Tool Kit: My Go To Software & Tools for Project Managers
Overview
This is an ever evolving list a “living” blog of sorts. To start, I need to add a disclaimer that a lot of software comes down to preference of team or company. While I believe there are some categories with clear “bests,” you’ll find that in many areas there are a lot of great comparable options. Things that could influence you decision beyond features are price, team size, client limitations etc. Now let’s jump into my favs!
For Building Project Plans
When it comes to project plans, its all about the level of complexity and dependencies between teams. For low dependency overlap and general tasks for teams, a simple tracker or Project Plan built in Google Sheets or Excel will do if you are looking to save costs. I love Google sheets for the quick customization capabilities and how granular you can make view. (PS - Don’t start from scratch. I’ve already built a thousand GSheet Project Plans and have saved all the templates here for you. However, when you start to add in more dependency & team item tracking between clients and your internal teams, you might want something more robust.
SmartSheet - (Cheaper - Great dependency management) No frills project planning / gantt chart similar to Microsoft project, but in the cloud. Easy to share with clients. However, might not be intuitive for clients to update from their side unless they have dedicated Project Management.
Monday.com Gantt, Action Items, Dependency tracking across teams, and a very pretty UI. They say “Easily manage multiple projects from one place. Create custom dashboards, assign teammates, and understand bottlenecks and risks, so you can keep moving forward.” Honestly I do enjoy this tool, but you need the budget to commit because adding several team seats can get up there in price. Its ~$20 per seat per month as you get into their tools that offer dependency management.
Other Notes - Both Notion & Airtable have “Gantt” Project Plan capability but the views are view high level and its hard to view things by the day/week in a visual format unless you are using a calendar view. Otherwise you’ll be reviewing in a task list, which is fine for PMs but it doesnt always resonate well for people who need to visualize the remaining amount of work.
For Documentation, Team Mission Controls, To Dos Etc.
Notion: I Notion for all things documentation and “To Do” lists for work and personal. Seriously, from building mission controls for my team to goal setting, managing my own business or working with my childcare, Notion is my go to. I love Notion because it acts as a robust knowledge management tool which is filled with customizable databases and building blocks. It’s still growing its PM and project tool features so stay tuned for more there. Notion also has incredible AI built in, so you can run AI on all of your content without ever leaving the tool. -> Check it out here
Confluence (Part of the Atlassian Suite with Jira) Is also great for Wiki type documentation as it relates to Engineering. It allows you to easily link to the Jira tickets in discussion, and has a robust template library. I have found that while Engineers love Confluence, Designers can be more resistant to adoption so be sure to talk to your team about preferences.
Airtable: Airtable basically allows you to have super charged spreadsheets.
For Workshops & Virtual Whiteboard Collaboration
Miro, Figjam (Part of Figma) & Lucid Charts - Are all comparable collaboration tools for “virtual whiteboards”
I like Figjam best for Collaborative Workshops with clients (They have a great timer feature for brainstorming activities, as well as a solid music selection!)
I like Miro for its huge template library. They are incredible ideas in there you may not have even thought of to help your team!
I like Lucid Charts best for building workflows. The UI is super easy to use for this.
For Design & Development
Figma.com: What once was Sketch or Invision has all been replaced (or at least in my opinion definitely can be replaced if you are still using them) Figma is arguably the last collaborative design tool you’ll ever need. Great for teams of designers or clients. Integrations and plug-ins work like a breeze. The community is amazing and you’ll never need to take notes on designs again (thank you collaborative commenting!)
Atlassian Suite (Jira and Confluence) I prefer Atlassian to Rally, but Rally is also, occasionally used when Jira is not an option.
Other sites & software I’m a big fan of outside of Project Management
Great Chrome Extensions
Momentum Dash: Momentum Dash is a great Chrome extension for daily affirmations, quotes and more.(FREE TOOL)
Loom: The easiest way I have found to record & send videos and get feedback. Great for training
Grammerly
Rakuten: The best cash back chrome extension for earning cash back.
For Content Creators
Beacons.ai: My favorite link in Bio tool. Why? It has the most customization capabilities I’ve found in a FREE tool. They have paid versions too but their free version has so much to offer.
Misc.
10 Minute Mail: Creates a randomly generated temporary email and inbox so that you don’t have to give your email when you want to have something sent your way.
