ProdPad

What is ProdPad

ProdPad is a product management software created to help product teams manage their entire workflow. Its main purpose is to connect product strategy with day-to-day tasks. The tool helps you capture ideas, collect customer feedback, and build outcome-focused roadmaps. It was founded by Janna Bastow and Simon Cast and is developed by CreateShift Limited, a company based in the United Kingdom. ProdPad is designed to move teams away from simple feature lists and towards building products based on clear objectives and customer needs.

ProdPad Features

• Outcome-Based Roadmaps: Create flexible roadmaps that show the problems you are solving and the goals you are aiming for, not just a list of features and dates. This helps align everyone on the why behind the work.
• Idea Management: A central place to store all product ideas from your team and stakeholders. You can prioritize them using an impact/effort chart and link them to strategic goals.
• Customer Feedback Portal: Collect feedback directly from customers through a dedicated portal. Link this feedback to specific ideas to provide evidence for your product decisions.
• AI CoPilot: Use artificial intelligence to help with tasks like summarizing feedback, writing product specs, and organizing ideas. This saves time on administrative work.
• OKR Management: Set and track Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) directly within the platform. Connect your roadmap initiatives to these OKRs to show how your work contributes to company goals.
• Integrations: Connect ProdPad with many popular tools for development, communication, and customer support to create a smooth workflow across different departments.

ProdPad Pricing Plans

ProdPad offers several pricing plans based on modules. You can choose plans for Roadmaps, Ideas, and Feedback separately or as a bundle. Each module has different tiers, such as Essential, Advanced, and Performance. The tiers are designed for different team sizes and needs. The Essential plan is good for small teams starting out. The Advanced plan offers more integrations and features for growing companies. The Performance plan provides advanced security and support for large enterprises.

ProdPad Free Plan

ProdPad does not have a permanent free plan. However, it offers a free trial for new users. The trial typically lasts for 7 or 30 days and gives you full access to all the features of a premium plan. This allows you to test the software completely before deciding to purchase a subscription.

How to use ProdPad

1. Start by signing up for a free trial on the ProdPad website.
2. Set up your first product in the dashboard. You can add a name, vision, and business objectives.
3. Begin adding ideas to your product backlog. You can add details, mockups, and business cases for each idea.
4. Use the Customer Feedback portal to start collecting insights from your users. Connect this feedback to your ideas.
5. Create your first roadmap. Add roadmap cards representing problems to solve or outcomes to achieve, and organize them into columns like Current, Near Term, and Future.
6. Prioritize your ideas using the impact vs. effort chart to decide what to work on next.
7. Integrate ProdPad with your other tools, like Jira, to push prioritized ideas to your development team.
8. Share different versions of your roadmap with stakeholders to keep them informed.

Pros and Cons of ProdPad

• Pros:
  • Strong focus on strategy and outcome-based planning.
  • Excellent for separating ideas and feedback from the actual roadmap.
  • Helps build a strong case for product decisions with linked feedback.
  • Flexible and adaptable to lean and agile product management methods.
• Cons:
  • The concept of an outcome-based roadmap can be difficult for teams used to traditional timeline roadmaps.
  • The user interface can feel complex at first.
  • Pricing can become expensive, especially for large teams needing multiple modules.

ProdPad integrations

ProdPad connects with many tools to support your workflow. You can set up integrations in the account settings.

• Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub, Trello integration: Push prioritized ideas from ProdPad into your development team's backlog for implementation.
• Slack, Microsoft Teams integration: Receive notifications about new ideas, feedback, and comments directly in your team's chat channels.
• Salesforce, Intercom integration: Pull customer feedback and requests from your CRM and support tools directly into ProdPad.
• Zapier integration: Connect ProdPad to hundreds of other applications to automate custom workflows.

ProdPad Alternatives

• Aha!: A very comprehensive tool that includes roadmapping, idea management, and also features for marketing and project planning. It is more structured than ProdPad.
• Productboard: Focuses heavily on consolidating user research and feedback to help teams decide what to build next. It has a very visual interface for prioritization.
• Jira Product Discovery: A good alternative for teams already using the Atlassian suite. It is tightly integrated with Jira and Confluence, making it easy to connect discovery work with development.
• Craft.io: An all-in-one product management platform that offers strategic roadmapping, prioritization frameworks, and capacity planning.

ProdPad API

Yes, ProdPad provides a RESTful API for developers. This allows you to build custom integrations or pull data from your ProdPad account into other systems. To get an API key, you need to be an admin on your account. You can generate a key from the API Keys section in your Account Settings.

Here is an example using cURL to get a list of your products:

curl -i -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" https://api.prodpad.com/v1/products

You can find more details on their developer documentation page.

ProdPad Affiliate program

ProdPad does not have a public, self-service affiliate program. They do have a Partner Program for consultants, agencies, and technology companies who want to work with them. If you are interested in becoming a partner, it is best to contact their sales or support team directly through their website to discuss potential opportunities.