Product managers have their work cut out for them. Successful shepherding a product from its initial conception through multiple stages of iteration and development and finally to a successful marketplace launch requires a high level of coordination and efficiency. Product managers often have to oversee multiple processes and several multidisciplinary teams, ranging from engineers to marketers. And it’s their responsibility to keep everyone on-time, on budget, and aligned with big-picture business goals.

Naturally, product managers need all the help they can get, both from qualified personnel and from standard-setting technologies. Product roadmap management software is especially important, but what should product managers look for in their software solutions? And which product roadmap management tools come most highly recommended?

What Is Product Roadmap Management Software?

First and foremost, it’s important to define product roadmap management software, or PRM.

PRM helps drive strategic alignment throughout the lifecycle of a product, from the initial concept and brainstorming phase through the product launch. PRM provides a single source of truth for all teams and stakeholders, ensuring everyone is working from the same set of data points. PRM also provides visualization of each stage in the product’s development, ensuring that everyone has a clear sense of how the product lifecycle is meant to unfold, and of their own part in the bigger picture. Finally, PRM provides a single, unified place for collaboration, for tracking benchmarks and deadlines, and for keeping track of product features and specs.

What To Look For In Product Roadmap Software

Not all PRM software is created equal. As such, it’s important for manufacturers to do their due diligence, to compare a few different options, and to ensure the right list of features and capabilities.

What makes an effective PRM application? Some must-have items include:

• Industry analysis. Product managers are responsible for choosing which features or benefits to highlight. Industry analysis is critical for ensuring data-driven decisions.
• The product manager must also bring together multiple professionals and teams, ranging from marketers to engineers. Clean, effective collaboration tools are essential for keeping a big, far-flung team on track.
• Roadmapping and flowcharting features. There are plenty of product management tools that don’t actually provide the ability to create a roadmap; and yet, this function is crucial for keeping the full team aligned toward the same goals.
• User feedback. Effective product development requires consumer insights to be weighed. Good PRM tools provide plenty of user experience integration tools.

What’s the Best Product Roadmap Management Software?

With all of that said, there are a few PRM options that should be on any manufacturer’s radar. Here are a few top-rated options.

1) Gocious

Gocious has really made a name for itself in the manufacturing space, emerging as one of the go-to PRM solutions. One thing that sets it apart is that it provides tools not only for managing a particular product, but for keeping tabs on an entire portfolio of products. Some additional features of note include:

• A customer-centric focus, providing tools for capturing the capabilities that the end user cares about most.
• Detailed roadmap and timeline features to keep the entire team on track.
• Visualization options to ensure consistent communication and meaningful meetings.

2) Monday.com

While the Monday.com dashboard is really more of a project management suite, it does offer some roadmapping features that any manufacturer should consider. Some of the most essential features included with Monday.com include:

• Advanced task scheduling and tracking capabilities.
• Integration with a wide range of apps, ranging from Gmail to Slack to Typeform.
• Budgeting integration to help keep teams within cost parameters.

3) Craft.io

Craft.io is recommended for any manufacturer seeking an end-to-end product roadmap tool (not unlike Gocious, cited above). Basically, Craft.io comes with built-in features to enable the management of an entire product lifecycle. Some of the most essential Craft.io features include:

• Ability to create custom-tailored roadmaps, connecting product features to overall strategy.
• A “Guru” feature that embeds product management best practices into each step of the process, providing on-the-go professional development for all team members.
• Workflow management and tracking features, along with countless integration opportunities with third-party apps like Google Workspace and Azure DevOps.

4) Airfocus

The airfocus tool is another popular example of PRM. It’s not as useful for managing entire product portfolios, but for individual projects, it has much to offer. Some of the leading airfocus features include:

• Plenty of options to customize the platform in order to fit team- or product-specific goals.
• A dedicated product management app that allows you to isolate and troubleshoot very specific problems.
• The modularity of airfocus allows manufacturers to build out the software they need, without necessarily having to pay for a bunch of excess or superfluous features.

5) Ignition

Ignition has long been one of the best-known examples of product roadmap management software, and it’s not hard to understand why. With Ignition, manufacturers get a generous collection of features, all in an incredibly easy-to-use, intuitive interface. Indeed, this may be the best bet for those who are brand new to product roadmap management tools. Some specific features include:

• Ability to quickly create milestones and establish supporting/dependent tasks.
• Custom dashboards that can be tailored with simple drag-and-drop commands.
• Capabilities to store data insights, including user feedback.

Choosing The Right Product Roadmap Management Software

Product managers face a tough task, involving many complicated and interconnected processes. To stay on track, it’s crucial to have the right tools in their toolbox. And few tools are more essential than a good product roadmap management software solution.

Clearly, there are a number of options for product managers to consider. It’s critical to understand what makes these products distinct, and to carefully research different software suites to find the PRM best-suited to achieving business- or product-specific goals.

Hopefully, these rankings will provide a good jumping-off point, and a good sense of the kind of features and capabilities that manufacturers should seek from their PRM software solutions. Choose wisely, as the right product can help your team level up in a big way.

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