 10. Product Management Tools. Product Focus 2018

Transcription

1 Top 10 Product Management Tools Product Focus 2018

2 Contents Executive summary 5 Selecting a tool 6 Methodology 7 Results 8 Tools for different activities 9 Top 50 tools 13 Top 10 Product Management Tools 14 About Product Focus 15 To the best of our knowledge the information contained in this report was correct at the date of publication (March 2018). Product Focus Ltd takes no responsibility for decisions made based on the information in this report. Top 10 Product Management Tools Document version 1. All content is Product Focus

3 product focus Top 10 Product Management Tools 2018 This Product Focus report identifies the tools used by product managers and product marketers to help them do their job. It s based on data from an extensive survey completed in January 2018 by 680 people. They were mainly from the UK (44%) and other European countries (46%). Tools are available to help across a wide-range of activities. They include general office applications like Word and Excel but this report focuses on software tools specifically designed to help companies manage their products. We term these Product Management Tools. Product Focus are European leaders in product management training and consulting for technology-based companies. Our goal is to help individuals and businesses deliver world class product management. We hope this report will help you understand what s available in the market and find the right tools for your business. 3

4 A myriad of tools All the trademarks and tradenames referenced in the report are the property of their respective companies. 4

5 Executive Summary Our survey showed that there are a myriad of tools used by product managers and product marketers. Over 330 were mentioned. Some cover many activities whilst others have a narrow focus. And, as the product management and product marketing roles vary from company to company, so the activities that need to be supported can be very different. So which tools do product managers use? Generic office tools like the Microsoft Office and suites are still, by far, the most used. However, there are a growing number of tools targeted at specific product management activities. We call these Product Management Tools and reveal the top 10 currently in use. Generic office applications have their place but Product Management Tools offer several benefits: - Streamlining and automating common product management activities e.g. recording, tracking and prioritising requirements - Helping communication, alignment and collaboration across different departments e.g. a single location to store, access and share product information - Pushing product managers into examining the importance and benefit of what may be new activities e.g. analysing the success of newly released features - Helping product managers use best practice e.g. in how they create roadmaps How do you choose which tool to use? As most tools are available on a trial basis we recommend that you try them before committing. We also believe that:- - To get the real benefit of many tools requires the full buy-in of all involved. The tool must become a habitual part of working for product management and their virtual team - Successful introduction is dependent on pre-planning. We provide a short checklist in the Selecting a tool section - It s easy to become confused when reading the different vendor websites. All seem to have all the answers. This report helps sift through the many choices and identifies the top 10 product management tools currently used by our survey respondents Conclusion Our experience is that many tools are introduced by other parts of the business (e.g. Jira by Development) and used by product managers because they are already there. That s fine, however we believe that product management should also review the tools they use to see if there are opportunities to save time, improve work quality and boost performance. This year s survey revealed more people using tools to help them with their product management responsibilities. This reflects the trend we see in our training for adoption of best-practice and increased standardisation in the way things are getting done. It s a fast-moving market with new vendors entering the market all the time and existing vendors constantly evolving their offerings. You need to choose the right tool(s) for your business. 5

6 Selecting a tool Our experience is that many companies use (or at least try out) multiple tools. We recommend a structured approach to assessing and selecting tools and have provided the checklist below to help:- 1) Review existing processes 2) Prioritise areas for improvement and decide on any changes to be made 3) Assess current solutions and preferences - are existing in-house tools suitable or can they be adapted to support how you want to work? - do you want a single tool to cover a broad range of activities or tools that focus on specific problem areas? 4) Use this report to identify potential candidates. Think about: - relevance to what you want to do - price level and structure - support availability - what you want to assess during a trial and who needs to be involved - whether the tool needs to (and can) integrate to other systems/tools you have - how mature is the tool and how trustworthy is the company - whether you re happy with a SaaS solution or want to install a solution behind your firewall to keep data secure and not have to rely on external internet connections 5) Try a free trial version before committing to buy 6

7 Methodology This report is based on a survey that took place in January Data from 680 product managers and marketers from more than 400 technology-based product companies was used. 90% of respondents were from Europe and 19% were Heads of Department, Directors or VP level. The survey asked the following questions about using tools for different activities. 1. Product Strategy: What do you use to document product strategy, analysis and opportunities? 2. Getting Insight: What do you use when collecting, sharing and testing ideas and insights from customers, the market, competitors and internal teams? 3. Tracking Requirements: What do you use when documenting and tracking requirements? 4. Prioritisation: What do you use when prioritising ideas, requirements and features? 5. Roadmapping: What do you use when creating roadmaps to present and share release information? 6. Creating Mockups: What do you use when creating mock-ups such as prototypes, wireframes and screen designs? 7. Project Management: What do you use to project manage e.g. internal rollouts, development, launches, trials and marketing plans? 8. Metrics and Analytics: What do you use when measuring the impact of new features and successes? Many product management roles do not include all of the above activities and the graph below shows the percentage of all respondents who answered each question. The top 10 is based on the overall number of mentions of a tool across all questions. It excludes generic office, design, project management tools etc, to focus on the tools that are specifically targeted at product managers and their activities. What activities are tools used for? 100% % of respondents 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 1) Product Strategy 2) Getting Insight 3) Tracking Requirements 4) Prioritisation 5) Roadmapping 6) Creating Mockups 7) Project Management 8) Metrics & Analytics 7

8 Results Without doubt there are many Product Management Tools from which to choose. The selection of one or more tools is going to be dependent on your current and future requirements. One approach is to cherry pick tools that are best in class for specific tasks e.g. roadmapping or requirements management. With this approach there is a need to ensure simple integration (ideally automated) between the chosen tools. Another approach is to look for a good all-round tool, which works for most product management administration tasks. Whilst our Top 10 Product Management tools have not been around for many years, they ve matured quickly. They are proven in many different companies each with their unique way of working. This is the third year in which we have produced this report and we ve seen several changes over the past 12 months: 1. There is increased use of tools to help do the job 2. Whilst the Microsoft Office suite continues to dominate, their use is in decline 3. Aside from Atlassian s Jira and products, the market is highly fragmented - more than 330 different tools were mentioned in the survey! Before we show our analysis of the answers to questions about which tools are used for different product management and product marketing activities, it s interesting to see the tools that people would actually recommend to their peers. The graph below is based on answers to the question: Is there a tool you would definitely recommend to product managers? Jira MS Teams Google Analytics 11.6% 10.1% 8.7% 7.2% 7.2% 13.1% 20.2% 7.2% MS Project 14.5% 14.6% 5.8% Salesforce Slack 8

9 Tools for different activities 1) What do you use to document product strategy, analysis and opportunities? 22.1% 9.2% 7.2% 4.6% Aha! 24% 12% 25.5% 3.8% 1.5% 1.3% 0.8% JIRA Internal business case template Evernote 2) What do you use when collecting, sharing and testing ideas and insights from customers, the market, competitors and internal teams? Jira 14.2% 11.6% 7.1% 7.1% 14.4% 18.1% 5.1% 15.1% 19.5% 3% 2.8% Aha! MS OneNote 9

10 3) What do you use when documenting and tracking requirements? 18.4% 11.8% 4.3% Aha! 4% 19% 14.8% 3.3% 3.2% MS Team Foundation Server 31.7% 2.4% 1.9% MS SharePoint Jira 4) What do you use when prioritising ideas, requirements and features? Aha! 10.6% 6.6% 6.3% 6% 27.7% 19.4% 4.8% 3.9% 29.4% 3.4% 1.2% MS Team Foundation Server ProdPad Jira 10

11 5) What do you use when creating roadmaps to present and share release information? Aha! 6.8% 6.8% 19.6% 5.9% 4.9% 17.5% 4.6% Jira 43.4% 3.8% 3.2% MS Visio 1.0% Roadmunk 6) What do you use when creating mock-ups such as prototypes, wireframes and screen designs? InVision Sketch MS Visio 17% 12% 6.6% 6.4% 4.6% Adobe tools Axure 19.8% 22.2% 4.6% MS Paint 22.4% 4.3% 2.3% Balsamiq 11

12 7) What do you use to project manage e.g. of internal rollouts, development, launches, trials and marketing plans? Jira 15.3% 10.7% 7% 5% MS Project 18.2% 20.3% 4.8% 4.7% 28.5% 4.1% 1.7% Aha! Smartsheet 8) What do you use when measuring the impact of new features and successes? Google Analytics 20.4% Surveys 7.8% 6.1% Salesforce 4.8% 3.9% Tableau 3.5% Adobe tools 14.8% 3% Mixpanel 46.1% 2.2% 2.2% Hotjar CRM 12

13 Top 50 Tools The following chart shows the top 50 tools (of any description) mentioned by product managers in their survey responses. These range from generic office applications to tools for project management, visual design, storage, development management, surveys, presentations and personal productivity. In the top 50, the first 6 tools, shown in the pie chart, represent over 3/4 of the mentions by product managers. The rest are listed in order by the number of mentions. Jira 17.7% 15.1% 25% 8.8% 23.2% 5.7% 4.5% Aha! MS Project Balsamiq InVision Adobe tools ProdPad MS TFS Salesforce MS SharePoint Target Process Axure OneNote Redmine 0.9% Lucid Chart SmartSheet Roadmunk Asana Evernote Pen and paper Slack Github Mindmapping Trac MixPanel Fog Buhz Jama Survey Monkey CA Accompa Marvel MS Visio CRM Gliffy Kanban Product Plan Focal Point Doors Omniture In-house tools Keynote Dropbox 13

14 Top 10 Product Management Tools The 2018 survey identified the top 10 most widely used Product Management Tools. This is based on the overall number of mentions of tools that are wholly or partly targeted at product managers or product management activities. 27.8% 14.1% 1.7% 2.6% 2.5% 5.2% 1% 0.6% 47.8% 0.5% 0.5% Each tool needs to be evaluated against your current circumstances and needs. If you are looking for a tool built primarily for product managers then Aha! and ProdPad are strong candidates. s, such as Jira with, Team Foundation Server, Target Process, Jama and CA are intended to manage a broad range of activities associated with bringing products to market. Finally there are products focussed on particular aspects of product management such as Roadmunk for roadmaps and Accompa for requirements management. Tool adoption The graph below shows the use of tools in businesses using different development approaches. It shows a clear link between the use of Agile and the use of tools. Perhaps this reflects the fact that good alignment and communication across teams are fundamental to making Agile work. Development Methodology vs Product Management Tool Utilisation 21% 42% 71% 87% 79% 58% 29% 13% Agile e.g. SCRUM Some Agile and some Waterfall Waterfall only e.g. Stage-Gate No Development Do use product management tools Don t use product management tools 14

15 product focus About Product Focus Product Focus helps businesses and individuals deliver. We teach the skills and tools to excel in product management and product marketing. Our focus is technology-based products. We work with some of the industries leading companies and the feedback we get is invariably excellent. Our experience, journal and industry survey make us leaders in our field. Public training courses Build the skills, insights and experience to excel. Attend a 3-day public course for a thorough grounding in the role, network with peers and learn best practice. Show you care about your professional development by becoming a Product Focus Certified Product Manager. On-site private training Improve team performance with tailored on-site private training. Get everyone using consistent best-practice approaches and speaking the same language. We come to you, so you save travel costs and make the most of your time together. Reviews and assessments Ensure the team is set-up for success with a review of product management in your business. Answer questions such as are we setup right, how should we measure performance, have we got the right processes and where can we improve? Leadership forum A one-day exclusive workshop for senior executives to meet, discuss and learn how to lead a high-performance product management function. The forum provides an oasis away from daily distractions to focus on the strategic issues of leading and improving product management. 15