10 Best Product Portfolio Manager List
Without the right product portfolio management tool, a product manager may face several challenges that can hinder effective decision-making and overall portfolio optimization.
One major issue is the lack of centralized visibility and transparency across the entire product portfolio. You may also struggle to access real-time information on the status, performance, and resource allocation of each product or project. This lack of visibility makes it difficult to prioritize initiatives, identify underperforming products, or allocate resources efficiently, leading to potential missed opportunities and increased risk of project failure – all of which can be solved with product portfolio management software.
What Are Product Portfolio Management Tools?
Product portfolio management tools are software that lets you easily glance across all the products or services you and your team offer in order to better manage, organize, and analyze them.
Product portfolio management software may track product growth prospects and operational risk. This helps you decide which products to grow and which to eliminate.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Product Portfolio Planning Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the product portfolio management tools that are featured on this top 10 list.
Craft.io
Best end-to-end product portfolio management tool for digital product managers
Craft.io is an end-to-end product portfolio management solution with best practices built into the platform. Digital product managers at enterprise organizations can use it to effectively manage their product portfolios and keep alignment with company-level objectives.
Executives can leverage a high-level view of all the organizational product data in one place—every initiative, every line of business, and every product group. It allows them to visualize, track, edit, and manage items–including dependencies–across teams and initiatives. Product executives gain visibility and insight into how work is completed to meet business objectives across different teams and roll up selected workspaces with respective products and epics for a bird’s eye view of different work streams.
This big-picture awareness facilitates informed decisions with a holistic view of all products and business objectives together in one space and allows executives to share the company’s strategic plans and progress at the portfolio level and evaluate efforts. And by aggregating product data across your portfolio, you can get macro and micro views of how everything is performing.
Craft.io integrates with Jira, Azure DevOps, GitLab, GitHub, Targetprocess, Figma, Adobe XD, Okta, Google Workspace, Active Directory, SAML, Lucidchart, Confluence, Miro, and PingIdentity. You can also connect to over 1,000 additional applications via a paid account with Zapier.
airfocus
Best for product roadmapping with built-in prioritization
Airfocus is a product portfolio management and roadmapping software that teams can use to plan, prioritize, and manage their product backlog. It allows for objective and unbiased roadmap planning, so your product team can focus on driving impact. This is largely because of its unique built-in scoring system that helps you prioritize new product features. You can use factors like overall feature value, effort required to build, and potential risk to rank items in your backlog.
Product managers can build their roadmap with the software with a focus on either outcomes or objectives. It provides a public-facing portal where you can send out announcements to your customer base and gather user feedback and insights. You can then use that customer feedback to inform your roadmap and product strategy.
The software integrates with other SaaS tools including Asana, Github, Intercom, Jira, Salesforce, Shortcut, Slack, Trello, Webhooks, and others. You can also connect a Zapier account to build additional integrations. Pricing starts from $23/user/month, and a 14-day free trial is available.
ProductPlan
Best for visualizing and sharing product milestones
ProductPlan was established in 2013 and has since been used to build hundreds and thousands of roadmaps and to plan more than 8 million initiatives. Global customers range from growing teams to Fortune 100 companies.
ProductPlan lets you collaborate with your team on live roadmaps using their simple drag and drop editor. Customize the way you view your timelines, lists, tables, and your portfolio layouts as well. ProductPlan makes it easy for your stakeholders to view your data without having to pay for using the tool and lets you send them links to editable roadmaps.
ProductPlan integrates with tools such as Confluence, Jira Software, Pivotal Tracker, Slack, Trello, Zapier, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, and Azure DevOps. Connect with more tools through the ProductPlan API.
ProductPlan costs from $49/user/month and offers a free 14-day trial.
Productboard
Best for product evaluation and flexible hierarchies
Productboard is a product management platform for companies that specialize in product, design, marketing, and engineering. It launched in 2014 and has since been topping prestigious lists and is backed by top VC (venture capital) firms.
Productboard helps users with roadmaps, prioritization, insights, and engagement. Through the platform, you can have the benefits of centralized feedback where you can easily share data and roadmaps so you can keep the whole organization aligned.
Productboard integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Zendesk, Intercom, Zapier, Chrome Extension, InSided, Gong, FullStory, Gainsight, Grain, and many more tools. Check their website out for the full list of integrations.
Productboard costs from $20/user/month and offers a free trial. Customized pricing for bigger organizations with more specific needs are also available upon request.
Propel
Best for product commercialization that requires ongoing customer feedback
Propel is a product lifecycle management (PLM) software that promises its users faster time to market. Propel has found success in the medical, tech, consumer goods, and industrial products industries and also offers solutions for companies that focus on engineering, operations and supply chain, quality management, sales and marketing, as well as information technology.
Propel was built on the Salesforce platform making it one of the best solutions for managing products. Its features allow users to not only manage project tasks but also communicate with everyone involved in the supply chain as well as the customers.
Propel is not limited for use by engineers but is also made for use by all employees and customers. Propel integrates with the following ERP systems: Netsuite, MS Dynamics, SAP, Oracle EBS, Sage, Rootstock Software, QAD, Infor, and Epicor Kinetic ERP.
Propel offers pricing details upon request.
Planview Clarizen
Best for rapidly growing and complex enterprise product portfolio management
Planview is a platform for product portfolio management that gives leadership data-driven insights on where to invest in new products and innovations. Designed to drive collaboration, the platform provides teams with a simple solution for capturing and sharing crucial data at every stage of product development, from ideation to in-market analysis.
The platform has an open forum for collecting ideas both internally and externally that allows stakeholders to score and prioritize the most promising concepts quickly. Customizable dashboards are a central hub for data collection, resource capacity and scenario planning, and strategic road mapping.
Support for various product development methods allows cross-functional teams to work in their preferred environments while communicating complex issues with the push of a button. Integration with gated project management software keeps everyone aligned on priorities, allowing organizations to accelerate new product development processes and speed the best products to market with greater efficiency.
Aha
Best for product roadmapping
Aha! is a roadmap software that’s trusted by more than 5,000 companies worldwide to cater to their needs in product management, IT, project management, services, business operations, and marketing. Aha! also provides solutions in the areas of production innovation, customer empathy, and employee engagement.
What makes Aha! suitable for product portfolio management are its features that let you create custom workflows, allocate resources and budgets, track dependencies with Gantt charts, and visualize progress. Built-in templates make it easy for anyone to get started and keep going without the hassle of figuring the software out first.
Aha! integrates with 30 tools such as Jira, Slack, Azure, DevOps, Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Zendesk.
Aha! costs from $59/user/month and offers a free 30-day trial. Aha! is also available for free for startups that are less than 18 months old and have less than 10 employees.
ProdPad
Best for intensive or complex product strategies
ProdPad is a product management software made by product people, for product people. It launched in 2012 and is fully customer-funded. It was built specifically for large organizations with thousands of team members. ProdPad is a robust tool made for complex processes and extra-large organizations.
ProdPad specializes in helping you build products that matter to your customers. With ProdPad’s features, you won’t be spending time scraping projects and redoing a ton of work. Get feedback from your customers, create and adjust roadmaps, and launch your products effectively all through ProdPad.
ProdPad integrates with Azure DevOps, GitHub, Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Rally, TFS, Trello, Chrome Extension, Confluence, Doorbell.io, Slack, Uservoice, Email Dropbox, Slack, Active Directory Federated Service, Google Apps, and SAML Single Sign-On. More integrations with ProdPad are available through API and Custom WebHooks, as well as Zapier.
ProdPad costs from $149 for up to 3 users and offers a free trial.
Planview Enterprise One
Best for products with lean and/or Agile workflows
Planview is a work and portfolio management tool that has been in the industry for over 30 years with over 2.4 million users and multiple awards. Planview is also known as an authority in publishing studies about the world of work.
Planview is best for teams that work in lean or agile environments. Planview gives you project planning visibility, productivity and efficiency tracking, bug tracking, as well as the ability to manage backlogs. You can also analyze your team capacity and identify constraints across portfolios and hybrid workflows allowing you to more accurately evaluate and re-align your team, resources, and budget.
Planview integrates with Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive, DocuSign, Box, Microsoft SharePoint, Zoom, Outlook, Slack, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power BI, and Google Workspace. More integrations are available using a paid Zapier plan.
Planview offers pricing details upon request and offers a free, fully-functional 30-day trial.
Planisware
Best for easy scaling between 5 and 30,000 users
Planisware has a track record of 26 years and has been recognized as a market leader in project portfolio management for its scalability and flexibility. Planisware is such an advanced tool that it’s capable of providing solutions to companies in very specific industries such as aerospace and defense, automotive, bank and insurance, chemical, energy, fast-moving goods. high tech, and life sciences.
Planisware has since evolved and grown with the companies that patronize them, proving their expertise in project portfolio management. Planisware is a tool for agile teams that need help with scaling their operations, improving business outcomes, and reducing time to market among other things.
Planisware integrates with SAP Applications, Content/Document Management Systems (CMS), DevOps and Agile tools, Oracle, Primavera, Microsoft 360, Google Suite, and other integration and API points as well.
Planisware offers pricing details upon request.
The Best Product Portfolio Planning Software Comparison Chart
Here is a table where you can compare the tools we just covered in the overviews.
Tool | Trial Info | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Craft.io Best end-to-end product portfolio management tool for digital product managers | 14-day free trial available | From $24/editor/month | Website |
2 | airfocus Best for product roadmapping with built-in prioritization | 14-day free trial | From $83 /editor/month | Website |
3 | ProductPlan Best for visualizing and sharing product milestones | 14-day free trial | From $49/user/month | Website |
4 | Productboard Best for product evaluation and flexible hierarchies | 15-day free trial | From $25/user/month | Website |
5 | Propel Best for product commercialization that requires ongoing customer feedback | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
6 | Planview Clarizen Best for rapidly growing and complex enterprise product portfolio management | Free trial + free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
7 | Aha Best for product roadmapping | 30-day free trial | From $59/user/month | Website |
8 | ProdPad Best for intensive or complex product strategies | 7-30 day free trial | From $25/user/month | Website |
9 | Planview Enterprise One Best for products with lean and/or Agile workflows | 30-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Website |
10 | Planisware Best for easy scaling between 5 and 30,000 users | Not available | Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for handy product portfolio management tools, check these out.
- Oracle PLM Cloud - Best for expansive, enterprise-level portfolio management
- Workfront - Best for complex product development lifecycles
- PTC Windchill - Good for standardized, out-of-the-box functionality across a comprehensive portfolio of core PDM to advanced PLM solutions.
- Accelo - An all-in-one, complete service operations automation solution with business, service, and client operations in one cloud-based app.
- Saviom - Good for raising flags with early warning systems in order to resolve product progress bottlenecks quickly.
- Mavenlink - Good for modern collaboration tools centered around increased visibility, greater control, and richer, more actionable data.
- Scoro - Good for quickly compiling reports on your products, profitability, team utilization, based on real-time data.
- Sciforma - Good for adapting to your current product portfolio maturity and supporting team members in any growth efforts.
- Asana - Popular SaaS that’s good for laying out your team’s goals, plans, and responsibilities in one shared space with flexibility and aesthetics.
- Bubble - Good for incorporating Agile, Waterfall, and other processes to improve decision-making across product lifecycles.
- Pie - Good for switching between executing a super complex project using a repeatable recipe to a simple one-time process for planning.
- Bamboo Rose - Good for improving product quality, branded packaging, and color consistency with digital artwork, component, material, and color libraries.
- Clarizen - Enterprise project management with PPM tools for risk management and capacity planning.
How I Picked the Best Product Portfolio Management Tools
First, I researched and selected the most popular product management tools in the market. Then, I weighed them against each other and the set of features that a portfolio solution should have. Finally, I narrowed down the list to the ones with the most helpful features and evaluated them using the criteria below:
User Interface (UI)
A good user interface in product portfolio management software is essential for usability, efficiency, and effective decision-making. It contributes to the overall success of portfolio management by improving user adoption, facilitating data analysis, supporting collaboration, and providing a platform that aligns with the diverse needs of product managers and other stakeholders.
Usability
I look at how easy it is to master the tool. Without the right support, the user experience may be affected. Therefore, I look for knowledge bases, training videos, articles, and anything that provides information on how to use the tool.
Integrations
Is it easy to connect with other tools (Excel, Google Workspace, cloud storage, MS Project)? Any pre-built integrations? Can notifications be connected to Slack, email, or other spaces?
Pricing
How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent and flexible? Do they have different pricing for cloud-based or on premise solutions?
Product Portfolio Management FAQs
Find answers to common questions other people ask about this topic.
What is product portfolio management?
What's the difference between product management software vs project management software?
Why use product portfolio management software?
What key features are in product portfolio management software?
Which teams use product portfolio management software?
What's Next?
The unfortunate truth is that 95% of new products will fail. This is why business-savvy companies build and maintain a portfolio of different products, from sure-things to passion projects, daring experiments to sensical spinoffs and expansions.
The product portfolio management tools on this list will give your product a fighting chance to defy the statistics.
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