Finding the right product management tool for Product Managers (PMs) can be overwhelming.
At first glance, many tools promise to help PMs organize roadmaps and manage tasks. However, real product success, especially as organizations have more than a few PMs, demands far more.
To truly empower PMs, you need more than a PM task/backlog tracker or a roadmap visualizer. You need a full environment that supports strategic alignment, cross PDLC orchestration, and cross-team collaboration.
That’s exactly what Dragonboat is built for.
In this guide, we’ll break down how to evaluate product management tools — and why enabling PMs requires thinking bigger than just roadmaps.
What Makes a Great Product Management Tool?
Product Managers are the most collaborative role in a company. Beyond working with engineers or small PED (Product, Engineering, Design) pods, they must collaborate with executives, other PMs, revenue and go-to-market teams, legal, compliance, finance, and other operational functions.
A great product management tool must go far beyond managing inbound requests or product backlogs (or “product to-do lists”). It should enable PMs to:
- Align strategic goals with execution
- Prioritize confidently based on business impact and customer insights
- Coordinate across teams without heavy administrative overhead
- Collaborate seamlessly with business, engineering, and GTM teams
- Adapt to internal and external changes quickly
Ultimately, the best tools empower PMs to deliver outcomes, not just feature outputs.
Check out how Talogy shifted its PM organization from requirements production to customer impact.
Why Product Managers Need More Than a ‘PM-Only’ Tool
Many teams start with tools like Productboard, Aha!, or Jira Product Discovery — and they work well for product managers to manage their work or backlog in their own realm. But in larger organizations, where most of the product roadmap is shaped by a wider context, ‘PM-only’ tools fall short. Here’s why:
- Unclear strategic prioritization: Without leadership alignment, PMs struggle to prioritize effectively, and are considered as “not having their act together”.
- Cross-team coordination overhead: Juggling dependencies across multiple teams becomes time-consuming, and product managers get pulled into project manager roles because they have no other alternatives.
- Unable to communicate the “Why”: PMs are forced to prioritize based on incomplete info. Decisions often come down to “whoever shouts the loudest,” instead of real data or goals.
- Fragmented visibility: Teams operate in silos without a unified view of goals, progress, and tradeoffs. This leads to everyone having a different context and understanding, a primary reason for distrust.
The reality: PM success requires both core PM skills and the operating environment they’re in, just like a plant needs both care and the right garden to thrive.
PMs need a tool that supports the full product operating model, not just feature-driven inbound PM workflow management tools.
Check out 6 signs you’ve outgrown your basic product management tool.
Dragonboat: The Product Management Solution Built for Full PM Success
At Dragonboat, we share the same belief as every great product organization: Product Manager success is paramount. That’s why Dragonboat is designed to empower PMs — and enable the leadership and operational environment they need to thrive.
Dragonboat offers 5 modular products on an AI-powered strategic portfolio management platform:
- Strategic Roadmap
- Portfolio Intake
- Portfolio Visibility
- Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) Management
- Capacity Planning
Even if you are purely evaluating from a PM perspective, Dragonboat consistently outperforms standalone PM tools in Strategic Roadmapping and Intake Management — giving PMs exactly what they need to prioritize, plan, align, and deliver with confidence.
Dragonboat Empowers the Full Product Organization
Dragonboat isn’t “just for Product Ops”. It’s a platform for the entire product organization:
| Role | How Dragonboat Supports |
| Product Managers | Prioritize, align, and deliver based on strategy and customer insights |
| Product Leaders | Set and communicate clear strategic goals backed with resource allocation |
| Product Ops | Orchestrate execution and dependency across teams and tools throughout PDLC |
| Cross-Functional Teams | Intake management, visibility, and collaboration |
By connecting these roles, Dragonboat removes friction and empowers PMs to focus on building great products – not managing chaos.
Learn more about Dragonboat’s Suite of AI-Powered Products.
How to Evaluate Product Management Tools for Your Team’s Needs
When choosing the right product management tool, ask yourself:
- Does it empower PMs beyond their own PM task management?
- Does it enable leadership alignment and strategic prioritization?
- Does it provide visibility into the “why, where, who, when” of initiatives?
- Can it orchestrate execution across cross-functional teams?
- Is it flexible and scalable for inevitable org, process, and strategy changes?
- Does it reduce coordination overhead for PMs?
A standalone roadmap tool might meet surface-level needs, but actual PM success requires a platform that powers the entire product operating model the PMs function in.
Set Your Product Managers (and Teams) Up for Long-Term Success
Giving PMs a ‘PM-only’ tool is like giving engineers just a code editor, without testing, deployment, or collaboration tools. It’s not enough. To build successful products, Product Managers need a full environment that supports strategy, insights, roadmapping, execution, and outcomes.
Dragonboat is the only platform designed to empower PMs, Product Leaders, and Product Ops together, enabling your product teams to drive business outcomes, not just tasks.
Ready to go beyond roadmaps?
Talk to one of our product experts to see how Dragonboat can support you and your teams in building successful products that drive real business outcomes.
FAQ: Choosing a Product Management Tool
Q: What Is the Best Product Management Tool for Bigger Product Teams?
A: The best tools go beyond roadmaps — they connect strategy, execution, and collaboration. Dragonboat empowers PMs, leaders, and ops teams together to drive real outcomes.
Q: How Do I Evaluate a Product Management Tool?
A: Look for tools that enable strategic alignment, cross-team orchestration, and PM empowerment, not just PM task/ backlog management. Dragonboat checks all these boxes.
Q: Is Dragonboat Only for Product Operations?
A: No. Dragonboat is a modular platform for PMs, Product Leaders, and Product Ops — because PMs can’t succeed in isolation.
Q: Can Dragonboat Replace Standalone PM Tools Like Aha! Or Productboard?
A: Yes. Dragonboat’s Strategic Roadmapping and Portfolio Intake solutions are consistently rated best-in-class, rivaling or outperforming standalone PM tools.
