Launching a new product to the market can be a daunting task if you’re doing it for the first time. From the idea to implementation stage, to hiring your first designers and developers, it can be a long road till the day you get your first customer.
But that’s alright.
With the right tools in place, you can ensure that your idea to launch journey can be set in stone.
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The best product roadmap tools
1. Airfocus
Airfocus is a prioritisation and road mapping software for product managers, project managers, and marketing strategists. With seamless integration with 3rd party software, such as Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, Asana, and more, you can ensure that your road to launch is as seamless as possible.
Key features
- Customizable and powerful prioritization framework
- Prioritization chart
- Collaborative scoring on Priority Poker - get your team’s input on which tasks are the most important
- Multiple roadmap structures
Cons
- Does not have a dependency feature - so you can’t see which tasks will affect future tasks
- Onboarding experience a little vague
Pricing
Airfocus starts at $29 a month, giving you 1 user and all the essential features to get build your roadmap.
2. Trello
Trello is a staple in the project management world. Cementing itself as the software to use when managing workflows and simple projects, Trello is usually a favourite for project managers when they need to systemize their tasks.
Key features
- Card description
- Activity and comments
- Board members
- 3rd party integration
Cons
- Can be too simple for more complicated projects
Pricing
Trello is free to use, but if you want it’s more powerful features, it starts at $9.99 per user per month.
3. Wrike
Wrike is a robust project management tool, that gives teams full visibility over tasks and projects. Designed for larger projects or growing teams, Wrike is able to track multiple streams of projects and even categorise them under different folders, handy if you’re operating as an agency and working with multiple clients.
A big feature that Wrike has over other project management tools is their ability to track the time it takes for competing tasks. This will be extremely useful for managing the workload of employees and ensure that tasks aren’t running overtime and costing the company a premium to complete.
Key features
- Activity management
- Time tracking
- iPhone and Android apps
- Task approval features
Cons
- Can be too complicated for simple tasks or smaller projects
Pricing
Wrike is free to use, for up to 5 users a month, with limited features. For the complete access to tools, it starts at $9.80 a month.
4. Monday
Monday is another powerful project management software that teams can use to plan and execute projects. Its ease of use and flexibility means fast onboarding for your team and the ability to customize workflows your way.
Monday also has time tracking features, so you can ensure that your team stays productive, and you can measure your total costs per task.
On top of that Monday prides itself over its clean and easy to use UX, which always makes an overall better experience.
Key features
- Activity Logging.
- Customizable Fields.
- Due date tracking.
- Email updates.
- Execution board.
Cons
- The more useful features are only available in the higher plans, so SMEs may find it limiting.
Pricing
Monday starts at $11 per user for its basic plan, and goes to $14 a month per user if you want more access to features such as automations, integrations and more collaborative boards.
5. Aha!
What a funky name!
Aha is a tool made for road mapping and boasts of having over 250,000 users on its platform. You can create multiple road maps easily with its prebuilt templates or their drag and drop feature to build your own custom roadmap.
On top of that, it encourages you to set goals and initiatives to lock down targets in your roadmap.
Unlike some others on this list, Aha is a pure road map tool, rather then a complete project management software, so it includes unique features that other tools lack.
Key features
- Iteration planning
- Release management
- Task management
Cons
- Limited project management functionality
- No time tracking
Pricing
Aha offers a free 30 trial, and starts at $59 per user per month.
6. Productboard
Productboard is a tool that’s very similar to Aha. As a road map first software, Productboard allows you to understand what users need, prioritize what to build, and rally everyone around your roadmap.
Productboard includes product management features such as a user research and feedback inbox, prioritization and validation for feature ideas, roadmaps, a product portal, and Trello, Jira, Pivotal, and GitHub integrations are all included with productboard.
Key features
- Insights repository
- User insights
- Flexible product hierarchy
- Task management
Cons
- Not as robust on the project management side
Pricing
Productboard starts at $49 a month for it’s basic plan, but if you want customization and Jira integration features, it starts at $99 a month.
7. Productplan
Productplan is another roadmap tool, that lets you visualise your build journey. It’s main selling feature is it’s 20+ templates given to you to help you build your roadmap.
As a pure roadmap builder, product plan is the most affordable option compared to the last two products mentioned.
Key features
- Drag and drop features
- Multiple views
- 3rd party integrations
Cons
- Not as robust on the project management side
Pricing
Productplan starts at $39 a month per user, but if you want more integration features, you need a business plan, which starts at $69 a month.
8. Airtable
Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes.
Airtable boasts to have over 200,000 organizations to build applications on Airtable, and modernize their workflows and deliver better business outcomes. As a product on the other side of the spectrum, Airtable does not lean towards simplicity, but play to their strengths of high levels of customization.
Key features
- Customized Fields.
- Filter, Sort, and Rearrange Records.
- Customized Views.
- Link Records Between Tables.
- Relational Database Functionality.
- Data Synchronization.
Cons
- Not for less technical users
- High learning curve
Pricing
Airtable is free to start, but if you want more users or more space to store your data, its Plus plan starts at $10 a month per user.
What makes a good product roadmap tool?
To see what makes a good product roadmap tool, we must first see what sort projects or products you’re trying to build. If you’re creating something as just a hobby and you want to have something more visual to map out what you need to undertake to start building, then a tool such as Trello is a good start for you.
If you’re running this as a business with a team behind the project, then a product such as Monday or Wrike is great, especially if you also want the product management tools built into the same platform too.
If you simply want a product roadmap tool, without the extra project management features, then Airfocus is a good choice for you, with unique roadmapping and planing features made specific for project managers.
Final Thoughts
To wrap it up, you have plenty of options to go with.
If you’re managing a team, then my suggestion is to go with a platform such as Monday, that has the project management functions built in. This will save you time in the future when you start assigning the individual tasks and track their performance.
If not, then almost all the applications mentioned here will do what you need.