Project Management Tools

Best for: Software teams running agile sprints with engineering

Jira is the de facto standard project and issue tracking platform for software product teams, used to manage backlogs, sprints, epics, and releases in agile workflows. Product managers use Jira to write and prioritise user stories, manage sprint capacity, and track progress through kanban and scrum boards. Its roadmap view provides a timeline-based overview of epic delivery, while its JQL query language enables sophisticated filtering and reporting. Jira's ecosystem of 3,000+ integrations — including Confluence, Slack, GitHub, and Figma — makes it the operational hub for most engineering organisations.

Best for: Small teams and non-engineering workflows needing simple task management

Trello is an intuitive kanban board tool that makes it easy to visualise and manage work across lists representing stages of a workflow. For product managers, Trello is commonly used for lightweight feature tracking, content pipelines, and launch checklists where the overhead of Jira would be disproportionate. Its power-ups extend the core board with calendar views, voting, automations, and integrations with Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub. Trello's simplicity and free tier make it the go-to starting point for small teams and non-engineering workflows.

Best for: Cross-functional teams tracking work across multiple departments

Asana is a work management platform used by cross-functional product teams to coordinate tasks, projects, and dependencies across design, engineering, marketing, and operations. Its multiple views — list, board, timeline (Gantt), and calendar — give product managers flexibility to manage delivery plans at different levels of granularity. Asana's Goals feature links project milestones to company OKRs, enabling traceability from team output to strategic outcomes. Automations, templates, and its Portfolios view for tracking multiple projects simultaneously make Asana particularly strong for larger product organisations.

Best for: Teams wanting to consolidate tasks, docs, and chat into one tool

Basecamp is an opinionated all-in-one project management and team communication tool that deliberately bundles to-do lists, message boards, file storage, schedules, and group chat into a single flat-rate product. Its approach of reducing tool sprawl appeals to product teams tired of stitching together separate apps for tasks, docs, and chat. Basecamp's six-week cycle philosophy — popularised in the Shape Up methodology — has influenced how many product teams think about planning and scope management. The flat monthly fee regardless of team size makes it cost-predictable for growing organisations.

Best for: Enterprise teams needing spreadsheet familiarity with PM structure

Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-style project management platform that bridges the gap between Excel-based planning and dedicated PM tools. Its familiar grid interface makes it accessible to stakeholders who are uncomfortable with tools like Jira, while its Gantt charts, critical path analysis, automations, and executive dashboards provide the structure and reporting that enterprise organisations require. Product managers use Smartsheet for capacity planning, launch trackers, and cross-team dependency mapping where stakeholders from finance, legal, and operations also need to contribute.

Best for: Early-stage teams needing flexible, zero-cost task and data management

Google Sheets is a free, cloud-based spreadsheet tool that product managers use as a lightweight alternative to dedicated PM software for backlog tracking, OKR templates, prioritisation matrices, and launch checklists. Its real-time collaboration, comment threads, and formula support make it surprisingly capable for small to medium-sized teams. Sheets' integration with Google Forms (for data collection), Google Data Studio (for visualisation), and Apps Script (for automations) extends its utility well beyond a simple grid. For early-stage products with limited tooling budgets, Sheets is often the first and most flexible PM tool.