As humans, we always want more. The newest clothes, the shiniest gadget, to visit new places. We’re conditioned to want the next big thing. That’s okay in regular life (providing you can afford it ), but it can be a massive problem in Product Management. 

Why? Let’s have a deeper look at shiny object syndrome, and uncover why it’s an issue that you really don’t want to face. 

What is shiny object syndrome? 

Shiny object syndrome (SOS) describes a compulsion to fixate on what’s new and drop everything you’ve worked hard on, to instead pivot a trendy idea or feature that’s going to “take the world by storm”. 

It’s where you, or those who are making the decisions above you, are drawn to new technologies that promise excitement, but that may not be the best option for you right now.

It’s like a cat following a beam of light on the wall fixated on this shiny dot wiggling around, pulling the poor animal in multiple directions as if in a trance. Like the cat, falling foul of shiny object syndrome can lead your product team astray. Away from the predefined product vision and into untested waters. 

In practice, shiny object syndrome leads teams to prioritize new features simply because they’re based on novel and innovative ideas and ignore the previously validated solutions that are more likely to meet the user’s needs. It’s the temptation to be on the cutting edge instead of double-downing on what really matters. 

It’s easy to fall into the trap of shiny object syndrome. Product teams and CEOs want the product to stand out and not fall behind. So, when a buzz is generated over a new idea in your industry, it can be easy to race in and integrate it to stay current. 

But that’s super dangerous. Not every great new innovation amounts to anything, and suddenly, thanks to shiny object syndrome, you’ve backed the wrong horse. 

To put it another way, shiny object syndrome is when your product strategy loses focus and starts drifting to whatever seems most existing in the moment, pulling you away from delivering what’s actually valuable and more likely to work.

Why is shiny object syndrome a bad thing?

What’s so bad with wanting to make sure your product includes the newest trends? Who doesn’t want to explore new and exciting opportunities that could lead to bigger and better things?

Well, it’s because of that ‘could’. These new ideas haven’t been validated, they haven’t been tested, yet shiny object syndrome makes you want to dive in head first. It makes you prioritize the new idea simply because it is the newest. 

Suddenly shifting to a new idea, never seen before on your roadmap, can wreak havoc on your team, and overall strategy, especially if it’s done for the wrong reasons. This tendency to get distracted undermines the core principles of focus and customer value, often turning promising plans into chaos.

Of course, a key principle of agile working is that you’re able to be adaptable and explore and try new things. You need to be open to experimentation and iterating on what you already have. You don’t want to be completely rigid and welded to your roadmap.

But dropping everything to chase an unvalidated shiny object is not the best way to go about things. You’ve put time and effort into your original plan – it’s not worth the waste of resources to jump on something new without first checking if that new thing is worth your time. 

Because for all you know, you could be jumping from a lifeboat onto the Titanic. Blindly following the whims of someone with shiny object syndrome may lead you onto a sinking ship – and we’ll get to an example where that happened in the past. 

That’s just one of the main dangers of SOS, but there’s so many more, like:

• Delayed product launches: If you’re trying to get a new product to market, SOS pushes delivery further out as teams constantly pivot to incorporate the shiny new ideas. Every detour delays your time to market, potentially leaving you behind competitors.
• Derailed product development: Prioritizing shiny objects over existing work can force teams to have to scrap or reevaluate what’s in-flight and rework entire roadmaps, leading to chaotic development cycles and, in extreme cases, a full pivot strategy.
• Wasted resources: The time, money, and effort spent researching, assessing, and possibly implementing ideas brought about through shiny new objective syndrome often yield little ROI. This misallocation of resources detracts from core initiatives.
• Sowing doubts: Frequent changes in direction, without solid reasoning, create uncertainty among team members. When they suspect that plans might change on a whim, motivation and commitment to current goals can drop.
• Feature creep: SOS frequently results in piling on features for novelty’s sake, diluting the product’s unique selling proposition (USP) and making it harder for users to navigate or find value.
• Poor user value: Shiny objects often fail to address real customer needs. Customers might find the new features flashy but ultimately irrelevant, eroding trust in your product. If the shiny object is so new and fresh, customers might not even have a need for it yet. Don’t build personalized rockets before people have a need to fly to the moon. 

Who’s most vulnerable to shiny object syndrome? 

Shiny object syndrome is a quote-on-quote ‘disease’ that anyone in the Product Team can get, but just like how pirates were most vulnerable to scurvy, one group is far more vulnerable to the siren-like pull of the potential next big thing. Those are your C-suite and executive-level folk. 

But why? Well, the more senior you get, the less involved in your own product you become. Instead, you’re looking outwards at what others are doing, seeking opportunities for growth, and keeping tabs on new trends.

They’re less entrenched in the day-to-day realities of the product and its customers, which makes them more likely to be captivated by the latest tech buzzwords or the flashy ideas circulating in journals and at conferences. So it makes sense that when a new, exciting thing is introduced, your C-suites are going to be salivating at the opportunity to jump on that to stay ahead. 

Now, annoyingly, the last person you want to get shiny object syndrome is your C-suite stakeholders. If you as a PM become enamored with a shiny new idea, you have a whole team around you who will want to validate it and get evidence for it. This isn’t always the case if it’s your C-suite, thanks to the reality of HiPPO. 

HiPPO stands for the highest-paid person’s opinion. In many organizations, the idea of HiPPO reigns. Seniority and authority often mean that when executives express enthusiasm for an idea, teams feel compelled to act, whether it aligns with the strategy or not. 

HiPPOs with shiny object syndrome can spark off fire drills, derailed priorities, and a scramble for resources all in pursuit of something that might not even serve the product or its customers.

If the C-suite exec really wants to explore a new technology and shiny object, it’s hard to tell them no. 

Thankfully there are tactics you can deploy as a Product Manager to diplomatically dim the brightness of the shiny object without putting yourself in the line of fire – we’ll cover that in just a second.

Signs you’re dealing with shiny object syndrome

We’ll be honest, if your team is already infested with shiny object syndrome, you’ll know about it. Your attention is going to be pulled from your original, optimized plan to something that’s new and in its formative stages. That’s going to be a bumpy transition. 

Here are some major warning signs that a decision-maker (or team) is grappling with shiny object syndrome:

1. Undelivered projects: Plans are constantly being made but rarely completed. Your backlog of ‘great ideas’ keeps growing while deliverables stall.
2. Slow progress: Shiny distractions divert attention from roadmap work, leading to blown timeframes and super slow delivery of those carefully validated initiatives.
3. Constantly changing goals: Roadmaps, OKRs, and strategic objectives are in a perpetual state of flux as the team chases after the newest idea.
4. Excitement over execution: There’s far more enthusiasm for brainstorming the next big thing than for executing or iterating on existing plans.
5. Conflicting directives: One day it’s “build this new feature,” the next it’s “optimize for SEO.” Priorities seem to flip with the wind, creating confusion.
6. Lower feature adoption metrics: Existing features get launched but lack traction because they were hastily developed or poorly aligned with customer needs.
7. Lack of long-term strategy: Instead of working toward a cohesive vision, the team finds itself bouncing between short-term initiatives that never truly gel.
8. Customer disconnect: New features or ideas don’t resonate with customers, leaving them underwhelmed or confused about the product’s direction.

Spotting these early signs can save your team from the worst effects of shiny object syndrome. Once you’ve identified the problem, you can begin implementing strategies to steer focus back where it belongs: on delivering value to your customers.

How to protect yourself from shiny object syndrome

Preventing shiny object syndrome is like keeping a magpie away from glittering treasures and takes discipline and a solid plan. Here’s how you can stop it in its tracks, for both yourself and your executives:

1. Create a validation process

Make it hard for the C-suite to shift the focus. Establish a formal system for vetting new ideas. Not every new technology or market trend deserves your immediate attention. Build a checklist or framework to evaluate whether the shiny object aligns with your company’s strategy, goals, and roadmap. Tools like opportunity solution trees or the RICE scoring method can help prioritize without derailing your focus.

Doing this keeps you open to new ideas without forcing your team to jump on them straight away without checking if they’re viable first. 

2. Set expectations early

Define the rules of engagement around your product roadmap. Regularly communicate its purpose to stakeholders: it’s a living document that transforms strategy into actionable goals. Reinforce that every idea must go through the same prioritization process to ensure fairness and alignment.

Share your roadmap regularly with your stakeholders so that they understand what you’re working on, what’s got your attention, and where your resources are being spent. 

When sharing your roadmap, add some evidence as to why you’re doing it, and the expected benefits. Tie these to overall business goals to ensure you have continuous buy-in and reduce the chance of a new idea coming in to derail everything.

Using ProdPad to communicate your product roadmap will make this infinitely easier. All Roadmap Initiatives in ProdPad are linked to your Objectives and Key Results, are structured around problems to solve, clearly display their prioritization scoring and have related customer Feedback linked to them. 

Take a look in our live sandbox environment to see what that looks like. 

3. Build a feedback channel

Create structured ways for stakeholders to submit ideas without hijacking current plans. A standardized submission process ensures all inputs are considered while keeping chaos at bay. A central hub for suggestions fosters transparency and accountability, giving shiny objects their moment without jumping the queue.

We’ve done some of the hard work for you here. Download our Ideas and feedback submission guidelines to create the perfect process for your team. 

How to undo the damage of shiny object syndrome 

Prevention is better than a cure, but sometimes, you can be in the middle of dealing with the repercussions of shiny object syndrome, be it via your misjudgment or from those higher up. So what do you do now? 

Thankfully, there is an antidote that you can swallow to help get through this and get you back on track with your original plan and roadmap. Some tactics include: 

1. Spotlight the issues with the shiny object

Often, shiny objects are enticing because their flaws aren’t immediately visible. Take the time to highlight potential risks, costs, or feasibility issues. This can help deflate unwarranted enthusiasm and refocus attention on the bigger picture.

2. Revisit your goals

Bring the conversation back to your organizational objectives. If the shiny object doesn’t accelerate or simplify progress toward these goals, it’s easier to deprioritize. 

Show how your current roadmap already delivers on these targets and promise to revisit the idea after current milestones are achieved.

3. Emphasize the cost of delay

Every minute spent chasing a shiny object is time taken from delivering value through your existing priorities. 

Communicate the trade-offs clearly: what gets bumped, what’s delayed, and the downstream impacts on team morale and revenue.

4. Highlight the finish line

If your current roadmap is already in progress, emphasize how close you are to delivering value. This not only boosts morale but also makes shiny distractions less tempting. Promise to give the new idea its fair share of attention once the current plan is completed.

5. Take pride in your plan

Remind stakeholders of the effort, strategy, and collaboration that went into crafting the current roadmap. It’s a plan designed to deliver results and it deserves the chance to prove its worth. 

How to tell the difference between a shiny object and a genuine market shift? 

Listen, one thing I don’t want to do here is make you think that you should dismiss every new change and idea as a shiny object that should be ignored. Because if every new idea is written off, then there’ll be no progress. Sometimes a new idea represents a genuine paradigm shift, the kind of changes that reshape entire industries. 

Ignoring those can leave you stuck in the past while your competitors race ahead. This is the tightrope that many founders and CEOs need to walk: 

Don’t get too excited by something new, yet don’t ignore it and get left in the dust as others hop on. 

In the past, there have been loads of examples of businesses dismissing a genuine trend as a shiny object and thus paying the price. Remember Blockbuster? Back in 2010, no one could have imagined a world where the iconic Friday-night DVD rental ritual didn’t exist. But alas streaming came along, they didn’t act on it, and now there’s only one novelty Blockbuster store left in Oregon, serving more as a relic than a genuine store.

And then there’s AI. At first dismissed as a gimmick but now poised to be one of the biggest industry sectors in the world, ready to redefine everything from healthcare to software development. 

So, to protect yourself from shiny object syndrome, how on earth can you tell if a new trend is going to stick around or not? How do you separate the fleeting sparkles from the game-changing glow? 

Well, you want to make sure that these new ideas have: 

• Widespread adoption: Trends that gain traction across multiple industries often signal something bigger. Think cloud computing or mobile-first design, innovations that found applications everywhere.
• Customer demand: Genuine shifts solve real problems or open up new possibilities for your users. Pay attention to whether your customers are asking for something or if you’re simply chasing buzz.
• Clear business cases: Can this trend clearly improve your product or service? If it doesn’t address a pain point or elevate your offering, it might just be a distraction.
• Industry endorsement: When respected voices in your field start aligning around a trend, it’s worth digging deeper. Look for signs like venture capital funding, major partnerships, or wide-scale implementation.
• Durability: Does the trend have staying power? If it’s tied to broader shifts in consumer behavior or technology, it’s more likely to last.

But here’s the most important thing. Even if you recognize a genuine shift, it doesn’t mean you should dive in headfirst. 

Market shifts might change the landscape, but not every shift is right for your product or your customers. Protecting yourself from shiny object syndrome isn’t about knowing what’s going to be a hit. It’s about not letting that potential hit derail you from what you already have planned. 

Take AI, as undeniably transformative as it is, it might not be the best idea if it doesn’t add value to your customers. No one will care if you have an AI toaster if it burns your toast. 

That’s the trick with shiny object syndrome. Even if it’s the shiniest, brightest thing in the world, if it doesn’t work with what you’re trying to do and improve the experience of the customers you’re trying to serve, it may as well be a broken lightbulb. 

Jumping in without doing this groundwork can leave you with a shiny feature no one wants—or worse, one that actively detracts from your product’s usability.

Ultimately, staying ahead isn’t about hopping on every bandwagon. It’s about building something meaningful, even when the next shiny object comes along.

Avoid distractions 

Shiny object syndrome is a real threat to Product Managers trying to stay focused on delivering long-term value. While it’s tempting to chase the latest shiny trends, doing so can easily derail your roadmap, waste resources, and leave your product lacking in the areas that truly matter. 

The key to defending against this distraction is a clear, disciplined approach to validation, stakeholder alignment, and maintaining focus on your core strategy. By setting expectations early, creating a transparent feedback channel, and consistently reminding everyone of the bigger picture, you can avoid being pulled off course by the next big thing.

One of the most effective ways to stay grounded and keep all stakeholders aligned is by using tools like ProdPad. ProdPad ensures that your product roadmap is a living document that everyone can access and understand. 

With all stakeholders able to view and contribute to the roadmap, you can showcase the validation and reasoning behind every decision. This visibility helps prevent distractions and gives everyone clarity on what’s being worked on, why it matters, and what comes next.

Want to ensure your team stays focused on what really matters? Start a free trial with ProdPad and see how clear, accessible roadmaps can help you maintain focus while keeping your stakeholders informed and engaged.

The post Shiny Object Syndrome: Defending Against it as a Product Manager appeared first on ProdPad.

Our Complete list of Product Management frameworks

Let’s do it. 16 worthwhile Product Management frameworks. Explained and listed out for you so that you know what models are worth turning to. This list is not exhaustive. If it was, we’d be here all day. And because of that, if you know of a Product Management framework that’s really helping you out that we don’t cover here, tell us. Please. We’d love to know.

To make things easier, we’ve even gone and organized it based on what you’re using the frameworks for. Click from this list below to skip down to the types of frameworks you’re looking for. 

Product Management Frameworks for Prioritization

In the grand scheme of things, you’ll find that most Product Management frameworks are going to be focused on prioritization in one way or another. That makes sense, figuring out what’s most important to work on is a major part of Product Management.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the most important, but there are sooooo many more you can use. Get a better sense of the power of Prioritization Frameworks by downloading our ebook below. There you’ll be able to learn multiple nifty ways to prioritize. Check it out below:

RICE scoring

Potential features or ideas aren’t just categorically ‘good’ or ‘bad’. There are multiple factors that all come together to dictate if it’s something you should pursue. RICE scoring helps you collate all these factors and pump out an actionable score to help you see what’s the best stuff to work on.

To do RICE scoring, you need to first give a score, typically out of 10, on these four areas:

• Reach: How many users will this feature or update affect?
• Impact: How significantly will it improve their experience?
• Confidence: How sure are we about the above estimates?
• Effort: How much work is required to implement it?

Oh, would you look at that, the first letters of each word spell R.I.C.E, who would have thought? From here, you can then work out your RICE score by plugging it into the pretty straightforward formula: 

With RICE scores generated for each of your new ideas, you can then compare them against each other to see which ones have the most potential to move the needle with the least amount of effort.

Of course, there’s WAY more to RICE scoring. Good job we’ve put together this glossary article so you can learn more: 

Weighted impact scoring

Weighted impact scoring is another Product Management framework that helps you work out the best things to focus on based on different factors. What makes this different from RICE scoring is that these different factors are weighted depending on what’s most important to you. Because certain factors are simply more important than others.

For example, say your team really values something that has high customer demand and doesn’t care as much about its technical feasibility. You can illustrate that with weighted scoring, meaning that the value you give to customer demand has a higher impact on the final score.

To do weighted scoring, you’ll follow a process like this: 

1. Identify criteria: Define the key factors influencing success, such as market demand, customer impact, cost, or technical feasibility.
2. Assign weights: Allocate importance to each item, making sure that the total equals 100%. For instance, market demand might carry 40% weight, while cost might have 20%.
3. Score ideas: Rate each idea against the criteria on a consistent scale, such as 1 to 10. A higher score indicates a better alignment with the criteria you’ve created.
4. Calculate weighted scores: Multiply each idea’s score by its corresponding weight, then add the results to generate a total weighted score.
5. Rank ideas: Use the total scores to rank options. The highest-scoring ideas are prioritized for implementation while low-scoring ones can be deprioritized or excluded.

By following these steps, you’ll get something like this: 

In this example, it’s clear that Product Idea 2 is the best to work on first and will provide the biggest impact. Learn more about Weighted Scoring in our full glossary article: 

Kano Model

The Kano Model is a survey that allows PMs to work out what features are most important to their customers, allowing them to prioritize feature development and improvements. In this survey, you’ll ask two sets of questions about your feature ideas: 

• How would you feel if we added this feature?
• How would you feel if this feature was missing?

Users can respond by ticking one of five options that range from “I like it” to “I dislike it”. From these answers, you can then categorize your ideas or existing features based on what users like and dislike, helping you know what to drop and what to focus your efforts on in the future. Through this survey, you’ll be able to categorize your features or ideas into 5 sections: 

1. Basic: Must-haves that users expect.
2. Performance: Features that increase satisfaction the more they’re improved.
3. Delighters: Unexpected features that delight users.
4. Indifferent: Features users don’t care about.
5. Dissatisfiers: Features that frustrate users if present or missing.

The Kano model is useful but involves a fair bit of work to get it done properly. If you’re keen to follow the model, check out our step-by-step instructions: 

MoSCoW Prioritization Model

If you’re struggling to work out which features you should have in your product or need to know which ideas on your roadmap or backlog are worth sticking with, the MoSCoW Prioritization framework can help you.

The Product Management Framework allows you to assess ideas based on their importance and urgency, making sure that you allocate resources properly.

When using this framework, you rank your ideas based on them being a… 

• M – Must Have: Non-negotiable essentials for project success.
• S – Should Have: Important but not critical; can be postponed if necessary.
• C – Could Have: Nice-to-have features that add value but are not priorities.
• W – Won’t Have: Explicitly excluded from the current scope but may be revisited later.

This is what the framework stands for. By organizing requirements into these categories, the MoSCoW model ensures that teams work smarter, delivering what matters most while setting realistic expectations for all stakeholders.

You’ve probably guessed it by now, but we also have a glossary article covering this Product Management framework – perfect if you want to learn more. Check it out: 

Product Management Frameworks for Product Discovery 

Product Discovery is very important, so much so that it’s a core part of the Product Management Lifecycle. PMs constantly need to be learning about their audience and product to make sure they’re building the best thing possible. Here are some of the best frameworks for that. 

Double Diamond

The Double Diamond Product Management framework is a design and problem-solving approach that helps teams go from an initial kernel of an idea to a well-defined solution. It visually represents the process with two diamonds: the first focuses on defining the problem, while the second centers on designing the solution.

The framework has four key stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.

The Discover phase involves exploring the problem space through research and gathering insights. Teams cast a wide net to uncover user needs and pain points.

In the Define stage, the insights are analyzed to pinpoint the core problem, narrowing the focus to define a clear, actionable problem statement.

The second diamond begins with the Develop phase, where teams ideate and prototype potential solutions. This is a collaborative process, encouraging creativity and exploration of multiple ideas.

Finally, in the Deliver stage, the team tests and improves solutions, ensuring they meet user needs before scaling and shipping it to market.

In the context of product discovery, the Double Diamond Product Management framework ensures that Product Managers and teams deliver solutions that are both user-centric and aligned with business goals. It encourages collaboration across disciplines and fosters a mindset of continuous improvement.

ICE Scoring 

ICE scoring is a very simple framework, and allows Product Teams to evaluate potential solutions based on three key factors: 

• It’s Impact 
• How Confident you are in the idea
• How Easy the idea is to implement

By looking at these factors alone, it creates a simple way to decide on which initiatives you should focus on and if your potential ideas are going to work out.

To work out your ICE score, you first score each factor between 1-10, and you then multiply them together to get your final ICE score. The higher, the better.

The simplicity of ICE Scoring makes it an ideal framework for quickly comparing a wide range of ideas. It encourages objective decision-making by breaking down initiatives into measurable components, reducing biases that may crop up from gut feelings or organizational politics. If you need to make fast decisions, then this Product Management Framework is definitely a good option to have in your back pocket.

Learn more about ICE scoring: 

Opportunity Solution Tree 

The Opportunity Solution Tree is a framework developed by Product Leader and ProdPad friend, Teresa Torres. It’s a great framework for mapping out desired outcomes and working up ideas for actionable solutions. It gives structure to your discovery work and makes sure that teams are working on the right problems before they jump ahead.

When building an Opportunity Solution Tree, you’ll plot on three levels: 

1. Outcome: The overarching goal or desired result. For example, “Increase user retention by 20%.”
2. Opportunities: User needs, pain points, or problems that could help achieve the outcome. These are identified through user research.
3. Solutions: Potential ways to address the opportunities. Teams brainstorm and validate ideas here.

With these plotted out, you’ll then build a tree that may look something like this: 

Using an Opportunity Solution Tree encourages a systematic approach to product discovery. Instead of jumping straight to solutions, teams spend time actually exploring the problem space, ensuring they address real user needs. Breaking the process into steps reduces wasted effort on misaligned initiatives. Everything is focused on outcomes, not outputs, and every solution is tied to a validated opportunity.

Of course, this is just the ‘root’ of the Opportunity Solution Tree (see what we did there). Fully get your head around it by checking out our detailed glossary article: 

Product Management Frameworks for Product Development

Sometimes, doing can be the hardest thing in Product Management. Building and then implementing a plan can be tricky – especially if you’re cautious about doing things the right way. Thankfully, there are frameworks you can follow that make sure you’re always on the right track when developing and building your product.

Here are some of the best Product Development frameworks.

Kanban Framework

The Kanban Framework is a visual workflow management method that helps teams manage the work they have in progress. It’s a visual planner that’s shared with your entire team to improve visibility and reduce bottlenecks.

At its core, Kanban revolves around tracking tasks on a Kanban Board, which consists of columns representing stages in the workflow:

To Do
In Progress
Done

Tasks, represented as cards, move across the board as they progress through these stages. By representing tasks as cards on the board, teams gain clarity on what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where potential delays exist.

When using Kanban, you have a limit on what tasks can sit in each column, preventing teams from overloading themselves and encouraging a focus on completing tasks before adding another one. This creates a steady workflow while team members consistently review the board and make tweaks to their processes to improve the development process.

This framework is particularly beneficial for teams seeking to improve delivery times and reduce waste without overhauling their existing processes. Its focus on continuous delivery and responsiveness to change makes it a cornerstone of Agile practices.

GIST Planning

The GIST Planning framework, created by Itamar Gilad, is a lightweight, Agile-friendly framework designed to simplify strategic planning and execution for product teams. GIST stands for: 

1. Goals: High-level objectives that the team aims to achieve, such as improving user retention or increasing revenue.
2. Ideas: Potential solutions or initiatives to reach the goals. These ideas are collected, evaluated, and prioritized.
3. Step-Projects: Small, actionable projects derived from prioritized ideas. These projects are designed to deliver measurable results quickly.
4. Tasks: Specific actions required to complete the step-projects.

Here, the goal is to take high-level, ambitious goals and break them into tiny pieces that are more manageable and easier to focus on. It’s like eating a great big chocolate bar, you nibble on each block instead of shoving the whole thing in your mouth at once.

GIST Planning is important because it bridges long-term strategy and short-term execution. It helps teams avoid overcommitting to rigid plans and instead fosters a culture of adaptability. By breaking large goals into manageable pieces, teams can focus on incremental progress and ensure alignment with user needs and business objectives.

This framework is ideal for fast-moving teams that need a clear structure without the constraints of traditional planning methods.

And that’s the gist of GIST. If you want to learn more, we’ve actually spoken to Itamar about the benefits of GIST over Product roadmaps. Get your hands on the on-demand video. 

V2MOM

The V2MOM Framework is a strategic planning tool to align teams and ensure everyone is clear on how you achieve your organization-spanning goals. It provides a structured approach to defining priorities, aligning efforts, and tracking progress.

V2MOM stands for:

1. Vision: The ultimate goal or outcome the team wants to achieve. It sets the direction and purpose.
2. Values (the second ‘V’ hence the 2): The principles and priorities that guide decision-making and define success.
3. Methods: The specific actions or strategies required to achieve the vision.
4. Obstacles: Potential challenges or risks that might hinder progress.
5. Measures: The metrics used to evaluate success and track progress.

Getting different teams and the members within them on the same page can be pretty tough. The simplicity of V2MOM makes it a powerful tool for aligning teams, especially in large organizations. Each component ensures that everyone understands not just what they’re working on, but why it matters and how success will be measured.

In product development, V2MOM is particularly useful for maintaining focus and cohesion in cross-functional teams. By clearly outlining objectives and strategies, it prevents misalignment and ensures that efforts are directed toward shared goals – not just the core metrics for each specific team.

This framework is valuable for Product Managers seeking to straddle strategy and execution, learn about it:

Product Management Frameworks for Team Management

Product Managers don’t act alone. You’re surrounded by a team made up of multiple cross-functional roles, not to mention other stakeholders who all have a shared interest in the product and its direction. Because of this, you’re going to have to learn how to properly manage these teams and create a structure to avoid everything spiraling into chaos, blockers, and silos.

Here are some great Product Management frameworks to help you manage your teams.

DACI Framework

The DACI Framework is a decision-making and accountability tool designed to clarify roles and responsibilities within teams. It clearly states who owns and is responsible for driving decisions, making sure that no one goes off and starts a task without consulting the rest of their squad.

DACI is particularly useful for cross-functional teams working on strategic initiatives, product development, and organizational change.

DACI defines the four different types of people in a team and their association to decision making: Driver, Approver, Contributor, and Informed:

1. Driver: The person or role responsible for driving the decision-making process. This individual coordinates the discussions, gathers input, and ensures that decisions are made within the set timeframe.
2. Approver: The person who has the final authority to approve or veto the decision. The approver is accountable for ensuring the decision aligns with business objectives and long-term strategy.
3. Contributors: These are team members who provide valuable input, expertise, and recommendations to help inform the decision. While contributors do not make the final decision, their insights are critical in shaping the options available.
4. Informed: Individuals who need to be kept in the loop regarding the decision and its outcome. They are not directly involved in the decision-making process but need to stay informed for context, communication, or implementation purposes.

Assigning these specific roles to team members prevents confusion and overlapping responsibilities, which can lead to inefficiencies and missed deadlines. It also fosters accountability, as everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and who has the final say. It helps streamline decision-making processes, making sure that key stakeholders are involved at the right stages and that the right people are making the final call.

We’ve got loads more on DACI right here: 

RACI Matrix

Another framework used for clarifying roles in a team is the RACI Matrix. It helps ensure that tasks are completed efficiently by defining who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for each part of a project. The RACI Matrix reduces ambiguity, improves communication, and prevents tasks from falling through the cracks. Here’s each role in action:

1. Responsible: The individual or team responsible for completing the task or action. They perform the work or take direct responsibility for getting it done.
2. Accountable: The person who is ultimately accountable for the completion and success of the task. They own the outcome and are the final decision-maker. There should only be one accountable person per task to avoid confusion.
3. Consulted: These are subject-matter experts or team members who provide input, advice, or feedback during the task’s execution. Their consultation helps guide the responsible individual, but they do not directly perform the task.
4. Informed: Individuals or groups who need to be kept updated on the progress or completion of a task. They are not involved in the decision-making or execution but need to stay informed to maintain alignment.

Hang on, this sounds pretty similar to DACI, doesn’t it? Well, despite the rhyming name, don’t get these two confused. DACI is all about decision-making, whereas RACI is more focused on execution.

The RACI Matrix is essential in ensuring clear communication within teams. It provides a simple, straightforward way to ensure that every team member knows what is expected of them and who to turn to for advice or approval. 

Product Trios

There’s a lot to know about Product Trios, but here’s the general gist:

The Product Trio is a framework designed to foster close collaboration among three key roles in product discovery and development: the Product Manager, the Engineer, and the Product Designer. These cross-functional roles come together from the very beginning of a project, working in unison to inform decisions, bounce ideas off each other, and create products that are viable, desirable, and feasible. 

By creating a Product Trio, teams break away from the silos that traditionally isolate these roles, ensuring that everyone involved has visibility into the product development process at all stages. This integrated approach leads to better alignment, faster decision-making, and a more efficient product development cycle.

Of course, there are multiple other frameworks you can choose to follow to nail your Product Team Structure, including the use of squads and cross-functional teams. Yet, trios are the easiest to implement and help give your Product Team a solid structure to build off as you scale.

Product Management Frameworks for Customer Experience

Every change, tweak, and update made to a product is designed to improve the customer experience so that users become lifelong advocates and champions of your product. There are many different things you can do to ensure you’re working on improving the customer experience.

Here are some Product Management frameworks that are focused on improving the customer experience and showing them the value proposition of the product. 

Value Proposition Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas is a powerful framework designed to help businesses create products and services that truly resonate with their customers. The canvas is really important when creating your value proposition, and is used within a value proposition workshop to visualize the key components of the product and align it with customer needs.

It consists of two main sections: Customer Profile and Value Map.

1. Customer Profile: This section is divided into three sub-sections: Jobs, Pains, and Gains. Jobs refer to what the customer is trying to achieve, whether functional, social, or emotional. Pains are the challenges or obstacles customers face in achieving these jobs, such as frustrations or risks. Gains represent the benefits or positive outcomes customers hope to achieve, such as improvements in productivity or happiness.
2. Value Map: The Value Map outlines how your product or service addresses these customer needs. It identifies the products and services that help customers complete their jobs, the pain relievers that mitigate their frustrations, and the gain creators that provide additional benefits or pleasures.

The framework helps to clarify why a product matters to the customer, which is essential in developing successful marketing strategies and sales messages. By mapping out how a product fits into the customer’s life, businesses can create offerings that stand out in the market and build stronger customer loyalty.

AARRR (Pirate Metrics)

AARRR, also known as Pirate Metrics, is a Product Management framework developed to help growth teams track and optimize the customer lifecycle. Here you’re mapping out and measuring how the customer behaves from first contact to when they choose your product over others. These five key stages help businesses understand the path a user takes and assess how you’re performing at each stage. The stages of AARRR are: 

1. Acquisition: This refers to how users find and discover your product. Acquisition metrics measure how effectively your marketing and outreach efforts bring new users to your product.
2. Activation: This stage tracks the user’s first experience with the product. It answers the question: When do users reach their wow moment with the product that indicates they see value in it?
3. Retention: Retention measures how many users come back after their initial experience. This is a critical metric for gauging user satisfaction and product stickiness.
4. Referral: At this stage, the focus is on how likely users are to refer others to your product. Referral metrics help assess the virality of your product – how well users are advocating for it to their networks.
5. Revenue: This stage measures how the product generates income, either through direct sales, subscriptions, or other revenue models. It helps track the financial viability of your products

AARRR metrics are vital for startups and growth-stage companies because they offer a clear, actionable framework for tracking and optimizing the customer journey. Each stage helps businesses pinpoint where they are excelling and where they need improvement. For example, if you have low retention but decent acquisition, the team knows that focusing on user experience will be the most impactful.

Be like a pirate and learn more about AARR: 

User Story Mapping

User Story Mapping is a visual framework used to organize and prioritize user stories, providing a structured way to align product features with user needs. This framework helps product teams understand the user journey by mapping out the steps users take to achieve their goals, allowing teams to identify the most critical features to build and prioritize based on real user value.

User Story Mapping is typically done on a wall or digital board, with user stories represented as cards that can be moved around. The process begins by identifying the user activities or high-level tasks that users need to complete within the product. These activities are placed on the horizontal axis.

Next, the team breaks down these activities into user stories, which are smaller, manageable tasks that contribute to achieving each activity. These stories are placed vertically under each activity, helping to map out the full flow of tasks. The map is then prioritized based on the user’s needs, with essential features placed at the top and lower-priority features at the bottom.

With this visual framework, teams can see what users need to do to reach one of their goals, which can then influence decisions on how they do things in the future. 

Setting the foundations

And there you have it. 16 of our most beloved and trusted Product Management frameworks, all organized nicely and neatly by the tasks you need the frameworks for. These 16 models alone should set up strong foundations to operate with best practices and really hit your product goals.

Of course, once you start to know these Product Management frameworks like the back of your hand, there’s nothing stopping you from learning more. One of the greatest skills a Product Manager can have is curiosity. Seek out new frameworks, check if they work for you, and equip yourself with more tools to handle anything the role may throw at you.

Product Management frameworks are like the formulas sheet for a Math test. They don’t give you the answers, but they tell you how to get there as long as you use the right one.

Looking for other ways to ensure best practices are at the heart of your processes? Use a tool that helps you stay on track. With ProdPad, our features are thoughtfully designed to support your growth and make you an even better Product Manager, empowering you to build products your users will love. Book a demo to see ProdPad in action. 

The post 16 Product Management Frameworks You Should Be Using appeared first on ProdPad.

How do you get onto the Product Manager career path?

Looking longingly at a career in Product Management? Are you in a role where it feels like Product Management is the next logical step? Well, how are you going to get there?

That is honestly, still up to you. Product Management isn’t this closed-off industry where you need a certain qualification and particular experience to get into it. If you want to be a lawyer, you kind of need to go to law school. A doctor – you better be studying at a Medical school for 4 years. As for Product Management: the doors are kind of left open for you.

To understand how to get onto the Product Management career path, let’s look at how it was done in the past and compare that to how the way in looks now. 

Back in the day

If you want to become a Product Manager, my advice is don’t copy the great Product Leaders that came before. I say that because there’s not really a set route that you can copy. You see, Product Management is a relatively new role. Only in recent years have there been dedicated Product Management courses and education that can give you a qualification and help you enter this role.

Before this, people came into Product Management from loads of different backgrounds, both in terms of their education and previous career paths. The variety is staggering!

I asked my social network – which you should join by the way – about their pathway into Product Management and got so many varied replies. Although this isn’t a scientific study and is biased towards my connections, the results were still illuminating, so much so that I decided to put all the previous roles mentioned into a table:

As you can see, there are definitely some roles that appear to be more common stepping stones into Product Management than others, with Marketing roles, Software Engineering, Business Analysis, and Project Management being some of the most common.

But still, there’s an even spread between these roles, which says to me that there’s really no defined way into Product Management. Multiple roles can give you some crucial, transferable skills that can make Product Management a perfect career.

This graph doesn’t even include some of the more ‘out there’ roles that people had on their way to Product Management. Among the replies, we’ve had a Computer Scientist, a Theatre Production Manager, and even a Lifeguard.

All this is to say that if you don’t think you’re on the right path, don’t worry, because it turns out, neither were any of us. 

What to do today to get onto the Product Manager career path

As alluded to, things are a little different today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. You’ve got excellent Product Management qualifications to give you a kickstart – like the King’s College Product Management Career Accelerator course that I had a hand in creating – and loads more information to learn from.

We’ve asked some leading product pros what they recommend to someone who’s keen to get into Product Management today. Here’s their advice: 

Jason’s advice is spot on: if you’re eyeing a Product Manager role, jumping into an Individual Contributor (IC) position on a solid product team can be a great place to start. Whether you’re an Engineer, Designer, Analyst, or Copywriter, these roles give you hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of product development, building, testing, prioritizing, and rethinking. It’s the perfect way to develop transferable skills while learning how to collaborate and tackle the messy, real-world challenges of creating great products.

He also singles out UX research as a standout prep role, and for good reason. Understanding the user or customer is central to effective Product Management, and a background in UX and UI equips you with the tools to gather, analyze, and apply insights that directly shape product decisions.

But what to do once you’ve gained this experience? Jump into a fresh PM role at a new company, or change position in your current organization? Well, most believe that the latter approach is the easiest:

It’s tough to get noticed without direct experience. By transitioning internally, you leverage existing relationships and company knowledge to make your case. Sometimes, building genuine connections with people in the industry can open doors that resumes alone can’t.

All in all, the best route into Product Management today depends entirely on where you are in your career. A person fresh out of school has different opportunities available to them than someone who’s been around the block in different roles. But whatever you do, gaining experience is crucial, no matter who you ask.

One interesting avenue of discussion is that many current PMs think a background in Business Analysis is going to support them. Heck, many don’t even think there’s much that distinguishes between the two roles, with Product Management simply being an evolution of Business Analysis.

I’m not going to go into whether I fully agree with that assessment or not, you can draw your own conclusions, but it’s clear that there is a strong connection between the role and Product Management. In fact, for many aiming to be a Product Manager, it was suggested to them that they seek out experience in Business Analysis first.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, because it highlights an important truth about Product Management: the skills you bring into the role matter just as much as the title you’ve held.

A background in Business Analysis equips you with some of the foundational tools you’ll need to succeed as a Product Manager – digging into data, understanding user needs, mapping processes, and collaborating with product teams. These are all core parts of the PM toolkit. For many, it’s a natural stepping stone.

But here’s the kicker: while Business Analysis is one path in, it’s far from the only one. The key is to focus on the transferable skills that align with Product Management.

So, whether you’re coming from a Business Analyst role or some other field entirely, don’t get hung up on the “right” path. The industry is wide open to those who can roll up their sleeves, ask the right questions, and create value for customers. 

What skills do you need to progress along the Product Manager career path?

So you don’t need a specific degree or background to break into Product Management, but you can’t waltz into the role without the right skills.

If you want to land a spot on the Product Manager career path, it’s crucial to develop attributes that align with the role’s demands. Many roles and courses can help you build these skills, but to give you a sense of where to focus, here’s a quick rundown of the core skills every aspiring Product Manager needs:

• Customer empathy: Understanding the needs, pain points, and motivations of your customers is essential. A strong sense of empathy allows you to prioritize features and solutions that truly matter, creating products people love.

• Strategic thinking: Product Managers must see the bigger picture. This means setting long-term goals, aligning your product vision with business objectives, and ensuring your team stays focused on outcomes over outputs.

• Communication skills: From pitching ideas to stakeholders to guiding cross-functional teams, clear and persuasive communication is non-negotiable. The better you are at explaining the why behind decisions, the smoother your development cycles will run.

• Data analysis: Numbers tell a story. Whether you’re evaluating user metrics, testing hypotheses, or measuring success, being able to analyze and act on data ensures your product decisions are grounded in reality.

• Prioritization: With countless ideas and finite resources, prioritization is a survival skill. Knowing how to balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints is critical to shipping the right things at the right time.

• Collaboration: Product Managers work at the intersection of engineering, design, marketing, and sales. Being a team player who can bring diverse groups together to solve problems is key to driving success.

• Adaptability: Things rarely go as planned in Product Management. Whether it’s shifting priorities, unexpected user feedback, or changing market trends, the ability to pivot gracefully is a game-changer.

Breaking down a ‘typical’ Product Manager career path

So you’ve broken into Product Management. The Product Manager career path doesn’t just end there. There’s so much more room for you to grow.

There’s a notion that once you’re in Product Management, you have a straight, defined route to the top. Clear stepping stones you need to tread to reach the dizzying heights of Chief Product Officer. I don’t think it’s that simple.

Many people have come into Product sideways, through the back door. Who’s to say there are no more sideways and diagonal movements product professionals can make?

When looking into the Product Manager career path, you may be confronted with a simplistic structure that looks something like this:

You get your start as a Product Owner
You graduate into a Product Manager  
You then step into a Senior Product Manager role   
Soon enough you become a Director of Product
You then make the leap to Vice President of Product  
Finally, you’re the top dog as a Chief Product Officer

There’s soooooo much more nuance to this. There are loads more exciting and interesting roles that you can grow into. If you’re a new Product Manager, this route can make it feel like your future is already carved out for you. But what if you don’t want to step into a senior role that trades managing products for managing people? What if you want to specialize in a certain area of Product Management? Well, the good news is, you can.

Susana Lopes discussed the dual-track career path in one of her past talks at Mind The Product 2023 and it really left a mark on me. This is a great explanation in that there is a separate pathway for those wanting to stick around the product and stay in the weeds of product development, getting their hands dirty in improving the product. You don’t have to sacrifice your growth by pursuing this path.

It’s a fascinating discussion of how the Product Manager career path can branch off into different directions. But I think it can go even deeper.

See, I’d propose that the Product Manager career path isn’t a path at all, but a tree sprouting different branches. You’ve got your core Product Management role at the base, the truck, with everything else growing out from it.

Landing a role in Product Management doesn’t have to be the apex of your career. It can be the start. Imagine yourself a seedling – you can bloom into anything you want. 

And what about the roles that came before you? The roles that led to you getting your first Product Management position? Well, those are the roots that have given you a strong foundation and the skills needed to excel in Product Management.

Here’s a visual of what this Product Manager career tree may look like. Of course, we couldn’t fit EVERY product adjacent role into this, and it doesn’t include every possible route through Product Management, but based on our previous research, it appears to be some of the typical ways people move through the PM career journey.

I know not everyone will match this, but it should help paint the picture that the route up is not linear, it’s not a straight line – it’s a mess of different disciplines and skills and viewpoints and that’s what makes the industry so interesting. 

How is the Product Manager career path set to change?

Things don’t tend to sit still for long in tech and SaaS, so don’t expect the Product Manager career path to settle into a fixed rhythm anytime soon. There are so many new roles being introduced and different ways of doing Product Management –  I think this is going to change how the Product Manager career path looks going forward. Here are some key areas where the Product Manager career path may change.

A slowdown on specialized roles

See, not even a decade ago, Product Managers were seen as a jack-of-all-trades, dipping into different specializations and offering insight where they can. But recently, we’ve seen a major shift in this. Today, companies are focused on getting specialized PMs to perform specific tasks and focus on a certain area surrounding the product.

One of the biggest growing specializations is, somewhat fittingly, Growth PM roles. This position has risen 117% since 2022, demonstrating the appetite businesses have to scale. Here, core PMs are being usurped by ones specifically focused on driving business growth.

But here’s the thing, I think after an initial boom, these specialized roles are going to die off and become absorbed into the Product Management role, becoming core responsibilities instead of specified job role focuses.

If you’re in a position where you need to show you’re influencing growth as a PM, check out our webinar on how to ‘do’ Growth Product Management : 

Once again, I believe that these will become just another hat that a Product Manager needs to wear, meaning that those looking to enter Product Management will need to be pretty multifaceted. 

I’m not alone in this mindset. Other top Product leaders believe this is the next trend in the industry. 

IC track roles are going to catch up 

The IC track is still a new route to senior positions in Product Management, and because of that, there’s still a discrepancy between say a Distinguished Product Manager and a VP of Product.

This is changing, slowly and surely, with this route becoming a more viable pathway to follow, allowing more technically minded folks to continue to influence the success of their product without having to face managerial and leadership responsibilities that could leave them burned out.

Watch this space on the dual-track career path, as it’s seriously something that can take off and reshape the Product Manager career path. 

There’ll be even more PMs outside the US (and Silicon Valley)

Product Management can sometimes feel like a solely American role. That makes sense, FAANG companies were among the first to make the role trendy and pay big bucks for Product Managers. They made the role popular and most just so happened to all be headquartered in Silicon Valley, hence the still existing focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.

But things have been changing now – Product Management is undeniably global.

Yes, some companies may still require applicants for top Product Management positions to relocate to the US, but there are so many new Product Management hubs that are making the industry more diverse and more accessible than ever before, and they’re growing.

The rise of remote working – which is not going away – and the effectiveness of digital collaboration tools means we’re going to see even more international teams and more PMs from locations beyond the US. 

Product Managers can start to aim bigger

Don’t let our Product Manager career tree fool you. There are plenty of more senior positions that you can aim for beyond being a Chief Product Officer. There’s a growing trend of Product Managers spreading their influence in wider, more adjacent fields, which is going to have a big influence on where businesses in tech go.

More Product Managers are starting to land Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer roles. Plenty have also climbed the ranks to become CEOs at some major companies.

Heck, loads of Product Managers are now becoming Founders of their own companies, using their expertise to build start-ups. The success that many have had should be a good indication that those on the Product Manager career path can begin to dream a bit bigger. The skills you hone and develop as a product person are now getting valued at the highest levels of business leadership. 

You set your own path 

The Product Manager career path is as unique and varied as the people who walk it. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, no golden staircase leading to the C-suite. You can forge your own path. Whether you’ve stumbled into the field from an unexpected career or carefully planned your every move, the beauty of Product Management lies in its flexibility.

Unlike more rigid industries, the pathway to the top is less of a ladder and more of a tree – rooted in diverse skills, branching into endless opportunities, and growing in directions that suit your ambitions.

If there’s one thing a new PM should take away, it’s this: whether you’re charting your first steps on the Product Manager career path or considering your next move, remember: there’s no “right” path, only the one that aligns with your goals and interests.

So embrace the unexpected, lean into your transferable skills, and trust that the winding road ahead is exactly where you’re meant to be. In Product Management, every twist, turn, and pivot is an opportunity to grow.

And if you want to supercharge your growth and become a better Product Manager, consider using the best tools for the job. Every Product Manager needs a roadmapping tool, and the best choice is ProdPad. With ProdPad you’ll have best practices built-in, with templates and prompts to help you better define your ideas, optimize your backlog, and build products that drive business growth.

ProdPad can make you go from good to great. See what we can do yourself with a free trial – no strings attached.

The post The Product Manager Career Path is Not a Straight Line appeared first on ProdPad.

We we cover:

• What is product management software?
• Where do these tools sit in a product management tool stack?
• What are the benefits of having the best product management software?
• What features do the best product management software tools have?
• Cost and pricing for product management software
• What are the best product management software tools in 2024?
• Frequently Asked Questions about product management software

Let’s get into it…

What is product management software?

It’s software that helps you do product management. Sorry, that sounds facetious… but in all seriousness, that’s what these software tools are designed to do – help Product Teams communicate their plans, run their processes and track their results. The very best product management software tools will help Product Managers make informed, smart decisions about the direction they should take their products and provide the tools to turn those decisions into actions and outcomes. 

But there are lots of different types of product management software tools. And that’s because the discipline of Product Management is so far reaching. Afterall, Product Management encapsulates almost everything involved in getting a product to market and then working it through its entire lifecycle. 

That includes initial ideation (market research, competitor analysis, discovery, prototyping, user testing and more) right through the development process (prioritization, speccing, delivery planning and more) and onto launch (release planning, beta launching, customer feedback gathering and analysis and more), and beyond!

And once that process has been worked through for a brand new product, the cycle continues for each new iteration and each new feature as you manage the product through its lifecycle. 

That’s a lot of very different jobs to be done there, and an awful lot of variation. Because of that, there is a plethora of Product Management software solutions available on the market today. Some will cover multiple stages of the Product Management lifecycle, some will focus on one particular task.  

The particular flavor of product management software we’re going to focus on in this list is the complete platform – the all-in-one tools that promise to provide you with one central home for all your Product Management work. While they may not help you with ALL the jobs you have to do as a Product Manager, they should allow you to connect all the pieces into a centralized hub, providing an easily accessible place to go for anyone interested in your product decision-making and process. 

Typically these complete product management software platforms focus on the core PM triad of product roadmapping, idea backlog management and customer feedback management. 

Where do these tools sit in a product management tool stack?

The product management software platforms we’re going to concentrate on here today form a solid base from which to undertake everything you have to do to manage a product, or indeed a portfolio of products. But they won’t directly solve every single Product Management problem or need that you have. You’ll want to combine them with a few point solution tools to ensure you have everything covered.


Let us illustrate this with a graphic. Using a complete product management software tool means you can reduce vendor management significantly without flattening your stack too far and leaving yourself with capability holes. Instead of 11 different product management tools, you’re using one of our best product management software tools to reduce that stack down to a far more manageable 7. 

You’ll want a central product management software tool to act as a single source of truth, covering:

• OKR management and goal setting
• Roadmapping and portfolio management
• Idea management
• Feedback gathering and analysis
• Knowledge management and documentation

Then individual point solutions to help you with:

• Prototyping and wireframing
• Delivery planning and your development backlog
• Testing and experimentation 
• Product engagement and adoption
• Product analytics
• Customer comms 

You’re better to have one of the best product management software tools surrounded by a few point solutions instead of struggling with a huge mix of endless individual products. 

What are the benefits of having the best product management software?

Alignment

When everyone has access to the bigger picture and the plan, teams can truly work in sync. With easy access to the strategy, teammates stay aligned with the broader vision and objectives, minimizing the risk of anyone missing out on what’s most important. 

The best product management software provides a straightforward way to be explicit about the objectives you’re focused on, keeping everyone on the same page.

Transparency

Visibility is key to building trust. When everyone can see both the strategy and progress in real-time, they gain insight into your decision-making process. Stakeholders will appreciate seeing your prioritization logic firsthand, and with updates available to them directly, you’ll spend less time fielding questions. 

With one of the best product management software platforms handling goal setting, roadmapping, and customer feedback all in one, you’ll be providing everyone in your organization with full transparency into your workflow and decision-making.

The Golden Thread

This is a term our Co-Founder and CEO Janna Bastow likes to use. The best product management software give you the power to connect the dots—linking every decision, objective, and customer need with your product roadmap. 

This “golden thread” shows the relationships between each element of your work, allowing you to track how each piece supports the overall strategy and helps you create a cohesive and meaningful product journey.

Simplicity and Ease

Centralizing all your product work in one platform makes life so much simpler. Gone are the days of tracking down different versions of documents, sifting through files, or hunting for updates. With everything in one place, you can save time, avoid miscommunication, and focus on what matters most.

A Bird’s Eye View

Bringing together your roadmap, idea backlog, and customer feedback into one of the best product management software tools allows for a comprehensive overview. Advanced tools, like prioritization frameworks and feedback analysis, enable you to quickly identify the most common customer pain points and spot the highest-potential ideas in your backlog. This kind of high-level analysis is a game-changer, letting you make informed decisions with ease.

Tools Tailored Specifically for Product People

Rather than wrestling with a generic tool and trying to bend it to a Product Management process, the best product management software is designed specifically for your needs. With purpose-built features and an intuitive setup, you can hit the ground running. Plus, you’ll find an array of unique tools and features crafted for the challenges product managers face every day.

You’ll find a whole bunch of tools and features that you won’t find anywhere else. Built for you and your challenges as a Product Manager. Which brings us nicely onto….

What features do the best product management software tools have?

So, you now know why product management software is important, what it can do for you and broadly what it includes, but now’s the time to get more specific. Exactly what features should you expect from one of the best product management software tools. 

Typically, these complete PM platforms will include:

• Customizable product roadmaps
• Idea submission
• Backlog management 
• Prioritization tools
• Discussion boards per idea to capture collaboration and decisions 
• Documentation repository
• Workflow management 
• Integrations with your development tool, your organization’s communication tools and more
• Customer feedback capabilities: portals, integrations with internal tools, email, browser extensions and more
• Ability to link related feedback to ideas in your backlog

And the very best of the best product management software tools will also have:

• Strategy space to declare your vision, value, personas and more
• OKR management and goal setting tools
• Ability to publish versions of your roadmap publicly  
• Feedback analysis tools
• Reporting 
• Plus the most robust and extensive integrations to allow you to capture ideas and feedback from more places, and collaborate with the rest of your organization through connection with the tools they are use

Nearly all the best product management software examples included on our list come with features from that first list above, and the truly great ones will also let you enjoy the additional capabilities from the second list. 

Cost and pricing for product management software

Sounds good right? Fancy some of that action? So how much will one of the best product management software tools set you back? 

Looking across all the best product management software tools on our list here, you’re looking at between $100 and $200 dollars per admin/editor user per month for a passable level of capabilities. However, most of the companies on our list put a whole bunch of restrictions and limitations on their self-serve, explicitly priced packages, and instead insist that you ‘get in touch’ with their Sales Team to get a price for everything you’ll need to do things right. 

The most common features that are hidden behind the enterprise pricing and sales consultation are OKR management, strategy tools, unlimited feedback portals, integrations, AI assistance, portfolio management, user access controls, SSO and SAML, and even access to your own Customer Success Manager. 

However, with ProdPad you can enjoy much more transparency and get all of that and more as part of either our Essentials or Advanced plans. To get the full capabilities of all three modules of ProdPad (Roadmaps, Ideas and Feedback) you’ll pay $116 per admin/editor with unlimited free Reviewers who can both submit and collaborate with both ideas and feedback. You’ll also enjoy the help and support of our Customer Success Team. Because we’re people people and love nothing better than talking to our customers!

What are the best product management software tools in 2024?

It’s time to actually put some products to the features we’ve been discussing.

As mentioned, the best product management software, in our opinion, always compromises roadmapping, idea and backlog management and customer feedback management as a minimum. What we’ve compiled here is a list of the best all-in-one, complete product management software platforms to act as your centralized Product Management hub.

They are all tools that will let you:

• Capture and evaluate product ideas
• Prioritize them onto product roadmaps
• Communicate and share those roadmaps
• Manage the execution through workflow processes
• Gather and analyze customer feedback to help evidence your existing ideas, guide your prioritization decisions, or spark new thinking. 

So without further ado, let’s get to the shortlist. 

1. ProdPad

Are you surprised? Of course we’re going to put ourselves at the top of the list, but we promise this isn’t unfounded trumpet blowing.

ProdPad was actually the first complete product management software on the market and has continued to lead the way in terms of innovative problem-solving, providing solutions to more and more PM challenges and pain points over the years.

From inventing the industry best-practice roadmap format, Now-Next-Later, many years ago, to being the first PM tool to use AI technology to automate backlog management, right through to our current day innovations that make our AI assistance the most mature and the most exciting of any other tool. 

Who is it for? 

ProdPad is best suited to outcome-focused Product Teams that work within an agile environment and want to move quickly to build-measure-learn, support continuous discovery and ensure everything they do is targeting strategically important objectives and aiming to deliver proven outcomes.

Whether you’re a small team managing a single product, or a large organization with a complete portfolio of products, ProdPad has the tools you need to set strategic Objectives and Key Results and capture your overall product strategy and vision. This bigger picture information sits right next to your Now-Next-Later roadmap making sure no one loses sight of the overall goals.

ProdPad is the best product management software built to keep teams strategically aligned and focused on delivering outcomes, rather than merely shipping features and counting outputs.

ProdPad is also particularly well suited when you want to ensure consistency of process across your entire Product organization. ProdPad comes with best practice built in, with tried and tested formats, templates and process workflows already set up by default. This also makes ProdPad a great tool for any teams looking to greatly improve their processes and significantly impact their core business goals. 

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

ProdPad is unique in that it is a tool that grew up from a truly innovative new approach to Product Management that has now become the definitive industry standard – namely the Now-Next-Later roadmap format. ProdPad’s Co-Founders invented this approach to roadmapping as a solution to all the problems they were facing as a result of using a timeline roadmap. As such, you can trust ProdPad to provide you with the right tools and the proper processes to work within this agile, lean approach and truly stay focused on delivering outcomes.

ProdPad also has the most mature publishing capabilities when it comes to roadmaps, meaning you can not only save multiple filtered views, but also publish those views externally. In this way you can work from a single roadmap and dynamically update the multiple stakeholder views that you’ve shared both internally and externally.

But most importantly of all, ProdPad is the only tool that is structured, by default, around a two tier hierarchy, allowing you to prioritize at the problem level with Initiatives, and then nest different Ideas under each. This structure leaves you open to experiment, test and iterate on the feature you plan to build, without needing to fundamentally rework your entire roadmap should your intended solution change. 

Idea Management

ProdPad excels at being a centralized repository for contributions from across your organization. So, with ProdPad it is super easy for anyone (whether they have a ProdPad user account or not) to submit Ideas for your consideration.

You can then enjoy automatic backlog refinement, with powerful AI de-duping ideas and linking related feedback. Once you’ve triaged your unsorted list of ideas, you move them into your backlog and track them through your workflow using the built-in workflow tool. This means you have the ability to manage your ideas through pre-development stages like defining, discovery and design, before pushing them into your preferred development tool and syncing the status updates (and content) to track the delivery progress from within ProdPad.  

ProdPad also provides customizable prioritization tools meaning you can set your prioritization scales and then visualize your entire backlog in a unique chart to quickly and easily see the idea worth developing further. 

Feedback Management

Alongside having the strongest set of feedback-gathering integrations of any of the best product management software tools on this list, ProdPad provides you with the powerful Signals tool to automatically analyze all that feedback and surface the themes to feed your product decisions.

ProdPad AI will also suggest which feedback should be linked with which ideas, so you never miss relevant insight to help inform your thinking or support your ideas.

Closing the loop is also made super simple with ProdPad. Every time a feature ships, you’ll find a list of everyone who gave feedback around that problem, and all you need do is click to let them know their feedback was listening to and a solution has been released. 

Strengths

• AI capabilities: ProdPad truly was the first of the best product management software tools to offer unique ways of boosting efficiency and improving results with AI-powered features. From generating your written work, to suggesting roadmap initiatives, product goals and even ideas based on your feedback, right the way through to coaching you on Product Management best practice and offering suggested improvements to things like your product vision and more. ProdPad AI has been proven to dramatically increase the velocity of Product Teams the world over. 
• Collaboration: Of the many advanced integrations ProdPad offers, the connections to both Slack and Microsoft Teams are often the most loved by customers. As well as pushing notifications from ProdPad to these important organization-wide communication tools, the ProdPad apps goes further and sync discussion threads between these tools and ProdPad – meaning you can capture entire conversations with the Product Manager in ProdPad and everyone else over in Slack.
  
  You can also select any comment or line of text in Slack or MS Teams and add it to ProdPad as either an Idea or a piece of Feedback – all without needing to log into ProdPad. 
• Workflow management: As mentioned above, ProdPad, unlike other tools, as a workflow tool as part of its product management software which enables a Product Manager to progress Ideas through their pre-development process and then sync with the delivery tool to track progress to launch, all from a single place. 
• Strategy & alignment: With ProdPad’s unique strategy canvas and a full OKR management tool, you can ensure that everyone you and the team are working on is explicitly linked to the strategic imperatives of the company and aligned to your product vision. With this bigger picture information sitting right next to your day-to-day workflow and roadmap, no one will lose sight of why you’re working on what you’re working on. 

Limitations

• No gantt charts: If you are absolutely determined to use a timeline as your product roadmap you might be better suited to another of the best product management software tools on this list. Although you absolutely can add specific dates to each Initiative on ProdPad’s Now-Next-Later roadmap, you won’t be able to lay out all your initiatives on a linear timeline ahead of them hitting delivery.

Pricing

ProdPad has a modular pricing structure meaning you only need pay for what you actually need. This means, depending on your needs, you pick and chose the levels and combinations of modules to suit your particular team.

One key difference with ProdPad’s cost over some of the other best product management software tools is the inclusion of unlimited reviewer users. While some other software options appear to offer the same, reviewers in ProdPad can do a lot more than in other tools. ProdPad reviewers can add and edit their own Ideas and Feedback, and view and comment on those added by others.

2. Aha!

Who is it for? 

Aha! would be a solid choice for a large organization that still maintains a traditional, operations-focused approach to Product Management. If, as a business, you’re focused on delivering against specific feature requests from customers, then Aha’s feature-request style ideas portal, alongside their single-level roadmapping tool will help you do just that. 

Aha! also offers a fairly advanced reporting suite that can help Product Managers deliver quite complex reporting on their operational processes if required to do so. So if you’re in an organization that puts emphasis on detailed operational reporting, then Aha! is definitively worth evaluating further.  

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

Aha! supports traditional timeline-based roadmaps, ideal for a feature-based approach to roadmapping. They also provide a portfolio roadmap view to give a coordinated view across multiple individual product roadmaps. Although they do offer a Now-Next-Later roadmap view, it only allows for single-level roadmap items so, in reality, is just a board view of a features list. 

Idea Management

Aha!’s approach to idea management is less discovery-focused than other tools on this list. The idea management tool within Aha!’s suite is structured around an Ideas Portal that is used to collect feature requests from customers which then become items on your roadmap. 

In this way, their approach to idea management is very operational, offering a process by which customer requests are taken at face value and worked through to delivery. Aha’s Ideas tool therefore lacks the flexibility to tie ideas to larger strategic Initiatives and then evaluate them as one possible solution to the problem you have prioritized on your roadmap..

Feedback Management

Aha! do not differentiate Feedback from Ideas, so rather than providing portals that encourage customers to share their feedback on your product, with Aha’s Ideas Portal you are asking customers for specific feature requests and asking them to vote on existing feature requests. In this way, Aha do not offer a distinct feedback solution.

Strengths

• Documentation: as a complete product management software Aha! do a good job of providing you with a centralized repository for all your product documentation. They have their own whiteboard tool that allows you to closely link any maps or collaborative session outputs to each feature entry on your roadmap, or into your central repository.
• Strategy: Aha! has a central area in the tool to allow you to capture your overall strategy. This comes with a number of useful tool templates so you can include things like SWOT analysis.

Limitations

• Single-level hierarchy: Aha!’s roadmap structure doesn’t support nesting ideas under initiatives, so teams are forced into a cycle of managing features rather than solving broader product challenges.
• Limited AI: Aha!’s AI assistance is limited, only providing generative AI in a few places to help you write up requirements or capture meeting notes. This means you’ll likely be left with a lot more manual work to do, compared to if you were using one of the other best product management software tools.
• Feedback gathering: As we’ve already said, Aha’s approach to feedback is actually more focused on feature requests, meaning you will struggle to effectively discover the root problem or challenges your users are facing. This restricts the ability you have to run discovery and find the best possible solution. This can lead to building features without validating their potential success and leading to feature bloat or, worst still, you becoming a feature factory. 

Pricing

In a similar way to ProdPad, Aha! have a modular approach to their pricing, with separate products for Roadmaps and Ideas. However, when you buy Roadmaps you’ll get the basic version of Ideas too.

To get both you’ll need to pay at least $59 per user, but to get features like OKRs, automation rules, user access controls, AI, feedback integrations and customizable portals you’ll need to pay over $200 per user.

3. Productboard

Who is it for? 

Productboard allows for a lot of customization and requires a significant amount of configuration, so if you think your Product Management process is particularly complicated or unique, you might want to put Productboard on your shortlist. As such, Productboard is most suited to mature Product Teams that already have an established process in place, looking for the best product management software to slot into that, rather than a tool to help drive significant improvements in process. 

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

Productboard offers a range of different roadmap formats to choose from. These include kanban and timelines which you can structure around releases, sprints or features. Productboard also purports to offer a Now-Next-Later roadmap, however it does not allow for the dual-level, initiatives + ideas structure that is inherent in the Now-Next-Later approach. Therefore, if you’re looking for the best product management software to support an agile way of working, Productboard would not be the best choice.  

Idea Management

Productboard will allow you to build a customized prioritization framework through which you can assess the ideas in your backlog. You can customize the view of that prioritization and see your backlog, sorted by your chosen factors, in either a grid or a matrix. 

However, Productboard doesn’t have a distinct workflow tool, separate from roadmaps. This means, after you’ve prioritized your idea backlog, the only way of tracking the progress of each idea through your process is to add it to a timeline or kanban roadmap. Productboard will not, therefore, give you the ability to track ideas through your validation process BEFORE they are deemed worthy (or not worthy) of appearing on the roadmap.

Feedback Management

Productboard has a robust set of integration options meaning you can gather feedback from multiple sources. Like ProdPad, they also offer an AI-powered analysis tool that surfaces the themes in your feedback.

Strengths

• Integrations: Productboard have a robust offering of integrations from whiteboarding tools like Miro through to AI analysis tools like Cobbaï.
• User access controls: Productboard, like ProdPad, is a tool that allows you to control the permissions and visibility each user has. This can be essential in larger organizations with multiple products and sensitive projects.

Limitations

• No strategy capture: Productboard does not have an area for you to document your product vision, values or add narrative to your overall, bigger picture, product strategy. This puts you at risk of misalignment and working on things that don’t help you achieve your strategic goals. 
• No OKR or goal management tool: Productboard allows you to capture board objectives only and does not have goal setting tools that allow you to set measurable and specific targets under those broader objectives. 
• Single item roadmap hierarchy: Like Aha!, Productboard only provides a ‘feature board’ by way of a time-horizon based roadmap, preventing you from communicating larger initiatives with multiple features ideas within them. 
• Complexity: This is a highly configurable tool which sees many users complain about the level of decision-making that has to happen before you can get started.
• AI only available for an additional cost: The AI assistance that comes with Productboard is only available with the top tier plans, or at additional cost, making these AI features less integrated or integral to the overall experience. 

Pricing

Productboard’s most popular package starts at  $59 per user with a minimum of two users. But you’ll need to pay extra for the AI capabilities at $20 per user.

On the $59 Pro package you’re also subject to quite a few limitations with numbers restricted for Objectives, feedback portals and roadmaps. You’ll also only be getting email support.

To get dedicated Customer Success and unlock things like SSO, Salesforce integrations and unlimited roadmaps, you’re going to need to pay enterprise prices and engage with their Sales Team. 

4. ProductPlan

Who is it for? 

ProductPlan began life as just a product roadmap tool but has gradually developed additional features in an attempt to become one of the best product management software solutions on the market. A lot of their capabilities outside of straight roadmap management and communication are more basic than other contenders on this list, making ProductPlan a possible choice for smaller teams that are just getting started with formal Product Management processes. 

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

As mentioned, this was ProductPlan’s original focus, and, as such, the area where their capabilities are the most robust. Once you’ve added all your roadmap data you can easily switch between a timeline, list or table layout.  You will however, be restricted to a single-level hierarchy and won’t be able to present broader initiatives on your product roadmap.

Idea Management

ProductPlan only lets you manually input ideas and lacks any tools or integrations to help you capture and gather ideas from different sources. While there is also on workflow capabilities aside from timeline roadmap, ProductPlan does allow you to tag ideas as being ‘in discovery’ and add a flag once they have been successfully validated. 

Feedback Management

ProductPlan has the most basic feedback tools of any product management software on this list. You can only manually add feedback into a ProductPlan account rather than being able to route feedback in through integrations. You then have the ability to tag that feedback and sort based on those tags. There are no tools to help you easily analyze the sum of what you have.  

Strengths

• Launch planning: ProductPlan has an adjacent tool included as part of the complete product management software offering that helps you run launch planning. This task management tool allows you to build to-do lists as you prepare for GTM launches and link those to the roadmap items as they approach the final stages. 

Limitations

• Integrations only for pushing info out: All of the available integrations for ProductPlan are for communicating outwards. There are no integrations available that will enable you to capture feedback, comments or contributions from across the organization via the tools different teams use. There are no CRM integrations, no Support system integrations and the integrations with both Slack and Microsoft Teams only facilitate notifications when changes are made to your roadmap – they don’t allow people to easily send feedback or sync comments from those tools. 
• Very basic feedback capabilities: If you have a large user base and gathering insight to inform and evidence your decision-making is of the utmost importance then ProductPlan probably isn’t the tool for you. ProductPlan’s basic and manual feedback logging system is only really usable for teams with a small and very manageable volume of feedback at any one time.
• No AI assistance: You’re on your own with ProductPlan, unlike a few of the other options on this list of best product management software. There are no AI enrichments at all, meaning everything is extremely manual and basic. 

Pricing

With ProductPlan you need to book a consultation to strike a deal. Unfortunately they offer no transparency into their pricing. 

5. Roadmunk

Who is it for? 

Roadmunk is a product management software tool designed to help both small and larger organizations, but is particularly relevant if you’re in an organization where a lot of importance is placed on stakeholder communication and presenting to leadership. It becomes particularly useful as your product management software platform if you’re juggling different stakeholder preferences in terms of roadmap communication and you’re unlikely to get buy-in for a consistent approach. With Roadmunk you have the ability to flip between different presentations of the same roadmap data. 

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

Roadmunk is another tool that started life as a roadmap-only solution but has recently branched out in an attempt to be seen as one of the best product management software tools around. As you’d expect from a tool that previously specialized in just roadmapping, the roadmap capabilities are robust. Roadmunk allows you to easily export roadmaps and present them to your stakeholders. However, Roadmunk do not offer a Now-Next-Later roadmap format so are less suited for outcome-focused Product Teams who want to retain some flexibility to do discovery, experiment, measure and iterate.  

Idea Management

Interestingly, with Roadmunk, only Product Managers are able to submit ideas to the backlog. This might work well if, for whatever reason, you feel strongly about retaining that level of control and not encouraging contribution from the rest of the team or the wider organization. However, if you want to be able to capture ideas from multiple sources, then Roadmunk might not be the solution for you. 

Feedback Management

Roadmunk recently introduced a feedback portal, so now you can spin up a page into which your customers can add their product feedback, however that is currently the only way that people externally or internally can get feedback into your list, without having to log into the tool and manually add it themselves. 

Strengths

• Ease of use: Roadmunk prides itself on a super user-friendly interface and a setup that means you can get started quickly. 
• Portfolio roadmaps: Roadmunk have a pretty robust tool for managing higher level portfolio roadmaps that roll-up multiple individual product roadmaps to give an overall view. 

Limitations

• Limited integrations: Roadmunk only allow you to integrate with Jira or Azure DevOps to push items from your roadmap into your development planning. They do not have any integrations with communication tools or tools from which you could route feedback (like CRMs or Support tools). Nor do they integrate with Zapier, meaning you can’t easily create your own connections without getting down and dirty in their API. 
• No AI: Roadmunk doesn’t have any AI capabilities at all. So you’d be missing the opportunity to accelerate some of your tasks and create more time to focus elsewhere.  

Pricing

Roadmunk don’t offer the option of subscribing on a monthly basis, so you’ll have to commit to an annual package. You can get a roadmaps-only basic, single user account for $19 (paid annually only), but to get a comparable package to the rest of the best product management software on the list, and access the complete all-in-one capabilities, you’re going to need to pay at least $99 per user per month.

But again, if you want a Customer Success Manager and unlimited reviewers you’ll need to speak to them about enterprise pricing. 

6. Airfocus

Who is it for? 

Airfocus is a product management software tool that claims to be able to facilitate a myriad of different team processes and approaches within one tool. So if you’re part of an organization with disparate teams working in completely different ways, Airfocus’ customization might make this your best bet. They offer a modulized product, letting you pick out the different features and functions your specific organization needs.

Assessment of core capabilities

Roadmapping

Airfocus allows you to present both a Now-Next-Later roadmap and a timeline, so you have the flexibility to use the best suited to the shareholders you’re working with and presenting it to. You can tailor your roadmaps to specific audiences and share them to improve visibility.

The customization options of their roadmaps means that you’re going to have to spend some time getting everything set up in a way that works for you and that complements your strategy. 

Idea Management

Airfocus allows you and your team a way to collaborate, evaluate and priortize the ideas in your backlog. With features like prioritization poker, and customizable scoring frameworks, it can help you better manage your ideas and find the right ones that will have an impact.

While comprehensive, it could benefit from enhanced categorization options or automation to better sift through large volumes of ideas.

Feedback Management

Airfocus allows you to centralize all your feedback into one space, collating it from multiple touchpoints like email, chat, and other channels. You’re able to link this feedback to ideas in your backlog to help inform product discovery.

Their feedback management features also allow you to include customer insights when prioritizing problems, letting you surface frequently requested ideas to better understand what your customers need.

Strengths

• Modular flexibility: Airfocus allows extensive customization with adaptable workspaces and views, letting teams tailor workflows and roadmaps as needed to suit them. 
• User-centric feedback management: Airfocus’s feedback capabilities centralize input from various channels, linking feedback to ideas and features for end-to-end visibility. Integrations with tools like Intercom and Slack make it easy to gather insights.

Limitations

• Learning curve: Due to the flexibility and customizability, new users may find initial setup and navigation challenging.
• Dependence on integrations: While Airfocus has strong integrations, it relies on them heavily for detailed workflow tracking, and reporting, potentially making it cumbersome for users without these tools.

Pricing

You’re looking at a minimum of $59 per user for the base package with Airfocus. But to get features like prioritization tools, user access controls, more than 1 feedback portal, customer success, and AI assistance you’re going to need to ‘get in touch’ about their Scale package. 

OKRs, Reporting, a lot of the integrations (Salesforce), SAML and SSO are further restricted to the Enterprise package only – which again, requires contacting their Sales Team.  

Wow, that was a long list with lots of detail! We hope you learnt a few new things about the best product management software and have started to formulate an idea of which would be worth evaluating further. We sincerely hope that ProdPad is on your shortlist and recommend you hop into a free trial and take it for a spin. But to go even deeper and get all your questions answered, why not book a demo with one of our product experts.

The post 6 Best Product Management Software in 2024 appeared first on ProdPad.

What is data driven Product Management?

Data-driven Product Management is the practice of making product decisions based on insights gathered from data. By analyzing user behavior, feedback, and market trends, Product Managers can prioritize features, optimize roadmaps, and improve overall product performance, ensuring that actions are guided by real-world evidence rather than assumptions. Okay, but what does that mean in practice? 

Well, it means that you’re making data-driven decisions and prioritizing your roadmap and product backlog based on evidence and validated learnings. You’re not guessing about what to do, doing it based on a hunch, or changing something just because a single customer asked for it. You’re looking into the numbers and using statistics and metrics to support your decisions.

For many people, this type of Product Management is the gold standard these days. A process you should be adopting if you want any chance of being considered a good Product Manager. And that’s fair – it’s typically better to have your next steps backed up by data. 

But what data? Well, when following data-driven Product Management, there are two main types of product data: quantitative and qualitative. 

• Quantitative data: This is numbers and stuff. Data that can be measured and expressed numerically. It’s statistics and percentages and its objective. You impose the meaning onto the numbers when using quantitative methods. 
• Qualitative data: This is focused on opinions, user feedback, and insights helping you to understand the product experience and perceptions of your users. It provides context and deeper meaning. Qualitative methods include user interviews, surveys, and observations on user behavior. 

When following a data-driven approach, many forget that qualitative data is still data. Many focus on and get caught up in the numbers, forgetting that things like a customer feedback strategy and user flows provide great evidence as well. 

Data-driven Product Management forms the foundations of the Build-Measure-Learn approach to product development. This is a lean framework and cycle to follow when creating and improving upon your product. 

You start with your ideas and build a first version of your product, your MVP. From there, you measure its performance with feedback and data and then learn from those findings to make improvements to boost product performance.

That was obviously a very basic explanation. You can learn more about Build-Measure-Learn in our full glossary article below: 

What does it mean to be a data driven Product Manager? 

Being a data-driven Product Manager means that you value data highly, and that product discovery and research are the cornerstone to the way that you do things. If you’re validating your ideas with evidence to help with data-driven decision-making, congrats, you’re a data-driven Product Manager. 

Being a data-driven Product Manager isn’t a job title or sub-sect of the Product Manager role like being a Technical Product Manager or a Growth Product Manager is. Instead, you’ll likely see the need for a data-driven approach in general PM job descriptions, which shows how it’s become a core facet of the job. 

To be a data-driven Product Manager, you’re going to excel in a few specific Product Management tasks like:   

• Analyzing product usage data
• Setting and tracking KPIs and product metrics
• Conducting A/B testing and experiments
• Making data-informed decisions

How do you do data driven Product Management? 

One key skill that a data-driven Product Manager should have nailed is knowing how to create and test product hypotheses. This is the crux of data-driven Product Management. 

A product hypothesis is basically an idea – something that you think might be true. You are predicting the relationship between two variables. 

You can structure your hypothetical statements as ‘if this thing happens then this other thing must be the case’. Want a proper example? Sure:

“If we removed our AI chatbot from the navigation bar and put it as an expandable tooltip on all our pages, then more users would start using the feature.”

Sounds like a good idea. But is it really? The thing is, that you’re going to have tons of hypotheses you’re going to want to test with data. But, you can’t possibly test them all. That’s why you need to take an initial pass over them all in order to validate them and assess whether they’re worth full testing. 

One way of doing this is using a prioritization framework such as the MoSCoW framework. To do this, you evaluate your hypotheses to see if it’s worthy of testing, judging them against your current product vision and goals. You’ll put them into four categories, helping you pick out the juicy hypotheses you should test first: 

The MoSCoW prioritization model isn’t just for figuring out what hypotheses you should test. In fact, its core function is to figure out what feature or product requirements you should focus on. Learn more about MoSCoW below:

Why is data driven Product Management important?

Data-driven Product Management is an important practice because it helps you create evidence-based decisions. Data-driven decisions are likely going to be better decisions than those backed up by, well, nothing. 

For many Product Managers, data provides reassurance that you’re doing a good job. It’s kind of like a thumbs up from someone in the crowd when delivering a talk – it’s a sign to keep going. 

Data-driven Product Management also prevents you from falling foul of unconscious biases. See, everyone has preconceptions about customers and your product without really meaning to, and these preconceptions and biases can often influence your decision-making if you don’t use data. Even if you’re aware of them, it’s hard to mitigate against. By using data – especially objective quantitative data – it can help you see the real picture. 

Plus, using data-driven Product Management also ensures that you’re creating your products with users in mind. That’s because most of the data you’re going to acquire is user data. Metrics that tell you how your customers are using your product. 

By being data-driven you’re listening to the customer and learning about their wants, needs, preferences, and dislikes. When we use data in both day-to-day problem-solving and long-term strategic planning, it empowers us to build products that deliver value to users.

Here’s a full list of data-driven Product Management pros and cons to see the importance of it, and understand some of the limitations:

Data Driven product management pros & cons

Pros:

• Informed decision-making: Data reduces biases and assumptions.
• Continuous improvement: Ongoing data analysis helps teams refine and improve products over time.
• Reduced risk: Validating decisions with data helps minimize the chances of costly mistakes.
• Personalized customer experience: Data allows for deep insights into customers, allowing you to customize experiences.
• Objective prioritization: Data helps Product Managers prioritize features and resources more effectively.
• Measurable success: Tracking clear KPIs and metrics enables teams to measure the success of decisions.

Cons: 

• Over-reliance on data: Focusing solely on data can stifle creative ideas that might not be backed by numbers.
• Data misinterpretation: Poor-quality data can lead to incorrect conclusions, driving bad decisions.
• Analysis paralysis: With too much data available, teams can get stuck over-analyzing.
• Ignoring qualitative insights: Overemphasis on quantitative data can lead to the undervaluation of qualitative insights.

How do you collect data for data driven Product Management? 

To have any chance of doing data-driven Product Management properly, you need the right tools to capture and analyze user behavior effectively. A key starting point is using product analytics tools that track user actions, features they engage with, and how they interact with your product. These tools let you dig deeper into which areas need attention and which features are performing well.

In addition to analytics, session recording tools are great for gathering qualitative data as they provide real-time insights into how users navigate your product, while heatmaps visually highlight areas of high user interaction. These tools help identify usability issues or areas where users might be dropping off, allowing you to refine the user experience.

Of course, you want to make sure that all the data you capture is easy to understand. The last thing you want is data that you can’t squeeze context out of. This means setting up your product to send precise, event-based data – such as clicks, feature interactions, and conversions – into a system where you can easily interpret it. These systems, often integrated with product analytics tools, allow you to track and organize user behaviors in a meaningful way. By sending this data to platforms that offer robust analysis and visualization capabilities, like dashboards or custom reports, you can quickly interrogate the data to derive actionable insights. Without this framework, you’re essentially flying blind, making it harder to identify the most critical trends and user behaviors.

Equally important is maintaining data accuracy throughout the process. If your data capture setup is incorrect, the insights you derive could lead to poor product decisions. For instance, if your product analytics integration isn’t properly configured, you might miss tracking crucial events or incorrectly segment your users, leading to a distorted view of their behavior. 

Regularly auditing your tracking setup is vital. Are all important user actions being recorded? Are your segmentation filters correctly identifying different user groups? Are you capturing the right events to measure user engagement with key product features? The more thorough and accurate your setup, the better positioned you’ll be to make informed decisions that truly reflect user behavior, not just what the numbers superficially show.

What types of product data can be used in data driven Product Management?

To utilize data-driven Product Management well, you need to choose the right metrics to track. What do you want to learn, and crucially, what can you learn from the data you have available to you? There’s no point tracking data for something completely unrelated to what you want to achieve. That’s not giving you meaningful insights.

If your focus is to improve customer retention and user activation, you’re going to want to focus on metrics and data like adoption rate, activation rates, customer churn rates, and other product adoption metrics and user-focused data to see where you can improve and what you should prioritize. 

BUT if your goal is to increase revenue from existing customers, you’ll want to look at something slightly completely different and dive into metrics such as upsell rates, average revenue per user (ARPU), and customer lifetime value (CLV). These data points will help you identify opportunities to alter your SaaS pricing models, cross-sell complementary products, or adjust product pricing strategies for maximum impact.

That’s why it’s so important to be aligned around a single North Star Metric. This is a key metric tied to your product strategy that a company or Product Management team uses to measure long-term sustainable growth. It represents the core value that a product delivers to its users and serves as the focal point for your product vision that drives all product decisions. Examples include:

• Facebook: Daily Active Users (DAUs)
• Airbnb: Number of nights booked
• Spotify: Time spent listening
• Slack: Number of teams sending 2000+ messages

So what metrics should you be tracking? Well, There’s a boatload of metrics and KPIs you can measure to help with data-driven decision-making. Too many if you ask me. Here’s a quick, snappy list to give you an idea of the kind of things you can be looking for. 

Churn rate 

Your churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop using your product over a period. Product Managers use churn data to identify why users are leaving, analyze patterns, and develop strategies to improve retention, such as enhancing customer support or optimizing onboarding processes with a product tour.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

CAC tells you how much you’re spending to acquire a new customer. Tracking CAC helps Product Managers balance marketing costs and product profitability. Reducing CAC through improved targeting or customer experience can help boost ROI.

Customer lifetime value (LTV)

LTV estimates the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over their relationship. Product Managers use LTV to identify high-value customers and allocate resources to customer retention efforts, ensuring long-term profitability.

Retention rate

This metric tracks the percentage of customers who continue using a product over time. High retention signals product satisfaction and that users have reached the wow moment. Low retention may highlight that you have some pain points. Improving retention through feature enhancements or better communication can drive growth.

Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)

MRR measures predictable revenue from subscription-based products. Product Managers use MRR to gauge product performance and forecast revenue, making it easier to set strategic goals and identify areas for upsell opportunities or pricing adjustments.

Sales data

Sales data can tell you the number of products sold and the resulting revenue. Analyzing sales data helps Product Managers understand customer demand, identify trends, and optimize product offerings to meet market needs, boosting both revenue and customer satisfaction.

User flows

User flows illustrate how customers navigate through your product. Analyzing them helps Product Managers understand user behavior and feature usage, identify friction points, and optimize features or redesign workflows to enhance the user experience (UX) and improve conversion rates.

Bounce rates

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave after visiting just one page or interacting briefly with your product. Product Managers can investigate bounce rates to identify areas where users lose interest, refining onboarding or key touchpoints to increase engagement.

Heatmaps

Heatmaps show where users click or scroll most on a webpage or within an app. Product Managers can use heatmaps to understand user interaction patterns, optimize layout or content placement, and ensure key product features are easily accessible to improve user experience.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS measures customer loyalty by asking how likely users are to recommend your product. Product Managers use NPS to gauge overall satisfaction and loyalty, and a low NPS can signal areas where the product or customer experience needs improvement.

If you want to find out more about the core KPIs to track, check out our comprehensive eBook that outlines all the possible Product Management metrics from which you can pick your priority KPIs.

How do I get better at data driven Product Management?

So you want to use data to inform your processes? Join the club. But before we can grant you entry, there are a few house rules to follow that make sure you do it right and approach data-driven Product Management properly. Here’s our tips to make you better at using data: 

• Set clear objectives: Before you begin collecting data, define what success looks like. Having a North Star metric will help with this. Without clear goals, data can become overwhelming, leading to you not knowing what information to focus on. 
  
• Prioritize data quality: High-quality data is so important. Ensure you’re collecting accurate, reliable data, and avoid making decisions based on incomplete or biased datasets. Clean data collection methods and proper storage practices are essential for achieving actionable insights​. 
  
• Balance data with intuition: Just because the data tells you to do something doesn’t mean you should blindly follow that instruction. If a line graph jumped off a cliff would you do too? While data is helpful, the best Product Managers balance it with experience and intuition. A fix suggested by the data may not actually be a good idea in practice due to reasons like budget, resources, or unexpected customer behavior.
  
• Incorporate diverse data sources: Don’t rely solely on one type of data. Use a mix of data gathered from multiple sources to make sure that you’re not too zeroed in on a single user type or channel. The wider the scope, the more accurate the results.
  
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams: Data doesn’t live in a silo. Share insights with team members within your product team structure and beyond. Collaboration ensures that everyone is aligned with product objectives and uses data to make informed decisions across departments​.
  
• Stay user-centric: At the core of data-driven Product Management is understanding your user’s needs. Don’t ever venture too far from that. Regularly look at data that reflects user behavior, isolates their pain points, and finds their preferences. The better you understand your customers, the better your product decisions will be​.
  
• Be agile and iterative: Embrace an agile product development approach. Use data to fuel continuous discovery. A/B testing and other experiment-based methods allow you to make small adjustments and optimize your product based on real-time feedback​.

Is data driven Product Management always the right approach? 

It may seem that you NEED to be a data-driven Product Manager to have any ounce of success these days, but it’s not always the best approach depending on your situation. 

For example, if you’re in a brand new start-up business, you’re unlikely to have a large enough data set to do valuable quantitative data analysis. Trying to find trends and evaluate your metrics may not give you a fully clear picture, as your sample size may be too small and create a data bias due to an anomaly that would average out in a larger sample size. 

See, data can be wrong and create its own biases too. We tend to associate having data with having all the ‘facts.’ But not all data is clean, accurate, or relevant. While running product experiments or customer interviews, variables can always affect the integrity of the information you’ve gathered and lead to data bias.

If you don’t have the data available to you just yet, don’t feel like you need to go hard in being quantitative data-driven. Instead, focus on qualitative information like customer feedback and opinions to find value and ideas on what to do and iterate on. Of course, you can turn this into statistics, something like:

“Hey, 65% of our users mentioned frustration with the lack of collaboration tools in our product. Should we explore adding some new features to make teamwork easier?”

Another thing to remember is that data isn’t king. Using it isn’t the secret formula to build a better product, it’s just another tool. Data can’t replace common sense, but it can give you clues on what to add, change, or get rid of when building software applications. It can tell you how popular your product is, and alert you to problems. But it never provides the full picture. You need to use your noggin to ensure that your next step is actually viable.

Using data the right way

Data-driven Product Management helps take the guesswork out of the equation, empowering you to make smarter, evidence-informed decisions. By focusing on metrics, user behavior, and feedback, you can lead your product to success while avoiding costly mistakes. But don’t let the data overwhelm you – balance it with experience and intuition to ensure you’re truly solving the right problems.

While data is your trusty compass, it doesn’t replace the importance of context and human insight. Not every decision can (or should) be purely driven by numbers. Balancing quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback allows you to see the full picture, giving you the chance to innovate, meet customer needs, and, most importantly, avoid getting stuck in analysis paralysis. Remember, it wasn’t just the numbers that sparked Isaac Newton to discover gravity, he also had to watch the real-world action of an apple falling off a tree to get the idea. 

If you’re looking for a product management tool that has data-driven insights built-in, ProdPad has you covered. We can help you manage your product backlog and roadmap – and so much more! With ProdPad you can gather and analyze customer feedback, linking that insight to your product Ideas, helping you back up your decisions with evidence while keeping your team aligned and on track. 

It’s time to stop guessing and start building a well-prioritized data-driven roadmap to help you create an outstanding product. See what you can do with a free trial. Register now .

The post Data Driven Product Management: Backing up What You Do With Evidence appeared first on ProdPad.

Table of Contents

Our tips on how to say no as a Product Manager

• Saying no tip 1: Remember – you’re not in charge
• Saying no tip 2: Present your evidence
• Saying no tip 3: Speak their language
• Saying no tip 4: Decide if it’s a hard no – or just no for now
• Saying no tip 5: Know who you’re saying no to
• Saying no tip 6: Don’t say no too quickly
• Saying no tip 7: Share your roadmap across teams
• Saying no tip 8: Be empathetic – thank the stakeholder
• Saying no tip 9: Don’t feel bad about it

How to say no as a Product Manager: a lesson in rejection

One of the most important skills for a PM to learn is how to say no as a Product Manager. You’re the glue between multiple departments and people in your organization, and knowing how and when to say no to these stakeholders is one of the key Product Management tasks you need to fulfill. All these people are going to be demanding status updates, throwing new, ‘fantastic’ ideas at you, and asking endless questions. You need to know how to deal with that.

Different stakeholders will have different priorities. You’ll no doubt be used to a Sales Director throwing their weight around to get a certain feature or capability pushed through to close a deal, or a C-suiter coming to you because a noisy customer has their ear, or even your CPO who has a great new idea that you fear would be a huge resource sink and ground your roadmap to a halt. Sigh. 

As much as you want to roll your eyes and tell these stakeholders no, you need to be more diplomatic than that as a Product Manager. You need to build a positive relationship to foster personal success and success for your organization. Say no to a higher-up the wrong way too many times, and you’ll strain your relationship so bad that you’re out the door . That’s why it’s so important to learn how to say no as a Product Manager, in the right way.

We get it, honestly we do. We’re product people and we value the strategic roadmap that supports your product vision more than anything. We understand that you don’t want team members and leadership from other areas running havoc over your plan. Sometimes you just want to tell them to get lost. But you’re not Stone Cold Steve Austin, and your key stakeholder certainly isn’t Mr. McMahon (we hope). You can’t give them a Stunner, flip them the bird, and down two beers standing over their dazed body. 

What you can do is learn how to say no as a Product Manager in a way that doesn’t get you into hot water. Here are our best tips on how to manage your stakeholders and voice your opinion properly to protect your product vision and the business outcomes you’re trying to drive.

Our tips on how to say no as a Product Manager

Let’s jump straight to it. Here are our tips on how to say no as a Product Manager with advice sprinkled in from Executive Product Coach, Melissa Appel.

If you’re keen to learn more, check out the webinar we had with Melissa, all focused on more ways about how to say no to the most intimidating stakeholder of all – the CEO:

Saying no tip 1: Remember – you’re not in charge

Just because you’re leading the product development as a Product Manager, you may start to believe that the buck stops with you. This couldn’t be further from the truth. See, one of the biggest frustrations for Product Managers is that we’re leaders without authority. We can’t tell other stakeholders what to do – we merely suggest. 

So, if you’re turning down ideas from others and ruling with an iron fist, that’s going to rub people up the wrong way and harm relationships.

You need to encourage stakeholders in the direction you want them to go, not direct them there. You do that by suggesting the best solutions, using the research and product discovery you do as a Product Manager to get buy-in.

Essentially this is gathering up all your evidence to back up your decisions. This leads us to the next point.

Saying no tip 2: Present your evidence

Saying no to a key stakeholder such as the CEO is like going on trial in court. You’re a lawyer presenting an argument, so you’re going to have to back up what you say with evidence. This is a crucial aspect of how to say no as a Product Manager.

By providing a reason for your rejection, you add clarity and build understanding. Remember, you’re digging deep into product discovery and idea validation pretty much every day. You have the data that suggests what to prioritize and what not. Your stakeholders on the other hand probably haven’t seen your roadmap or product backlog in a while, so they’re blind to this information. 

By backing up your argument, you take away opinions and egos that may harm relationships and are instead facing off in an arena of facts.

But what evidence do you present? Well, focus on your quantitative and qualitative data. Point to everything you’ve done in the discovery phase of the Product Management lifecycle. 

Saying no tip 3: Speak their language

Learning how to say no as a Product Manager is all about knowing who you’re communicating with. You need to speak their language.

A business-orientated CEO or Chief Financial Officer isn’t going to get too excited with product-orientated metrics like adoption rate or active users as evidence for your decisions. 

Instead, if you really want them to appreciate where you’re coming from, you’ll need to present your reasoning in a way that they understand. In a way that resonates best with them.

Saying no tip 4: Decide if it’s a hard no – or just no for now

When you’re faced with feature requests that don’t quite fit into your current plans, it’s essential to clarify whether it’s a “never” or a “not right now” situation. A vague response can leave stakeholders hanging, uncertain if they should follow up later or let it go.

If the feature, idea, or request simply isn’t in line with your product’s direction, be transparent. Let them know upfront that it’s unlikely to ever make the cut. This honesty prevents them from circling back and saves you both time and frustration from revisiting the same conversation. Closing the door firmly here avoids false hope and keeps expectations in check.

On the other hand, if the request is something you’d like to revisit later, be equally clear. Instead of just saying “no,” give them context. Explain what’s currently on your plate and why their suggestion can’t be prioritized at the moment. For example:

“We’re focusing on the upcoming release of [feature name], which is critical for achieving our target outcome of increased trial conversation. I’d love to revisit this idea once that’s wrapped up – let’s touch base again in [specific time frame].”

The key here is to make sure no one leaves this conversation with any ambiguity. Whether it’s a hard no or a no for now, clear communication helps avoid unnecessary follow-ups and ensures that you understand how to say no as a Product Manager.

Saying no tip 5: Know who you’re saying no to

The way you say “no” to your colleagues depends heavily on how well you know them. This can make all the difference between a smooth interaction and a strained relationship. Every key stakeholder you interact with has their own personality, communication style, and tolerance for feedback. Some may handle rejection like water off a duck’s back, while others might need a more delicate approach.

For instance, you might have a pal on the Sales Team with thick skin, someone you can turn down with a blunt, “No, that won’t work,” and they won’t bat an eyelid. In contrast, someone from your Customer Success Team who’s more tightly wound might need a softer touch. A flat-out rejection could come off as dismissive and leave them feeling undervalued. With them, you might instead phrase it as, “I see where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure this is the best direction. Let’s explore other options.”

Understanding these personality types and knowing what makes them click is crucial in figuring out how to say no as a Product Manager. Some stakeholders might appreciate transparency and a quick decision, while others might prefer a more measured response that shows you’ve thoroughly considered their input. It’s about tailoring your “no” in a way that keeps the relationship strong and avoids unnecessary friction.

Being a Product Manager sometimes feels like playing a relationship management game. You’re balancing different personalities, motivations, and expectations, which means emotional intelligence is just as important as technical know-how. Invest time in learning how your stakeholders prefer to receive feedback, and you’ll not only diffuse tension but also keep collaboration healthy and productive in the long run.

Saying no tip 6: Don’t say no too quickly

If it sounds like you’ve made your decision the nanosecond you heard the suggestion, that’s going to boil some blood. Even if you know right away it’s not the right fit, resist the urge to shoot it down on the spot. Take a moment to reflect on the suggestion. This shows respect for the person’s idea and gives you a chance to gather your thoughts. Consider the pros and cons, and think about how the suggestion could potentially be adjusted to fit better. A well-reasoned response will always be better received than a knee-jerk “no.”

By giving yourself the time to evaluate, you might discover new perspectives or find areas of compromise that keep everyone happy. Even when the answer is ultimately “no,” explaining your reasoning with a thoughtful approach shows you’re a collaborator, not a gatekeeper, and keeps the conversation productive.

Saying no tip 7: Share your roadmap across teams 

Instead of thinking about how to say no as a Product Manager, you could instead do something that stops you from even being asked. By presenting your roadmap and encouraging stakeholders to interact with it, external teams will have eyes on what’s happening and begin to understand the process and the reasons behind why things are being done. 

This knowledge can prevent stakeholders from adding opinions and ill-advised ideas that don’t align or that don’t make sense. In fact, by having a visible product roadmap available to all, you create an ecosystem of collaboration that can generate good ideas. Suggestions that you can actually say yes to. Now wouldn’t that be a nice change?

While we’ve got roadmaps on the brain, check out our complete list of product roadmap formats to find out which one is best (of course, we’ve got our favorite.) 

Saying no tip 8: Be empathetic – thank the stakeholder

It can be easy to be a bit annoyed or put out by a last-minute request or idea, especially if it’s not a particularly well-received suggestion. Still, it’s very important to show appreciation and empathy with the stakeholders to show that you are receptive to ideas and acknowledge the investment they’ve made in your product. 

Remember, someone went out of their way to give you that request, suggestion, or piece of user feedback, so treasure it. It’s like having kids. No matter how awful that drawing they did at school was, you still put it on the fridge. This encourages an environment of collaboration and psychological safety, two core components of product leadership. You never know, the next drawing might be a masterpiece. 

If you’ve got to turn down the request of a customer, make sure you show sympathy and understanding of their needs. If they’re requesting a feature that you just can’t deliver on, be sure that you get why that’s important to them. This extra bit of digging could spark a brainwave to a new solution that addresses the problem, or help you find something that’s already on the roadmap that provides an alternative way of solving their issue. Remember, customers are very good at asking for fixes that don’t address their root problem. To fully understand your customers, dig deeper with a customer feedback strategy.

Of course, if you have a suitable alternative to the request, make sure to suggest that as that could placate them. 

Saying no tip 9: Don’t feel bad about it

Saying no as a Product Manager can be hard, but there’s no need to beat yourself up about it or feel guilty. Saying no is often the kindest thing you can do.

As long as you’ve tackled the rejection with empathy, have backed up why you’re saying no with evidence, and haven’t turned down the request aggressively, then there’s no need to feel negative about it. If you’ve built up a good environment, then these rejections should feel like second nature and part of the process until an idea lands on your lap that you just can’t say no to.

How to say no as a Product Manager: a lesson in rejection

A key aspect of effective stakeholder management is mastering the art of gracefully saying no as a Product Manager. After all, it’s not just about the rejection itself; it’s about how you communicate that rejection.

Think about it: if one of your own requests were to be turned down, you’d want to know the reasons behind it. You’d want to feel respected and valued, rather than dismissed or made to feel foolish for suggesting something that wasn’t aligned with the broader product goal.

How you say no as a Product Manager speaks volumes about your leadership style and your commitment to collaboration. By providing thoughtful reasoning behind your decision, you not only maintain respect but also create an environment of trust.

Plus, encouraging engagement from your wider product team structure and beyond is crucial for building a culture of innovation and open communication. When team members feel empowered to contribute ideas, it fosters a sense of ownership and investment in the product. If the entire team is aligned with a clear product strategy and has access to the roadmap, they are more likely to suggest valuable insights and innovative ideas. 

Keen to create beautiful roadmaps that can be shared with stakeholders easily? Use ProdPad. We offer game-changing roadmap functionality – our CEOs literally created the Now-Next-Later roadmap format – that can help you plan your development and align it with your wider team. Our tool makes it easier to be a great Product Manager. Get complete access to all our features with a free trial. Try ProdPad today.

The post How to Say No as a Product Manager: Top Tips For Managing Stakeholders appeared first on ProdPad.

• What are product roadmap tools? 
• Why use product roadmap tools?
• Key features of the best product roadmap tools
• What are the alternatives to product roadmap tools? 
• What are the benefits of purpose-built product roadmap tools?
• Key considerations for choosing from the best product roadmap tools
• The best product roadmap tools 

So, let’s dive into the seven best product roadmap tools you should be considering in 2024 and how they can help you stay outcome-focused.

What are product roadmap tools? 

I’m going to assume you all know what a product roadmap is. Of course you do. You know you need a roadmap, you’re looking for the right tool to help you manage it. For anyone looking for clarity on what a product roadmap is just check out our Ultimate Guide to Product Roadmaps. 

But we’re here to talk about tools.

Product roadmap tools are designed to help Product Teams plan, communicate, and track their product strategy. They give you a clear visual of where your product is heading and how you’ll get there. But the best product roadmap tools go beyond just listing out features or release dates – they help connect your product strategy to your business goals and provide clear evidence to your stakeholders of why you have made the roadmapping decisions you have.

The best product roadmap tools help you communicate a roadmap that effectively answers questions like:

• How does this initiative align with our objectives?
• What customer problems are we solving with this update?
• What outcomes have we driven with each completed initiative?
• What stage of the development process is each initiative at? 
• Why has this initiative been prioritized over others?
• What different ideas have we explored for each problem area?
• How do we know the chosen idea is likely to be the best solution?

In short, the best product roadmap tools help you shift from feature factory mode into a more strategic approach, ensuring your team is working on the right things for the right reasons.

The best product roadmap tools don’t just help you communicate your strategic priorities in such a way that adds transparency to your decision-making process – although they certainly should do that. The best product roadmap tools also provide you with all the features and functionality to help you actually make those decisions, and then act on them. 

The best product roadmap tools will also help you:

• Prioritize your idea backlog to help you find candidates for your roadmap
• Link to your customer feedback so you can be sure you’re solving the right problems
• Speed up your ideation with AI assistance
• Generate supporting documentation 
• Collaborate with your teammates and stakeholders across your organization
• Capture all your product work and decision logs in one centralized place

Why use product roadmap tools?

Do you have to use a specific tool for your product roadmap? Can you not just draw it up on a piece of paper and be done with it? No. No you can’t. 

Because in Product Management, alignment is everything. The best product roadmap tools make sure everyone – from the developers to the executives to your customers – has a live and dynamic view of not just what you’re building, but why you’re building it. These tools give you a clear, shareable view of what’s in the pipeline and how it ties back to your broader business goals. 

A piece of paper on your desk doesn’t give anyone else visibility into your product strategy and progress. If your roadmap is not in an easily accessible and dynamic format, you’re going to spend every waking moment having to answer questions from stakeholders and teammates who have zero visibility of what is happening and why. 

Also, if your product roadmap is sitting there on that bit of paper, isolated and lonely on your desk, how often do you think you’ll be looking at it? 

Without your roadmap in a product roadmap tool – a central product tool in which you do most of your work –  it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and lose sight of that bigger picture plan. Before you know it, you’re a Project Manager pushing through features and not a strategically focused Product Manager delivering impact. 

Key features of the best product roadmap tools

What should you expect from the best product roadmap tools? If you’re going out shopping for a roadmap tool, what’s on your must-have list? Let’s start with the minimum requirements and then list out the features you can expect from the very best product roadmap tools. 

The best product roadmap tools should have:

• Dynamic, interactive roadmaps
• Customizable roadmap views that let you create different versions with different levels of detail
• The ability to publish versions of your roadmap externally
• Integrations with the tools your wider organization use
• Connection to your customer feedback
• Collaboration tools 
• Integration with your product management workflow
• Connection to your idea backlog

The VERY best product roadmap tools will also have:

• Outcome-based roadmaps
• A hierarchy that enables you to stay flexible, work in an agile way and declare the problem to solve, not specific features
• AI assistance to help you work faster and smarter
• OKR management to keep you laser focused on driving outcomes
• Portfolio management and the ability to scale if your needs increase
• Collaboration tools that do not require stakeholders to log into the product roadmap tool, but add their contribution from the tools they already use

What are the alternatives to product roadmap tools? 

Spreadsheets and slide decks

We’ve already discussed the piece of paper. But surely no one would actually do that with their roadmap?! Some Product Managers, however, do use spreadsheets, slide decks and document files for their roadmaps. 

I know. Why would you ever do that? 

Spreadsheets, slide decks and documents are often static files, saved on a drive somewhere. They’re not dynamic and always up to date. The problems with this are extensive. You’ll be faced with endless versioning headaches and you can’t ever be confident everyone is looking at the most up-to-date version. You’ll have huge admin overheads, having to manually update your roadmap document all the time. You’ll end up having to repeatedly remind people where they can see the roadmap because no one ever remembers different filing systems or where something is saved. 

Even if you keep your spreadsheet or slide deck in the cloud and manage to remove the versioning headaches, how inspiring is a spreadsheet or presentation file ever going to be? There are better ways to visualize your product roadmap so people actually understand what they are looking at.

A product roadmap confined to a spreadsheet or similar document is also completely detached from everything else! Where’s the link to your customer feedback, your backlog, your release planning, your design files? This makes it extremely hard to keep your roadmap at the heart of everything you do. Increasing the risk of ‘everything you do’ becoming detached from the strategic plan. Which is when you start slipping into an output mindset instead of delivering outcomes. 

So, in sum, don’t use general tools like spreadsheets, slide decks or document files. 

Project management tools 

But what about those generalist productivity tools that are designed to help you manage tasks and track projects? Are they an option? 

I mean, sure, maybe if you’re just getting started and have no budget for a proper product tool. If you want to have an initial stab at creating a roadmap in a dynamic tool and you already have a license for something like ClickUp, Asana, Trello, or monday.com  then sure, give it a go. But, be aware of the limitations. 

Remember, a product roadmap isn’t a project plan, it’s a strategic communication tool. Don’t forget the distinction between a product roadmap and a delivery or release plan – don’t get them confused or try to solve both problems with one tool. If you use a tool designed for task management for your product roadmap, you can very easily fall into the trap of presenting your stakeholders with a timeline project plan Gantt chart instead of a high level strategic plan. 

The other option some Product Managers will try is using whiteboard tools or wiki software. Although they can offer better visualization capabilities than project management tools or the dreaded spreadsheet, they lack the connection to your execution workflow. 

You need the best of both worlds – an easy-to-understand visualization of a bigger picture strategic plan, alongside the ability to drill down if needed and follow a thread all the way through to the detailed release plans. 

This is why purpose-built product roadmap tools exist. 

What are the benefits of purpose-built product roadmap tools?

The biggest advantage of using one of the best product roadmap tools, specifically designed for product teams and roadmapping requirements? The help it gives you to work in line with modern Product Management best practice.

Work within best practices

If you use a purpose-built product roadmap tool you should (assuming you’ve picked one of the best ones) find a structure and a bunch of built-in features that guide your process, behaviors and even the wider organization towards proven best ways of working. 

Not least of all will be the connection to objectives and key business goals. Because, as we’ve already said, the very best product roadmap tools will help you stay laser-focused on outcomes. You’ll have far better:

• Strategic alignment: Your roadmap will be clearly tied to your product strategy and business objectives.
• Clarity of communication: Everyone can see what’s coming up and how it fits into the bigger picture.
• Adaptability: As priorities shift, your roadmap will be able to keep up. The right tool will allow you to make updates without losing sight of your overall goals.
• Stakeholder visibility: Get buy-in from execs and other departments by showing how your roadmap connects to business growth.

Move faster

You’ll also be able to move a lot faster. Everything is set up specifically for the requirements of a Product Team, so you won’t need to get your head around how to bend and adapt a generalist tool to fit your use case. 

You’ll have ready-made product roadmap templates right off the bat, you’ll have suggested workflow stages already created, you’ll have default filters and suggested roadmap views ready to share.

Key Considerations for choosing from the best product roadmap tools

So, now you understand what product roadmap tools are and what makes purpose-built tools like this the best option. But you’ll still need to narrow down a fairly long list to find the best product roadmap tool for you. How do you decide? 

There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself. 

Are you outcome-focused?

This has to be question number one. What does your business value most? Is it more important that you can demonstrate volume of features or improved metrics and results? Hopefully you’ll be answering in favor of outcomes and results. If you’re not, you may need to have a word with your senior stakeholders and help them see the light about the importance of outcome-based roadmapping. We’ve got a ready-made presentation deck you can use for the job! See below

If you can confidently say that outcomes are your key focus, then you need a product roadmap tool that allows you to run an agile-friendly Now-Next-Later product roadmap. If you need to know more about the time-horizon-based roadmap format (the antithesis of the timeline roadmap), we have you covered. 

Do you want to foster a product culture across your organization?

Is part of your objective for revamping your roadmap and how you communicate it, to help promote a ‘product mindset’ across the company? Do you want to get more stakeholders engaged with the product process in the hope that you’ll convince them of the alignment, strategic importance and success of the Product?  Are you hoping to encourage collaboration from other teams and stakeholders so there is more transparency on how you work, how you reach decisions and why you have to balance priorities and sometimes say no?

If so, look for a tool that has the most robust publishing and sharing options, the right collaboration integrations and the clearest visualization of why things are where they are on your roadmap. 

Also look for a tool that will allow you to add everyone in your organization as a collaborator for free. And make sure you understand what they can do as a ‘collaborator’ or ‘reviewer’ or ‘contributor’ or whatever the user type is called. Can they only view? Or have they got the ability to submit feedback, add comments, join in discussions or even submit ideas to your roadmap initiatives? Spoiler alert – free reviewer accounts can do all that and more in ProdPad. 

Do you need your tool to play nicely with other tools in your organization? 

If you answered yes to the previous question then you’ll definitely need to consider this. The whole point of using one of the best product roadmap tools is so you don’t have a roadmap that sits in isolation from everything else. So think about how you need your chosen tool to integrate with your existing systems. 

Think about…

• Where your developers manage their sprint planning
• Which CRM your Sales Team uses
• The Customer Support tools your customer-facing teams use
• The messaging app your wider organization favors

What does the future of your team look like?

You don’t want to be back here in a year’s time looking for a new tool because your chosen one isn’t able to scale with you. So consider if you’ll be likely to add new products or new product lines and will need to manage a portfolio or even multiple portfolios. 

Also consider all the security implications of a growing team. Look out for the right type of Single Sign On capabilities and security compliance. 

The best product roadmap tools

OK, full disclosure, you’re on the ProdPad blog so you can guess which tool is top of the list. Yes we obviously have a degree of bias , but we seriously do stand by all the reasons why ProdPad is the best product roadmap tool for forward-thinking Product Managers. 

Having said that, we’re not about to start bad mouthing our competitors all over town. That’s not our style. We’re all product people building tools for product people, after all. And some of these folks have built some really great software tools, with some solid features that have given us food for thought over the years. 

We’ve included the tools we believe are the absolute best suited for product roadmapping – they are all purpose-built and all have a proven track record as an established player in the market. 

So let’s delve in….

1. ProdPad

Who is it for?

ProdPad is the best product roadmap tool for outcome-focused Product Teams of any size. ProdPad is structured around the industry-prefered Now-Next-Later roadmap format which was actually invented by our very own Co-Founders and allows Product Managers to present a roadmap that follows an Initiative > Idea structure.  

This two level structure to roadmap items is the key to staying flexible and working in an agile way. Instead of pinning exact features to your roadmap from the start, with ProdPad you create roadmap Initiatives that are focused on a problem to solve. You then attach various different Ideas to each Initiative as your thinking develops, working each through discovery until you find the best solution to the problem you have prioritized. 

This also makes ProdPad the best product roadmap tool for PMs looking to communicate their roadmap in a way that does not create stakeholder expectations tied to arbitrary dates. ProdPad’s roadmap flexibility provides stakeholders with a clear picture of the product priorities, with broad time horizons for the stuff that is further out, moving to more exact time periods as Initiatives move further down the line. 

In this way, Product Teams spend less time reworking their roadmap when discovery work invalidates one Idea and means changing to a different feature Idea. They can stay true to a roadmap that is agile, flexible and focused on the outcomes they want to drive, not exact feature outputs. 

Whether you’re in a startup or an enterprise, ProdPad’s flexibility and emphasis on strategic alignment make it the go-to tool for teams that refuse to compromise on quality or clarity.

Best features – ‘The Pros’

• Outcome-driven roadmapping: Unlike most tools that focus on features and timelines, ProdPad helps you build roadmaps based on business outcomes and customer needs. All Initiatives are linked to Objectives and the whole roadmap can be viewed by Objectives. Each roadmap item includes a space for you to capture target outcomes and record release outcomes. You even get a unique Completed view of your roadmap so you can easily demonstrate your outcomes to stakeholders.  
• OKR management: ProdPad’s product roadmapping tool comes complete with a full OKR management system that allows you to set, manage and track general objectives and specific goals. Importantly you can then link each Initiative on your roadmap with the particular Objective and Key Result it seeks to achieve. 
• Strategy canvas: Another unique feature of ProdPad. For each portfolio, product line and individual product there is a CAnvas to record and develop the product vision, value, positioning and more. This gives PMs a flexible space in which to document the broad strategy, stored next to the roadmap so no one loses sight of the bigger picture. 
• Integrated customer feedback: Part of a complete product management platform, ProdPad also collects, organizes, and prioritizes your customer feedback, meaning you can link your evidence directly to your roadmap to support your decision-making.
• AI Assistance: ProdPad also has the best and most mature AI capabilities of any other tool on this list. ProdPad has been able to automatically de-dupe your backlog for many years, but with new AI features being released every week the tool is even further ahead of competitors. Honestly, the AI is game-changing.
• Collaboration-ready: ProdPad’s product roadmap tool is specifically designed to foster communication and alignment across teams. It comes complete with, for example, the most robust Slack and Teams integrations of all the tools on this list. This means anyone in your organization can contribute and comment on your roadmap and its Initiatives from the safety of the tools they already use day-in, day-out. 
• Prioritization tools: ProdPad has built-in prioritization tools like our Prioritization chart which makes it quick and easy to spot the Ideas and Initiatives that will deliver the most impact relative to the effort and feasibility.
• Portfolio management: As standard with ProdPad, you can create an unlimited number of roadmaps so you can easily use the tool across your whole organization. Full portfolio management is also available meaning you can have specific roadmaps, OKRs and strategy canvases at each level. 

Restrictions

• No timelines here: If you are fighting against stakeholders who don’t understand how agile roadmapping works, we feel for you. We would be more than happy to help you convince your stakeholders that timelines are bad for business – so please reach out if that’s of interest. Because ProdPad doesn’t have Gantt chart style timeline options. We do enable target dates to be added to all Initiatives – so your stakeholders can understand when something is coming, but that doesn’t dictate the whole layout of your roadmap. We also have two-way syncs with development tools like Jira or Azure DevOps so you can happily link to your release planning for that complete view. But if you want a product roadmap in a timeline format this ain’t the tool for you. 

Pricing

Starts at $24 per month, with custom plans available for enterprise organizations. You can also purchase just the product Roadmap tool from ProdPad’s full suite and later add the Customer Feedback and Idea Management modules as you need. 

G2 Rating

4.5/5

2. Aha!

Who is it for?

Aha! is a well-known option for Product Managers working in large organizations. Aha! Is underpinned by a more traditional approach to Product Management so may be better suited to those that approach Product from more of an operational perspective. 

Best features – Pros

• Strategy tools: In a similar way to ProdPad, Aha! provides an area for PMs to capture their Personas, Strategy and Vision (although it’s at the overall account level and not sitting next to individual roadmaps). There are also a number of strategic framework tools available as templates to help you do, for example, SWOT analysis. 
• Customizable reports: Aha! provides a very customizable suite of reports that enable you to drill down into the data and create analysis into your product process. The customization takes a bit of time to get your head around, but this capability is interesting if you find yourself spending a lot of time crunching numbers in spreadsheets.

Limitations – Cons

• Single item roadmap hierarchy: Even with Aha!’s Now-Next-Later roadmap, there is only a single level hierarchy. This prevents you from capturing the problem area as the Initiative and nesting different ideas within that. That, unfortunately, means you will end up just pushing features around a board view rather than managing a truly agile, lean roadmap. 
• No goal management: With Aha! you cannot set and manage specific goals, relevant to each Objective. This means you will be without the SMART goals that will help you understand if you have achieved your Objective. 
• Next to no AI: Aha! is yet to release any AI capabilities in their roadmap tool

Pricing

Starts at $74 per user, per month on their monthly plan, however, they do have annual plans available too. 

G2 Rating

4.3/5

3. Productboard

Who is it for?

Productboard is worth considering if you’re looking for a complete platform that will help you manage your roadmap, ideas and customer feedback. The setup is rather complicated but if you think you might need deep customization and configuration Productboard should be on your list. In fact, Productboard can be so complex that the team there offer a professional services level of support that you can purchase to help you grapple with the setup.

Best features – Pros

• Integrations: Productboard have a robust offering of integrations from whiteboarding tools like Miro right through to AI analysis tools like Cobbaï
• User access levels: Productboard, like ProdPad, is another tool that provides you with a lot of control over the access levels and permissions that each of your users has. This can be very important in larger organizations or where sensitive projects may be in play.

Limitations – Cons

• No strategy capture: Productboard does not have an area for you to document product vision, values or add narrative to your product strategy. 
• No OKR or goal management tool: Productboard does not offer an in-bulit tool to help you set and track your product objectives making it harder to align your roadmap with priority outcomes. 
• Single item roadmap hierarchy: Like Aha!, Productboard only provides a ‘feature board’ by way of a time-horizon based roadmap, preventing you from communicating larger initiatives with multiple features ideas within them. 
• Basic reporting: Productboard’s reporting features are minimal, which can limit how well you track progress or demonstrate strategic alignment.
• Complexity: The user interface can feel cluttered and difficult to navigate, and many users complain about the level of decision that have to be made before you can get started.
• AI only available on the highest price plan: The AI assistance that comes with Productboard is only available with the top tier plans, making the tools less integrated or integral to the overall experience. 

Pricing

Starts at $19 per user, per month for their Essentials Plan.

G2 Rating

4.4/5

4. ProductPlan

Who is it for?

ProductPlan is a good option for teams that want a super simple, visual tool to present their roadmap. 

Best features – Pros

• User-friendly: ProductPlan’s drag-and-drop interface is simple to use and great for teams looking for a quick visual solution.
• Launch project management: ProductPlan also has an adjacent tool for managing launch plans and collaborating with GTM teams. It helps you create and track tasks and assign due dates for the launch phase of a feature release. 
• Sharing: Decent for sharing roadmaps with non-technical stakeholders, they allow for easy external link sharing. 
• Great resources: ProductPlan has a great resource center to help you navigate your way around the app and tackle general product management problems. 

Limitations – Cons

• No customer feedback management: ProductPlan doesn’t have tools to help you collect or prioritize customer feedback.
• No idea management: ProductPlan is a roadmap only tool, so you won’t be able to manage your backlog and easily link ideas and their related documentation to your roadmap items. 
• No AI assistance: ProductPlan doesn’t have any AI-powered tools to lighten the load.

Pricing

ProductPlan no longer advert their pricing on their website and seem to be offering custom enterprise packages only that necessitate a call with the Sales Team. 

G2 Ratings

4.5/5

5. Roadmunk

Who is it for?

Roadmunk is a decent option for teams that need flexible roadmap views. If you are forced to balance unwavering stakeholder demands for timelines with a desire to work more flexibly then Roadmunk may be the solution that gives you both avenues. 

Best features – Pros

• Multiple views: Offers flexibility in how you display roadmaps, which can be useful if you’re battling with different stakeholder preferences.
• Portfolio level roadmaps: Allowing you to have different levels and roadmap effectively across your organization.
• Prioritization: Provides some fairly robust prioritization features, so you’re able to assess your product ideas against a range of different criteria.

Limitations – Cons

• Limited integrations: There are only two integration options with Roadmunk – one for Jira and the other ADO, meaning you’re going to hit roadblocks when trying to sync data from other platforms like CRMs or Support tools.  
• Weaker strategic focus: Roadmunk focuses more on visuals than on providing the tools needed to build a strategy that drives outcomes.
• No Now-Next-Later roadmap: Although you can do a swimlane roadmap, Roadmunk don’t offer a proper Now-Next-Later roadmap format. 
• Limited customer feedback management: Roadmunk is primarily a roadmap-only solution but in recent years they have added some basic ways to add feedback into the tool, however they aren’t as robust as other product roadmap tools.  

Pricing

Starts at $19 per user, per month. However, this is only for the single user, you’ll need to upgrade to the Business Plan at $49 per month for your team to get access.

G2 Rating

4.3/5

6. Jira Product Discovery

Who is it for?

Jira Product Discovery is best for teams that are already deeply integrated into the Jira ecosystem and are struggling to find budget for a more robust roadmapping solution. Like ProdPad, Jira Product Discovery only facilitates the Now-Next-Later roadmap format so it’s a solid choice if one of your priorities is keeping your team working consistently and in line with best practice. 

Best features – Pros

• Easy Jira integration setup: If your team is already using Jira Software for development, the integration here is obviously set as standard. You won’t need to set it up and confirm authorization between the two tools. 
• Now-Next-Later customization: Offers flexibility to play with the Now-Next-Later structure and adapt it (although…beware you don’t end up with something that doesn’t fulfill the outcome-focus of a true Now-Next-Later)

Limitations – Cons

• Single level roadmap hierarchy: Like a couple of other contenders on this list, Jira Product Discovery does not allow you to nest Ideas within Initiatives on your roadmap, therefore limiting the flexibility you have to remain agile and adapt to your discovery findings.
• Fewer ways to gather feedback: Although Jira Product Discovery does allow you to capture feedback to inform your roadmap, the tool is missing the integrations that would make this feedback flow consistent and effortless.
• No feedback analysis tools: There are no tools to help you uncover insights from your feedback to inform your product thinking.
• No AI assistance: Jira Product Discovery is yet to offer an AI assistance. 
• No roadmap publishing: You cannot publish your roadmap externally meaning all viewers will need to have their own login. 
• Lack of collaboration tools: You won’t be able to integrate other communication tools and have your stakeholders contribute to your roadmap planning without actively logging into Jira Product Discovery and using the tool directly. 
• Limited standalone value: It’s a good add-on for Jira users but doesn’t stand alone well as a comprehensive product roadmap tool.

Pricing

Starts at $10 per user for teams of  1 – 25

G2 Rating

Oh sorry, Jira Product Discovery isn’t actually represented on G2.

7. Dragonboat

Who is it for?

Dragonboat is a solid choice for large teams managing multiple products or portfolios. It positions itself as a Product Operations platform and has a focus on portfolio decision making and business leadership considerations. 

Best features – Pros

• Portfolio management: Great for multi product organizations and portfolio managers looking to make strategic decisions across multiple product lines. 
• Outcome-focused planning: It offers good tools for linking initiatives to business objectives.

Limitations – Cons

• Complex interface: Dragonboat’s UI can be difficult to navigate, especially for new users. Users have been known to crumble about the outdated UI.
• Overly robust: The feature set may be too much for teams that aren’t managing portfolios or large-scale product organizations.

Pricing

Dragonboat no longer advertises their pricing publically, you can contact their Sales team directly to discuss options. They have a Standard Plan and a Business Plan available. 

G2 Rating

4.5/5

What now?

Think there’s a couple there that could work well for you? The next steps are to book yourself a demo and let the expert teams behind these tools show you how they work in detail. Then you’ll have all the info you need to make the right decision.

Why not start with ProdPad?

The post 7 Best Product Roadmap Tools in 2024 appeared first on ProdPad.

How do you know when the time is right for hiring Product Managers? 

It’s a big call knowing when to get a new Product Manager. What should you be looking out for? What indicates it’s time to open your doors and welcome a new PM in? Well, that depends on the situation of your company at the time. 

Getting your first-ever Product Manager will have different considerations than when getting a second, third or fourth. The timing for hiring your first PM largely depends on your founding team’s makeup and capabilities. In the early days of a startup, Founders often fill the Product Management role themselves. Many Founders have a “product” mindset, they’re already focused on identifying market needs, talking to early customers, and iterating on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This phase is usually manageable without a dedicated PM, as the Founder is deeply involved in both product development and strategy.

However, the need for a PM becomes evident when the demands on the Founder’s time grow too large. As the business scales, the Founder’s focus shifts to other responsibilities, like fundraising, marketing, or hiring, leaving less time for essential Product Management tasks such as customer discovery, iteration, and market positioning. When the Founder can no longer dedicate the necessary time to product direction, it’s time to bring in a dedicated Product Manager.

At this stage, you’re likely going to be looking for a generalist, someone who can do it all, as they’re going to have fingers in a lot of different pies at this early stage of the company.


But say you’ve already got an established product team structure. You have your Product Manager, Engineer, and Designer working well in a Product Trio. How do you know when you need another one? 

Well, the signs are pretty similar, as you’ll usually be bringing one in when your current PM starts to feel overloaded with responsibilities. If they’re struggling to find enough time for proper product discovery, or finding it hard to keep momentum moving on initiatives, it’s a big indication that they need some support.

This support may not necessarily be in the form of hiring more Product Managers. You could consider hiring someone junior to assist or bringing in a specialist to complement the first PM’s skill set.

If you are hiring Product Managers, think more about the specific skills you need. Your first Product Manager is likely a generalist, handling every stage of the complete Product Management lifecycle. If you’re looking to hire a second or third PM, you may want to split the responsibilities and have a Product Manager who’s dedicated to customer discovery while another handles internal processes.

Of course, as your company starts to scale and adds new products, your hands are pretty much tied and you’ll need a PM to handle each product. 

What makes a good candidate when hiring Product Managers?

When hiring Product Managers, you naturally want the best. The cream of the crop. The pic of the bunch. The creme de la creme. But what does that actually look like? Well here are some important skills to look out for.

Personally, I love to see an application where the candidate has identified the problem we’re trying to solve and then speaks about why they’ve got the experience to solve that issue. Not only does it feel personal and show they’ve taken the time to get to know our situation, but it highlights that they have an inquisitive mind and are a problem-solver. 

Too many applications just read like a list of all the things the person is great at. But if those skills aren’t relevant to what we need from a new Product Manager right now, it may as well be a shopping list. 

Plus, many applicants go into detail about how this position could be good for them. They’re looking inwardly in a selfish way, speaking of how the role can help them learn and develop their career. That’s all well and good, but you’re not running a charity. Ideally, you want a Product Manager who can help your business improve, not the other way around.

When hiring Product Managers, look out for those who detail what they can do for you. Something like:

Now that’s interesting. That’s the mark of a great Product Manager. Like Giff Constable said in our webinar on how to become a CPO, It’s all about demonstrating that they’ve seen this movie before, and know the script for how to act it out. They’ve been able to see your needs, so they’re probably pretty good at seeing your customers’ needs and building a better product off the back of that research. 

Giff said a lot more great things in our chat. If you’re looking to climb the ladder and become a Chief Product Officer, or want tips on how to excel in the position, check out our on-demand webinar below: 

Of course, the above is a general view of what makes a good Product Manager. To ensure you get a good candidate for your situation when hiring Product Managers, you need their skills to match what you need. 

You need to hire the right Product Manager for you

You need to find a Product Manager that matches your needs and fits into your culture. A stunning candidate for one business may not be the best fit for yours, and you need to be aware of that when hiring Product Managers. Don’t be tempted to get a PM that looks good on paper if they’re not able to provide a solution to the problem you face. 

You could be stung by getting a generalist when you really need someone who can specialize in a function that you need for your business. Look at your needs. Is your product suffering from high customer churn? You’ll benefit from a PM who has experience in this over one who doesn’t.  

You should be thinking about what problem you’re trying to solve for your business and what change you hope this role is going to make for the business. You also have to think about how your business operates and if the PM suits it. Are there particular rituals that they need to be part of? Things like daily stand-ups or scrums, retros or backlog refinement meetings. Outline these things and figure out exactly the type of Product Manager you want for this role.

Also think about the non-negotiable skills you need, as this will shape the ideal PM for you. Of course, you need the general skills for the role, but there might be something specific for you that you can’t look past. For ProdPad, that’s an understanding and appreciation of agile, outcome-based roadmaps. It’s kind of our thing. If a candidate comes in declaring their unwavering love for Gantt charts and timeline roadmaps, that’s an obvious tell that it’s not going to work. 

How do you attract the best talent when hiring Product Managers?

You won’t attract the best minds in product with any old job ad. To get the best when hiring Product Managers, you need to be perceived as the best and look like an exciting and rewarding option for applicants. Your job descriptions need to be compelling, showcasing the exciting opportunities that the role offers. 

When hiring Product Managers, you’re selling the organization just as much as the applicant is trying to sell themselves. Talk about the attractive things about your role, be that the money you can offer, the education you can provide, or the prestige of the business. Whatever gets people through the door. It’s like a lure when fishing. Sure, low-grade worms may be enough to catch a prime bluefin tuna, but you’ll have a better chance of making a catch if you use premium squid bait. 

When writing our job specs here at ProdPad, we make an effort to cover why the job is important and where it fits in the bigger picture. We disclose what applicants will learn in the role, and we spell out the benefits. This helps us inspire the best applicants. You don’t want to be seen as another job to add to the pile, you want applicants to be excited by the opportunity.

Just be detailed in what you offer. Different people are going to have different prerogatives for what they’re looking for in a role. The best applicants for you are going to have wants and needs that line up with what you’re offering. 

What interview questions should you ask when hiring Product Managers? 

Interviews are your chance to learn more about your applicants and extract more nuggets of information that can indicate if they’ll be a good hire or not. To do this, you need to ask the right questions. You want to hit them with meaningful questions that get them thinking, saying things that go further than rehearsed lines they think you want to hear. Try and have an actual conversation. The following questions are a good place to start.

• What do you think about roadmapping?
• Tell me about a time when something didn’t go to plan and you had to pivot. 
• How do you define success?
• How do you gather feedback and how do you use it to inform decisions?
• The CEO has a product idea, but you have data that shows it’s not the right thing to do. How do you approach that?
• Talk us through your resume.

Let’s delve into each of these questions in turn…

What do you think about roadmapping?

What I like about this question is that it’s pretty broad and can be interpreted in many ways, leading to plenty of interesting discussions. Candidates can talk about what they think should go on a roadmap, their thoughts on different roadmap formats, or why they take the approach they do with their roadmap. 

Roadmapping is a core part of the Product Management role, so a candidate will usually have a lot to talk about here and can help you learn how they’re going to approach their work and if their views align with your company.

Tell me about a time when something didn’t go to plan and you had to pivot. 

This is a great question to ask when hiring Product Managers, as it gives you insight into their decision-making process and how they evaluate the performance of a product. What metrics do they care about and what did they do to change the outcome? 

A good candidate would answer this question by explaining how they assessed market signs and other data, as well as how they managed risk when making the strategic shift. 

How do you define success?

Asking this when hiring Product Managers is a powerful way to assess a candidate’s mindset, priorities, and alignment with your company’s goals. It can reveal not just their personal values, but also how they evaluate the success of a product or feature and the broader impact on the business.

It shows you how they think about the product vision, and gives you an insight into if they’re taking into consideration things like customer value and other customer-centric points.

You’ll need to listen out for the particular metrics your Product Manager candidates cite and how they calculate return-on-investment. You should prepare for these interviews by reviewing all the available Product Management KPIs and having an idea of the ones that would be most important in this role. Download our complete list of KPIs and find the most meaningful ones for your product. 

To learn more about the possible ways a Product Manager can measure the ROI of their work, download our guide. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll know what to listen out for when it comes to how they measure success. 

How do you gather feedback and how do you use it to inform decisions?

This question is fundamental to ask when hiring Product Managers as it explores their direct processes as well as their prioritization skills. What do they do to figure out what feedback should be acted upon? 

It can also demonstrate their bias. Do they focus on data or do they focus on qualitative information through interviews and surveys? It also shines a light on how they use feedback as an iterative process.

The CEO has a product idea, but you have data that shows it’s not the right thing to do. How do you approach that?

This question is all about stakeholder management. How does the candidate manage other people and communicate their ideas? You’re looking for someone that has the guts to say no when it’s right, but who has the skills and empathy to know the right ways of saying no. 

If you’re wondering what the best ways to say no as a Product Manager are, we’ve spoken with Melissa Appel to get the best tips. You can watch our webinar here:

Ask about their resume

This isn’t so much a question but a tip to the interviewer – ask more about the resume, and get the applicant to explain some things. Due to the nature of resumes, a lot of the information on there is cherry-picked. They want to put their best foot forward, so of course everything is going to be overwhelmingly positive. 

Try and get the context around what they’ve done. Ask if their performance exceeded expectations and try to understand what their goals were in their roles – how were they measured? Instead of just seeing the nice cherries they’ve picked off, you see more of the entire tree. 

Common mistakes when hiring Product Managers

Hiring Product Managers, or any other role for that matter, can be a bit of a burden. It’s a time sink, takes up resources, and is expensive. That’s why when you go through the hiring process, you want to do it right. 

Mess things up, and you could be left with a Product Manager that isn’t right for you and is struggling as a result. That’s not on them, it’s on you for not doing things properly. To avoid the awkward situation of making a hire that doesn’t work out, be aware of these common mistakes. 

Look past titles

It can be hard to tell how good of a Product Manager someone will be by looking at their job titles alone. A person who’s held senior positions or product-orientated roles may seem really exciting at first, but these roles don’t actually tell you how involved they’ve been and what skills they had to call into action. 

Roles and titles are all over the place in Product Management and can sometimes pull the wool over your eyes. For example, you could come across a Product Lead that implies they have leadership experience, but learn that they only had a tiny team. Not ideal if you’re looking for someone to manage a large product team. 

Often, you can find great people who never had lofty or product-related titles, but because of the structure of their past organization were involved in doing great product stuff. You want to focus on the stories of your applicants. Sometimes the titles don’t give the full picture. Sure, Alice in Wonderland kind of gives you the whole synopsis, but have you ever read Clockwork Orange? I don’t remember oranges or clocks being a major part of it. 

Don’t worry about qualifications 

Try not to get all hot and bothered about an applicant that has qualifications and certifications from X. Y, and Z. Yes, these can suggest that these PMs have a good knowledge base and have put in the work to learn more, but these qualifications are not a replacement for real-world experience. 

Sure, these can equip PMs with the theory and vocabulary of Product Management, but there’s no indication that they’ve put what they’ve learned into practice. It’s much better to have a PM who’s been in the trenches and learned from doing, failing, and then iterating. 

We don’t want to poo-poo qualifications too much. If presented alongside tangible experience and evidence of success, then great, that’s a candidate who’s got the knowledge and expertise down. Think of it like this – if you’re a football coach looking for a star player, you wouldn’t favor the armchair fan who can recite every play and tactic and has watched every Superbowl. No, you’d ideally pick someone who’s actually played in them.

Let’s not even go into the fact that some qualifications aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. If you want to know which Product Management courses do deliver useful learning, here’s our list of the Product Management courses that you should look out for on a resume: 

Prioritize strategic thinking over technical skills

Oh no, this candidate doesn’t know how to use Figma, time to throw their resume in the bin. Hold your horses there – technical skills shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all when looking for a new Product Manager. 

Of course, you’re going to want adequate skills to ensure they can work their way around your roadmapping tool and whatnot, but it can be damaging to set your focus on getting a boffin who’s a whizz at coding and engineering, etc. The Product Management role is far more strategic than this. Instead, you should champion skills in decision-making, communication, market and customer research, and setting the product vision. It’s all of this that actually helps you make a great product, not how many different coding languages they know. 

Don’t overlook soft skills

Product Managers serve as the bridge between various teams ensuring that everyone is aligned on the product vision. Communication is a big part of the day in the life of a Product Manager. If a PM lacks strong soft skills like communication skills or organization, misunderstandings can occur, leading to delays, misaligned priorities, or a lack of clear direction. 

Likewise, when hiring Product Managers, be hyper aware of how empathetic candidates appear. A PM with poor empathy may struggle to fully understand the customer’s needs, which can result in decisions that don’t resonate with users. 

Leadership is another essential soft skill. Even though many PMs don’t have direct authority over the teams they work with, they must inspire, motivate, and lead cross-functional teams to deliver on the product vision. A Product Manager who can’t foster collaboration or navigate tough conversations may face roadblocks that slow down product development. 

A PM needs to be comfortable in the spotlight, a leading actor, not an extra in the background. 

An important hire

Hiring Product Managers isn’t just about adding new faces to the team – it’s about solving specific problems and moving your business forward. Make sure the candidate has the right mix of skills and experience, and don’t just be dazzled by flashy titles or qualifications. 

A great PM aligns with your business’s needs, rolls with the punches, and knows how to juggle multiple priorities without dropping the ball. Get it right, and they’ll be the driving force that pushes your product and company to the next level. Get it wrong, and, well… you’ll be back on the job board sooner than you’d like.

When hiring a good Product Manager, they’re going to need a good Product Management tool. ProdPad is the only tool built specifically to help make a good Product Manager great. With best practices baked in and functionality to help manage customer feedback, prioritize your roadmap, and plan your backlog, ProdPad equips Product Managers with everything they need to turn strategy into action. 

Give ProdPad a go to see how it can work for you, commitment-free. 

The post Hiring Product Managers: How to Get the Best Talent appeared first on ProdPad.

What is the product trio? 

The product trio is the deliberate coming together of three key roles related to product discovery and development: The Product Manager, the Engineer, and the Product Designer. In the product trio, these cross-functional roles work collaboratively to help inform decisions and ideation that lead to a much better product. 

See, before the product trio, each of these roles would usually operate in a more isolated way. Each would be focusing on their area of expertise with little crossover, aside from a weekly stand-up where more often or not you learn that your efforts were misaligned. 

By creating the product trio, you give every role visibility of the product development at every stage. Each role is involved from the very beginning. The Engineer and Designer have access to product discovery, the Product Manager is clued up about the build stage, and in general, there’s more accountability and collaboration in this model. 

This close collaboration means that decisions are made faster, roadblocks are cleared more efficiently, and everyone stays on the same page. It’s not just about building great products; it’s about building them with less friction and a whole lot more fun.

Each role typically champions one of three core product concerns: 

• Viability: This covers the commercial aspect, examining whether a product is a sound investment. The Product Manager focuses on aligning the product vision with business goals, ensuring that the product makes sense in the market landscape.
• Desirability: This refers to the degree to which customers need and value a solution. The Product Designer often leads the charge in understanding user needs and translating those into design solutions that resonate.
• Feasibility: This is all about the technical side of things. The Engineer evaluates whether the proposed solutions can be realistically built, ensuring that the design aligns with what is technically possible.

Without the product trio structure, these responsibilities are isolated to the specific role only. This can lead to annoying situations where a Designer has dreamed up a stunning product idea, only to be told that it’s not feasible by an Engineer. 

The idea with the product trio is that over time, the constant visibility and synced-up nature of the team will make team members start to consider other things. A Designer will start to think about the viability of their idea, ensuring that it delivers the best user experience while also helping to achieve business objectives. This fluidity encourages the team to think beyond their primary roles and tackle challenges from different angles, creating more efficient product development. 

What are the three roles in a product trio? 

We’ve touched on them a bit, but let’s dive deeper into the three roles that make the product trio what it is.  Each role brings a unique perspective and set of skills to the team, contributing to a well-rounded approach to product development. Let’s take a little look: 

1. Product Manager

Hey, that’s you (most likely anyway). Now, a lot of people view the Product Manager as the captain of the ship, the leader of the product trio. We don’t like that, because it suggests that the other roles aren’t as important – and that’s just not true. You need the Engineer and Designer as equally as you need the Product Manager. 

Instead, let’s consider the Product Manager as the driver. They steer the direction and ensure that what gets made aligns with the company vision. They define what to build through a Product Requirement Document (PRD) and track the progress through the roadmap. 

By the way, if you need a hand putting together a PRD, we’ve got this handy template you can download and edit to make your own. 

So what will a Product Manager do within the product trio? Well, some key responsibilities include: 

• Vision and strategy: The PM establishes the product vision and long-term strategy based on market research, user feedback, and business goals. 
• Prioritization: With limited resources and time, the PM prioritizes features and initiatives, balancing customer desires with technical feasibility and business viability. 
• Stakeholder communication: The PM serves as the bridge between various stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed about product goals, timelines, and updates. 
• Performance tracking: After launch, the PM monitors product performance through analytics and user feedback, iterating on the product based on insights gathered. 

For a full list of Product Manager tasks and responsibilities, check out the article below: 

2. Designer

The Product Designer is focused on making your product look and feel good, creating user flows, and thinking about the UX and UI of the product to enhance customer experience. The goal here is to make something user-friendly, highly functional and good looking. They’re focused on making your product as desirable as possible. Some key responsibilities include:

• Prototyping and wireframing: Using customer research, the Designer creates prototypes and wireframes to visualize how the product will look and function. This allows for early feedback and iterative improvements before development begins.
• UI/UX design: The Designer crafts the user interface and experience, focusing on creating a seamless, engaging journey for customers. 
• Collaboration with Engineers: The Designer works closely with the Developers to ensure that the design can be implemented effectively. They provide specifications and support during the development process, addressing any design-related questions or challenges.

3. Engineers

These guys are the builders. The people who turn your concepts and ideas into tangible software and tools that can be used and experienced. They’re down in the nitty-gritty of writing code and managing the technical aspect of the product to bring it to life. 

It’s important to see your Engineer as a core role within your product trio and wider product team. If you dismiss them from the earlier planning and put them in the box of ‘engineering’ or ‘development’ you’ll isolate them and build walls that keep them in the dark when it comes to the wider process. Shine the spotlight on your Developers and make them a standout part of your team. 

The things Engineers should do in a product trio include: 

• Technical feasibility: The Engineer assesses the feasibility of proposed features, evaluating whether they can be built within the existing technical constraints. 
• Development: The Engineer writes code and builds the product according to the design specifications provided by the Designer. 
• Responding to testing and QA findings: Engineers work closely with the QA Team who conduct testing to ensure the product functions as intended. Developers will work to fix any bugs identified during QA to  optimize performance, and enhance the overall quality of the product or feature before launch.

What are the advantages of the product trio team structure? 

So what’s the allure of the product trio? Why is it becoming a fundamental team structure that more and more PMs and Product Teams are following? Well, the simple answer is that it’s better than what we were doing before. It’s transforming the potential of product teams, making them more effective while helping them to build bigger and better products. The list of benefits is extensive. 

Collaboration

The biggest, most identifiable benefit of the product trio is that it boosts collaboration to a whole other level. It fosters a unique blend of skills and expertise that helps improve execution. 

You’re all in a better position to make informed decisions on the product, as you’ll ALL understand user needs, technical capabilities, and business objectives. It resolves conflict quickly and prevents conflict. 

User-focus

The composition of the product trio helps to emphasize a commitment to a user-centric approach to your product development. Of course, this is down to you as the Product Manager as you uncover user insights and conduct customer research. However, because of the close-knit nature of the product trio, the rest of the team will have a deeper understanding of customer needs and pain points, helping them to create a better product. 

Alignment

A well-formed product trio ensures that everyone stays aligned on the product’s direction. With the Product Manager, Designer, and Engineer working side-by-side, there’s less room for miscommunication or silos. Everyone is clued in on priorities and can make adjustments on the fly without losing sight of the bigger picture. It’s like having three parts of the brain working in perfect unison, keeping the project on track and on point.

Speed

By having this trifecta of talent working closely together, the product trio naturally speeds up the development process. With quicker feedback loops and real-time problem-solving, decisions can be made rapidly. No more waiting around for approvals or lengthy email threads – just fast, effective action that gets things done and moves the product forward.

What are the common mistakes when implementing a product trio structure?

Of course, to get the most out of the product trio, you need to do things properly. You may already be working in a product trio, and that’s fantastic. Yet, far too many teams are making key mistakes in how they operate this squad, making the whole framework kind of pointless. These mistakes are known as anti-patterns and can reduce the effectiveness of your product trio. 

Let’s take a look at these common mistakes – these anti-patterns – and explore the solutions to these problems so that you can make sure that your product trio structure is effective. 

1. Siloed work due to strictly defined roles

Sure, having clear roles can help keep things running smoothly and give your team accountability, but when boundaries become too rigid, collaboration can suffer. 

Despite the product trio being designed to help you avoid it, team members may start working in silos and focus on their strict duties. People can begin to disengage from parts of the project that technically fall outside their remit. The result? Inefficient handoffs and missed opportunities for input.

The solution:

Break down those walls! Encourage a more collaborative approach where everyone, regardless of their title, can contribute their insights. Let your Designer, Engineer, and Product Manager weigh in on every aspect of the project, fostering a sense of ownership and keeping communication lines wide open. You can do this with regular standups to track progress, as well as by having a roadmap that’s visible to all. After all, teamwork makes the dream work, right?

If you use ProdPad as your central Product Management tool, then you’ll be able to give everyone in your whole organization the ability to easily submit product ideas, feedback or join discussions and see progress of everything in your backlog and beyond. This is how you foster a true product culture where contribution from everyone is encouraged and supported. 

2. Separating the product trio from the rest of the team

There are many roles, outside of the product trio, that play a massive part in product development. There’s a risk, if you focus too much on the product trio alone, that you make it feel like a secret club, ignoring everyone else. You don’t want to employ the product trio structure in a way that makes the rest of the team feel left out and on the fringes. 

There’s a particular risk of the secret club effect during product discovery work. When the product trio work in isolation, it creates a disconnect with the broader team, leading to handoffs that fall flat, misalignment, and poor communication. If the rest of the team doesn’t feel involved from the start, they’re less likely to rally behind the product vision. Heck, if they’re that isolated, they might not even be confident about what the product vision is.

The solution: 

Product discovery doesn’t have to be a closed-door meeting. Involve the rest of the product team as much as possible, tapping into their skills and interests. You could even set up a dedicated Slack or Teams channel for the “Product Trio,” open to the whole team, where discussions are transparent and inclusive. This keeps everyone on the same page and invested in the product’s success from the get-go. The product trio should sit within the whole Product Team, and not become its own separate entity. 

3. Role confusion

Remember what we said about having strictly defined roles? Well, turns out there’s some nuance to that. Although you don’t want to create a rigid environment where there’s no overlap or accountability for tasks outside of a team member’s remit, you don’t want to do a complete 180 turn and be too fluid. 

When roles overlap or responsibilities aren’t clearly defined, things can get messy – fast. If, say, the Product Manager starts making design decisions without consulting the Designer, it can erode trust and stifle collaboration. You don’t want to be stepping on other people’s toes.

The solution: 

Clarity is key! Clearly define each trio member’s role while encouraging open dialogue. Everyone should feel empowered to leverage their expertise and challenge each other’s perspectives in a constructive way. 

By maintaining a healthy balance of authority and collaboration, the product trio can avoid stepping on each other’s toes and keep the focus on building an awesome product. You don’t want to be rigid like a stone in your roles, nor do you want to be completely fluid like water. The sweet spot is being a nice, wobbly jelly where there’s some flexibility. 

4. Lack of shared vision

If the trio isn’t aligned on the product vision, things can go off the rails quickly. One person might prioritize features based on market trends, while another is all about aesthetics. You need to have a unified direction or a North Star leading the way, kind of like the Three Wise Men. Without it, you’ll become directionless and the product risks feeling disjointed and missing the mark.

The solution: 

Regularly revisit and refine the product vision as a team. Make sure it’s a shared goal that everyone not only understands but actively supports. Everyone in the product trio needs to live and die by the vision. It’s the why to everything you do. Alignment is key to making informed, cohesive decisions that drive the product forward in a meaningful way. Here are some great product vision examples to inspire you.

5. Ignoring user feedback

No matter how well the trio works together, ignoring user feedback is a surefire way to build a product that doesn’t meet user needs. If the team gets too wrapped up in internal discussions or preconceived ideas, they can easily miss out on game-changing insights from real users.

The solution: 

Keep your users front and center by making customer feedback a non-negotiable part of the decision-making process. Prioritize user testing throughout development, and let those insights guide design and feature choices. Remember, the best products are built with users, not just for them.

5. Overemphasis on process

Processes are great for keeping things on track, but when the trio sticks too rigidly to them, creativity and innovation can take a hit. Sticking to the playbook when the situation calls for a pivot can limit the team’s ability to respond to new insights or opportunities.

The solution: 

Flexibility is your friend! Encourage a culture where the trio can adapt and change gears based on new information. Being open to experimentation and shaking up processes can lead to innovative solutions and a product that’s always evolving, just like your users.

The rule of threes 

In the world of product development, the magic of three shines brightly through the product trio. By integrating the unique strengths of the Product Manager, Designer, and Engineer, teams can foster collaboration, enhance alignment, and speed up the development process. This trifecta empowers each role to contribute to a shared vision while remaining aware of the broader implications of their work.

The product trio isn’t just a structure to follow; it’s a mindset that encourages cross-functional teamwork and a user-centered approach. As you consider implementing this model, remember that maintaining open communication and flexibility is key to avoiding common pitfalls. Embrace the power of collaboration and let the product trio be your guide in creating exceptional products that meet both user needs and business goals.

The product trio allows you to create a better product. ProdPad helps with that too. Our tool gives you the functionality you need to become a better Product Manager. Why not give it a try yourself to see what we’re talking about? 

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