What are the essential software tools and applications most commonly used by a Product Manager of web products?

Product & Design
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#1

1. E-mail Program
Because this is where I spend the majority of my time, mastering your e-mail client is critical. Anything that works well with your e-mail client will boost your productivity.

  • Gmail – the best out there, as well as the gold standard for all new apps that are “reinventing e-mail.”

  • Airmail – If you must use Exchange, Airmail’s Exchange support is superior to Mail or Outlook for Mac (tragically). Furthermore, it integrates well with other essential tools such as Evernote.

  • Mail (iOS/OS X App) – still far superior to Outlook for Mac. If you use Exchange, you should become accustomed to rebuilding your mailbox.

2. Software for Road Mapping

  • Aha! (software) – At Blue Yonder, we use Aha!, which has changed my life. It makes it much easier than before to plan, communicate, and iterate on our product roadmap. Check out Brian de Haaff’s response as well. Everything he says about Aha! is accurate.

  • Google Sheets – At Day Software, we created a sophisticated and powerful set of Google Spreadsheets for roadmap planning.

  • Microsoft PowerPoint – We primarily used Powerpoint at a company that shall remain nameless for roadmap communication. That is not something I would recommend to anyone.

3. Troubleshooting Software

  • Jira – The only issue tracking tool I’ve used that I can 100% recommend.

  • Bugzilla

  • Redmine

4. Wikis

  • Confluence (Atlassian) – The best wiki that integrates with JIRA.

  • The Wiki included in previous versions of Adobe Experience Manager – Simple and quick

  • Redmine