10 Top Software Picks for Product Managers in 2023

As a product manager, you know managing products is dynamic and complicated. There may not be one universal software for product managers that addresses all your individual requirements, but product management software serves as an indispensable compass to navigate this terrain. That being said, your toolbox must include much more than product management software alone, and familiarity with various product management frameworks is equally vital.

In this article, we have carefully compiled categories of essential top product management tools beyond standard ones that go above and beyond just product management tools. After carefully considering top business requirements and aligning them with product manager needs, these choices have been made.

So, read carefully, as these product manager tools can become game-changers for your career.

Project management software

FuseBase (formerly Nimbus)

FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) is a client collaboration tool that embraces the key features of popular project management solutions. Tailored for product managers and client-oriented businesses in general, FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) serves as ‘’the right-hand man” for all product management professionals. Its innovative Super Documents, Client Portals, Kanban boards and seamless integrations with an array of other best tools – give users everything they need to efficiently organize projects, collaborate with clients, work on their product strategy and access vital data, all while gathering and incorporating customer feedback. 

FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) meets traditional project management requirements and is designed as an extensible platform that facilitates communication and engagement with clients, knowledge management and collaboration. FuseBase’ (formerly Nimbus)s collaboration hub shows its dedication to meeting the specific demands of modern product management. Offering versatility and efficiency in abundance, this is unquestionably an ideal platform for any product manager striving to excel in their role.

Who uses FuseBase (formerly Nimbus)?

FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) is a leader among many free client collaboration solutions including product management tools (as it offers a free version) that is used by an expansive user community. Still, product managers, in particular, tend to rely heavily on its versatile features for efficient project management, data organization and cross-functional product management team collaboration throughout the product development lifecycle. 

Best features:

• Client Portals. FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) Portals are no-code websites that product managers can use to promote services and improve customer experience. With portals, you can gather all client project information and update it constantly. Use portal chats and tasks to collaborate and streamline feedback and approvals. Also, you can give your clients one-link access to all project information, and you can share pages with them even if they don’t have Nimbus accounts. Use portal chats and tasks to collaborate and streamline feedback and approvals. 
• Kanban boards to keep track of project workload. FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) Platform allows product management pros to control team resources and avoid task overloads for colleagues. See where your projects stand at a glance, pinpoint problem areas and tailor your workflows to fit any endeavor.
• FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) Tasks. With efficient task management, product managers may close the gap between conception and realization. For effective workload management, you may assign tasks, provide details, comments, files and due dates, track your progress using in-built progress bars and categorize your tasks in order of priority.
• FuseBase AI. FuseBase AI saves product managers time by automating tiresome processes. It aids in content creation and revision. When compared to alternatives like ChatGPT, Claude, etc., FuseBase AI’s ability to generate and save responses locally at your place of work is a significant selling point. With FuseBase AI, you can do things like brainstorm ideas, get personalized recommendations, create original content, edit and proofread text and more. 

Pricing:

• Free plan is available
• Paid plans start from $9/user/month
  

Asana

Asana, a project management tool, can assist your product team in organizing daily work and strategic initiatives more efficiently and confidently throughout the product management lifecycle, including the ability to create roadmaps. Focusing on reliability and scalability rather than features, Asana is one of the product management tools that connects your entire team into one central location; work can be organized any way you see it, from lists or boards to calendars and Gantt charts. Asana allows you to stay productive, confident and efficient regardless of location!

Who uses Asana?

Why have more than 11,000 customers of Asana product roadmap tools given it an overall score of 4.5/5? Asana is a top product management tool that offers resource management features that easily coordinate projects and efficiently manage tasks and processes across multiple teams.

Best features:

• Task management. Focus your work in manageable pieces with clear deadlines and responsible parties in mind, all while aligning with your product strategy.
• Project Hubs. These shared hubs enable teams of employees to take care of task management and collaborate on tasks together.
• Project views. If desired, organize your project as a Gantt chart or Kanban board. Otherwise, using calendar views as the foundation is also effective.
• Custom field labels. Labels allow you to sort, filter and report on your work automatically.

Pricing:

• Basic – Free
• Premium – $10.99/user/month billed annually, free trial is available
• Business – $24.99/user/month billed annually

Design management software

Figma

Figma is both an on-premise and cloud-based product management tool. It provides businesses with effortless means to design custom prototypes quickly, collaborate easily with designers and developers, share prototypes among team members and manage design processes within the product development process more efficiently. And finally, manage design processes within product development workflow more easily than ever, with a minimal learning curve! Originally born online, it enables product teams to come together and quickly develop, test and ship better designs.

Who uses Figma?

Most users interact with Figma and choose it among other product management tools because of its advantageous collaborative design capabilities. Figma users include designers, developers and cross-functional teams involved with product development.

Best features:

• Real-time collaboration. It allows product teams, design and development teams to work seamlessly, maintaining consistent communication at every point during decision-making and collecting feedback phases of design projects, enhancing collaboration within product lifecycle management tools.
• Design versioning. Effective version control helps keep an up-to-date history of design changes that align with project goals more easily when necessary and makes for quicker decisions when necessary.
• Interactive prototyping. Product managers have the power to use interactive prototyping in order to visualize and test user experiences before implementation, helping ensure their designs align with customer needs and project objectives.
• Design handoff and documentation. An efficient tool that facilitates handoff between designers and developers by creating design requirements, exporting assets and providing extensive documentation in order to ease collaboration while avoiding development misunderstandings.

Pricing:

• Starter – Free Forever
• Figma Professional – $12 per editor/month billed annually
• Figma Organization – $45 per editor/month, annual billing only
• Enterprise – $75 per editor/month, annual billing only
  

Sketch

Sketch is the essential digital design platform and product management app, offering everything you need to develop, prototype and collaborate on product ideas. It’s a vector graphics editor tailored for user interface design on MacOS that integrates well with cloud product management tools. Sketch remains one of the premier choices among product managers looking for native Mac applications that create pixel-perfect designs quickly while remaining collaborative enough. Sketch is the best product management software that makes taking designs from conception through realization and throughout the product lifecycle management tools easier than ever!

Who uses Sketch?

Sketch serves primarily as a design product management tool and is utilized by numerous professionals involved in product development: product managers, designers and developers.

Best features:

• Vector graphics editing. Vector-based design capabilities provide product teams with the means to produce scalable graphics and user interfaces with precision efficiently.
• Artboard and page organization. They help efficiently organize, manage and oversee various design concepts, iteration cycles and screens.
• Integration with design libraries. Sketch supports creating and utilizing design libraries, making it easier for product managers to maintain an aesthetically consistent design language across product components. 
• Third-party plugin ecosystem. Product managers can make use of third-party plugins to streamline their design workflow, from exporting assets and document generation all the way up to designing documentation for specific projects. 

Pricing:

• Standard plan – $10 per editor/month, billed yearly
• Business plan – $20 per editor/month, billed yearly
• Mac-only license – $120/Per license

Human resources management software

BambooHR

BambooHR has quickly become one of the go-to HRM best product management software solutions due to its user-friendly interface and comprehensive HR management features, making it suitable for product managers. Notably, they may benefit from all the features like tracking team members’ time off requests, managing performance reviews and maintaining employee records; this ensures HR-related tasks can be efficiently completed while product management pros focus on product development or project management tasks.

Who uses BambooHR?

BambooHR’s product management tool centralizes employee, payroll, time and benefit data for data quality, security, privacy and synchronization so you can sleep well.

Best features:

• HR data & reporting solutions. They enable HR personnel to manage data more easily while offering powerful reporting and analytics tools to make use of employee records for effective HR practices. Plus, your data becomes part of its work for you!
• Performance and employee experience. People are your greatest assets; any effective organization must support their growth. BambooHR helps with employee satisfaction surveys, feedback collection and meeting performance targets.
• Payroll, time, benefits. BambooHR makes payroll simple for both employers and employees by centrally overseeing time, benefits and hours worked from one central platform. No more manual approval of data duplication: just precise payroll services at your fingertips!

Pricing:

• Advantage – Starting at $8.75/month
• Essentials – Starting at $5.25/month
  

Zenefits

Zenefits is an all-in-one HR platform that simplifies various HR tasks such as benefits administration, payroll processing and compliance monitoring for small to midsized enterprises. Over 11,000 small and midsized enterprises rely on Zenefits SaaS cloud HR product management software to empower employees, manage change effectively and comply with regulations; their People Platform delivers an intuitive yet comprehensive HR experience for employees.

Zenefits is one of the best product management tools that provides industry professionals a way to ensure their team members can access essential HR services and benefits, helping attract and retain top talent more easily while aligning with the company’s product roadmap within the product development process.

Who uses Zenefits?

Zenefits is the best product management software that caters to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) of all sizes, from 1-5 employees to 1000+.

Best features:

• Benefits administration. This feature helps attract and retain top talent, which is critical for product development projects to succeed.
• Time off tracking. Time off monitoring technology assists you in efficiently managing and approving employee leave requests more quickly.
• Compliance management. Zenefits can serve as an invaluable asset when it comes to human resource and employment law compliance management.
• Employee records management. You can utilize this data to better comprehend your team composition and resource allocation abilities for projects.

Pricing:

• Essentials  – $8/month per employee
• Growth  – $16/month per employee
• Zen  – $27/month per employee

Sales management software

Salesforce 

Salesforce provides product managers with an expansive set of product management tools for sales management, customer insights and data visualization through marketing automation, making it a crucial component of product planning. Through Salesforce, they can gain insight into user behavior while tracking team performance and staying laser-focused on their product strategy. The data-driven analysis also can inform product development decisions. With such flexibility and an expansive ecosystem of third-party integrations with other tools, Salesforce becomes an appealing option when aligning product strategies with sales efforts.

Who uses Salesforce?

Salesforce serves the needs of companies of any size or industry. Any product manager can use Salesforce’s best product management software features, aligning product development to market demands and customer needs.

Best features:

• Sales analytics. Sales analytics provide invaluable insight for improving product strategies, pinpointing opportunities for growth and optimizing resource allocation in product development projects.
• Integration capabilities. Salesforce offers extensive integration capabilities that enable users to connect their CRM data to other tools (like project management software or marketing automation tools) seamlessly.
• Lead and opportunity management. Product management professionals using Salesforce can stay abreast of potential sales opportunities and evaluate them before working closely with sales teams to convert leads into customers.

Pricing:

• Starter – $25/user/month
• Professional – $80/user/month
• Enterprise – $165/user/month
  

HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot Sales Hub is an easy and user-friendly CRM and sales automation platform created to streamline sales processes. Sales teams, product overseers and product marketing executives alike can use this product management platform for gathering customer feedback, tracking leads and opportunities and analyzing sales data, all with a minimal learning curve. Its integration with marketing tools ensures a smooth journey from lead generation through closing deals, keeping professionals apprised of user interaction and market trends while aligning with the company’s product roadmap.

Who uses HubSpot Sales Hub?

HubSpot Sales is the best product management software typically utilized by sales and marketing professionals, customer support teams, business leaders and product management professionals. 

Best features:

• Lead management & prospecting software. Utilize one centralized prospecting workspace to turn more leads into deals. 
• Call tracking software. It lets you prioritize each day’s sales calls directly from your browser while automatically tracking them within HubSpot.
• Sales analytics. Powerful analytics and reporting tools enable product managers to monitor sales performance, monitor customer engagement levels and assess sales strategies’ efficacy.

Pricing:

• Free plan and free trial available
• Starter – $45/month
• Professional – $450/month
• Enterprise – $1200/month

 Marketing management software

HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing is the best product management software and it offers an all-encompassing inbound marketing platform featuring an expansive set of the best product management tools. A product manager can leverage its features for developing and running marketing campaigns, automating lead nurturing processes, measuring campaign performance and seamlessly integrating marketing efforts with product releases and software development to align them with business objectives—plus, it helps understand user behavior to tailor product strategies accordingly!

Who uses HubSpot Marketing Hub?

HubSpot Marketing product management software provides marketing experts, sales teams and organizations of all sizes with the best tools for effective management of both their marketing initiatives and operations.

Best features:

• Campaign management. Product-related campaigns and marketing efforts are coordinated efficiently in accordance with product goals.
• Marketing automation allows businesses to automate communication between leads and customers to deliver relevant product details at every point in their customer journey.
• Lead tracking and scoring tools allow product managers to track engagement levels of leads and prospects over time to assess engagement rates accurately.
• Analytics and reporting. These features offer useful insight into the success of marketing campaigns.

Pricing:

• Free trial available
• Starter – starts at $18/month
• CRM Suite Starter – starts at $20/month
• Professional – Starts at $800/month
  

Marketo

Marketo by Adobe is a marketing automation platform that drives engagement and revenue growth. As a product manager, you can prioritize features, collaborate with marketing teams on lead management, work on campaign optimization, collect user feedback, take care of reporting/analytics capabilities that allow you to refine product messaging based on customer responses, as well as campaign analytics capabilities that deliver insights into campaign successes.

Who uses Marketo?

Perfect for B2B or B2C companies that want to increase customer satisfaction, customized and scalable segmentation, personalization and a strong connection with customers.

Best Features:

• Cross-channel marketing. With Marketo product management software, you can keep track of your consumers at every turn of their journey, including the strategic planning of your product roadmap.
• Sales and marketing partnership. Connecting the dots between marketing and sales is essential for providing customers with consistent, individualized service. 
• Content intelligence. Marketo Engage allows you to craft personalized experiences at scale by identifying and providing top performing content based on real-time behaviors, profiles augmented with online and offline data sources, AI algorithms, etc.

Pricing:

• Free trial available
• Contact Marketo to get info about pricing.

Bonus: Software powerpack for product managers