Have you ever wondered how companies like Amazon and Google hook their customers and earn their unwavering loyalties?
The answer lies in Product Experience Management (PXM).
It is a holistic approach to managing the product experience across the entire customer journey – from discovery to post-purchase.
But how do you create a great product experience?
How do you know what users want?
And how do you track the success of your product over time?
The answer is – you need a product experience management software system.
After spending hours researching, testing various tools, and struggling with subpar software – I’ve finally found the best of the lot.
I’ll discuss and compare the best tools in this blog. Here’s your first glance at them –
Software Name | Best For | Pricing Starts From |
---|---|---|
Best Product Experience Feedback Software |
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Qualaroo | Contextual Surveys & Sentiment Analysis | $69/month |
Qualtrics | Audience & Panel Management | Custom Pricing |
Zonka Feedback | Multi-Channel Feedback | $49/month |
Best Product Roadmap Tools |
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Productboard | Data-Driven Feature Prioritization | $20/maker/month |
Gainsight | Native Omni-Channel Engagement | Custom Pricing |
Jira Software | Software Project Management | $7.75/user/month
|
Best Product Analytics Tools |
||
Pendo | Sentiment Analysis | $7000/year |
Quantum Metric | Contextual Web Analytics | Custom Pricing |
UXCam | Mobile App Analytics | Custom Pricing |
List of the Top 9 Product Experience Management Software
This list of the nine best product experience software tools is based on my honest opinions and experience. I have also gathered as much information as I can from outside sources, such as industry experts, peers, software review sites, and so on.
Some of these might feel like subjective opinions – like UI simplicity, learning curves, etc. However, the rest of the comparison will ensure you get to make an informed decision by the end.
Also, I have categorized these tools into subsections for better understanding.
Best Product Experience Feedback Software
A product UX feedback software collects valuable insights from customers to analyze them and make data-driven decisions for product improvements. Such software can help you identify customer pain points and create a more engaging product experience for them.
1. Qualaroo – Best for Contextual Surveys & Sentiment Analysis
I came across Qualaroo a few months ago based on a recommendation I received from an industry expert.
Initial impressions – it’s a decent tool to capture user feedback in real time through contextual surveys. So, what’s the deal?
Well, I’m no longer bombarding users with generic feedback forms. With Qualaroo, I can ask targeted questions at key moments in the customer journey – a clever move that gets me the insights I want without being annoying. Thumbs up for that!
The next commendable feature is AI-powered sentiment analysis. It’s pretty fascinating how the software analyzes customer responses to detect emotions in the written feedback. It automatically identifies the sentiment behind user feedback, whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral.
For example, I used it to see how users feel about my product launch and their overall experience. This information was vital to understand what features resonate with the audience and what needs to be improved.
What you’ll like:
- Skip and branching logic to target specific users with the right questions to gather relevant and actionable feedback
- Customizable surveys with professionally designed templates to ask the right questions to users
- Track a variety of metrics like NPS, CSAT, CES, and more
- Automatically calculates NPS and displays the score on the dashboard
- Allows you to run exit surveys to uncover insights into why potential buyers aren’t converting
What you may not like:
- The free trial period can be limited to explore the tons of features the software offers
- The software does not have options to change between dark and light modes
Pricing: Starts at $69/month. A 15-day free trial is available.
2. Qualtrics – Best for Audience & Panel Management
Qualtrics is a popular product experience management platform. I’ve heard a lot of buzz about its audience and panel management features.
It allows you to create audience panels or integrate with existing ones. This gives you the power to collect feedback from the right people at the right time. Sounds confusing?
Here’s an example: I recently used it to get feedback on a new product feature we were developing. I created a panel of users who had expressed interest in this feature and sent them a survey to get their input. The feedback my team received was valuable and helped us refine the feature before we launched it.
By creating diverse and highly responsive research panels, you can capture insights from unique voices that haven’t traditionally been easy to access at all – let alone in a consistent and scalable manner.
What you’ll like:
- A powerful survey engine to create surveys of all types, including surveys, polls, NPS, etc.
- A variety of dashboards that make it easy to analyze feedback data and identify actionable insights
- Collaboration tools to easily share feedback data and insights with others
- Integrates with a variety of other tools, such as CRM systems, project management tools, analytics tools, etc.
- The ability to launch concept tests quickly using survey templates and accessing real-time results through pre-configured data analysis
What you may not like:
- Qualtrics’ pricing structure is not transparent at first glance, requiring you to connect with the company for a quote
- The customization options for the appearance of surveys in Qualtrics can be restrictive
Pricing: Custom pricing.
3. Zonka Feedback – Best for Multi-Channel Feedback
Zonka Feedback lets you gain customer experience insights from customers across multiple channels, including website, SMS, email, and in-app surveys.
The free plan doesn’t include all the channels; you need the paid ones for that.
Luckily, my product manager friend, working at a hardware company, had one. On request, she showed me how their company used the tool to collect customer feedback –
Her team created a website survey with simple questions about what customers liked/disliked about a product. The survey was embedded on the website, promoted on social media, and emailed to their customer list. Within a few days, they collected lots of feedback, easily viewable from the dashboard.
I noticed how responses received through email were mostly positive feedback compared to the website ones – pretty interesting, right?
I think if the free plan had been less restrictive, the tool would’ve been a top recommendation.
What you’ll like:
- The ability to target specific users for actionable feedback – based on specific actions, behavioral patterns, locations, browser cookies, etc.
- Actionable reports that make it easy to identify key metrics, such as customer satisfaction, NPS, etc.
- Allows you to take proactive action on customer feedback to prevent churn and enhance loyalty
- Collaboration tools like workspaces to share your surveys, reports, and dashboards with other team members
- Improves user experience by implementing customizable website surveys, microsurveys, feedback buttons, etc.
What you may not like:
- The free plan only allows website and in-product surveys
- Some users reported that the software slows down or lags sometimes
Pricing: A free plan is available with limitations on the number of questions per survey. Paid options start from $49/month.
Best Product Roadmap Tools
These tools are essential for agile product development and project management. By Incorporating lean methodology, they provide a visual representation of the product’s direction, help prioritize features, and track progress.
4. Productboard – Best for Data-Driven Feature Prioritization
Data-driven decision-making is essential for any product team, but it can be difficult to know where to start. That’s where Productboard comes in.
For starters, it’s one of the best customer experience management software tools. It helps you prioritize features based on data. I’ll simplify this for you.
For instance, when working on a new feature for our app, I used Productboard’s prioritization matrix to visualize each feature’s value versus its effort estimate. I could drag and drop features vertically to indicate their value to an objective and horizontally to indicate estimated effort.
In my short span with the product, I loved how it enabled me to have a data-driven approach to standardize the prioritization process.
What you’ll like:
- A central place to manage all aspects of product planning, including roadmaps, features, and feedback
- Flexible and easy-to-update roadmaps so you can adapt to market changes or customer needs
- Prioritizes product development efforts by ranking features based on their importance and impact
- Connects your backlog with always up-to-date and easy-to-share roadmaps to effectively communicate product plans and progress
- Integrates with a variety of other tools, such as Jira, Asana, and Slack – making it easy to streamline product development workflows
What you may not like:
- The basic plan does not give you access to advanced prioritization criteria, scores, or formulas
- Some users have found the search functionality to be more specific for requests
Pricing: Starts at $20/maker/month.
5. Gainsight – Best for Native Omni-Channel Engagement
(Image Source: Trustradius)
Gainsight is a customer success platform with native omni-channel engagement. The platform easily connects multiple data sources with powerful integrations.
The native omni-channel engagement feature enables you to scale onboarding and drive product adoption with ease. Path and funnel analysis shadow user behavior, identify friction points, and mitigate adoption risk.
You can edit in-app engagements and onboarding checklists to scale time-to-value. The advanced throttling and prioritization feature is also helpful in avoiding user fatigue and maximizing engagement.
The software also provides powerful insights into user behavior, allowing you to track and analyze engagements. Armed with this information, you can customize strategies, ensuring the product roadmap aligns perfectly with customer demands.
What you’ll like:
- Helps product teams prioritize roadmap items based on customer requests, usage data, feedback, etc.
- Provides real-time updates to the roadmap – so that product teams can always see the latest status
- Lets you shadow user behavior, identify friction points, and mitigate adoption risk with path and funnel analysis
- Omni-channel engagement to accelerate user activation through native email campaigns
- Provides analytics features that help product teams track the progress of their roadmap and measure the impact of changes
What you may not like:
- Some users feel that the tool is really hard to navigate as an administrator
- The software has a steep learning curve, which you need to get used to
Pricing: Custom pricing.
6. Jira Software – Best for Software Project Management
(Image Source: Atlassian)
Last weekend, my old colleague – a software project manager, showed me Jira Software. It’s a tool that provides a centralized platform for managing tasks, bugs, etc. – but that’s just the beginning.
One of the things I found most helpful about Jira Software is its agile project management capabilities. It offers numerous features like sprints for Scrum management and other agile boards.
For example, let’s say you’re working on a software project with your team. You can use Jira Software to create a Kanban board that tracks the project’s progress. You can add tasks to the board, assign them to team members, and set due dates. You can also use the board to track the status of each task and see how much progress has been made.
Another great thing about the software is its reporting capabilities. It provides a variety of reports that can be used to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions.
What you’ll like:
- Allows you to break down big ideas into manageable chunks, track and prioritize work, ship faster with updated information, and automate processes to save time
- Gives you complete visibility at every level of your project to prioritize and discuss your team’s work in context
- Makes it easy for product managers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate on product roadmaps in real time
- Integrates with other tools from the Atlassian Marketplace – making it easy to centralize your project management and communication
- Provides a variety of reports to make data-driven decisions about your product roadmap
What you may not like:
- The free plan gives you only 2 GB of storage allowance, which is impractical even for startups
- Limited support for external collaboration can be a problem for teams that need to work with clients or stakeholders
Pricing: A free plan is available for only up to 10 users. Paid options start from $7.75/user/month.
Best Product Analytics Tools
The following tools under this category help product managers capture and analyze product usage and user behavior data, such as user journeys, cohort analysis, funnel analysis, etc., to understand adoption, engagement, and overall experience. By analyzing data gathered this way, you can see what works for your customers and what doesn’t.
7. Pendo – Best for Evaluating Product Usage
I’ve always been fascinated by how people interact with products. I wonder – what features do they use the most? What makes them feel frustrated, or what keeps them coming back?
If you have these questions, too – chances are you’ll find Pendo pretty helpful.
It allows you to evaluate product usage. In simpler words, it helps you understand whether the products/features you’re building are being used and, if so, by whom.
With this feature, you can identify which product areas in your application are seeing the most use, which ones need more awareness, and which features are getting in the way.
Besides, the software lets you easily centralize all feedback data so it can be used by the product team when needed.
What you’ll like:
- Tracks all user interactions within your product, including page views, button clicks, feature usage, etc.
- Powerful segmentation capabilities to identify specific user groups struggling to use your product or abandoning it early on
- Pre-built dashboards that make it easy to analyze your product data and identify trends
- Allows you to create in-app guides to walkthrough users through new features or help them get unstuck
- The ability to run A/B experiments to test different product designs and features
What you may not like:
- The free plan does not give access to customizable reports or generate product engagement scores
- Some users find it difficult to understand how mobile subscription works outside the web application
Pricing: A free plan is available for only up to 500 monthly users. Paid options start from $7000/year.
8. Quantum Metric – Best for Contextual Web Analytics
(Image Source: G2)
After digging through user reviews from trusted sources, I’ve learned that Quantum Metric is another product experience management software – one that is all about understanding user behavior in real time.
It captures user interactions at the browser or mobile app level – providing behavioral insights into bugs and navigation frustrations that, when resolved, can yield millions of dollars in sales.
With the software, you can capture user context. It means you’ll be able to see the complete story behind every click.
So, in a way, you can move beyond traditional analytics to have a holistic view of the customer journey.
For example, if you find customers abandoning their carts at a high rate on a certain page, you can use the session replay feature of the tool to see what customers are actually doing. I think it’s a great feature to find underlying issues that frustrate customers.
What you’ll like:
- Records every user session, allowing you to see exactly how users are interacting with your product step-by-step
- Generates heat maps that show where users are clicking, scrolling, and hovering on your product pages
- Helps you track users through your sales funnels, identify drop-off points, and optimize for conversions
- Enables you to quantify priorities faster by identifying the most critical areas that require improvement
- Allows you to monitor the performance of digital properties, including page load times, responsiveness, etc.
What you may not like:
- The software has a steep learning curve, which needs adequate documentation to understand
- Some users complain that the custom reporting interface often crashes
Pricing: Custom pricing.
9. UXCam – Best for Mobile App Analytics
(Image Source: G2)
When it comes to mobile app analytics, UXCam is one of the most popular product experience software tools on the market. It offers tagless auto-capture and automated data tracking to understand how users interact with your app.
The product analytics dashboard generates reports automatically, allowing you to see where users drop off. You can also monitor key events and slice and dice data with ease using segments.
On the other hand, the experience analytics feature delivers the perfect app experience by providing session replay, heatmaps, and issue analytics.
You can record user sessions, which is a great way to see how they navigate through your app. If that wasn’t cool enough, well, you can also see highlights where users stumble during their journey.
What you’ll like:
- Helps you track key product metrics like daily active users (DAUs), monthly active users (MAUs), and churn rate
- Enables automated data tracking without the need for manual tagging, simplifying and expediting the data collection process.
- Utilizes market-leading SDK to ensure accurate and reliable data collection – giving confidence in the quality of your analytics
- Provides experience analytics features such as session replay, heatmaps, etc., to understand how users interact with your app
- Allows you to segment users based on their behavior, demographics, etc., to target product analytics efforts
What you may not like:
- To know about the paid pricing, you need to register first, which can be time-consuming
- Some users have reported facing slow loading times while checking user sessions
Pricing: A free plan is available for only up to 3000 monthly sessions. Contact the company for paid options.
Which Is the Best Product Experience Management Software?
Coming to the end of the blog, here’s the question we all have – what’s the best product experience software? Well, all the nine products listed above are ideal. But it doesn’t work that way, right?
So, to ensure that the product-picking phase eases further for you, I’m going to share my best three picks – the best option from each category.
Option A: Qualaroo
With Qualaroo, you can capture real-time user feedback through contextual surveys. By throwing targeted questions at key moments in the user’s journey, you can gain valuable insights without being intrusive. The AI-powered sentiment analysis is truly impressive, automatically identifying the sentiment behind every feedback.
Option B: Productboard
Productboard is one of the best customer experience management software – empowering product teams to make data-driven decisions. With attributes like a prioritization matrix, it simplifies the process of organizing features based on their value and effort estimates. The tool facilitates a standardized approach to prioritization, ensuring the most impactful features take center stage.
Option C: Pendo
Pendo’s sentiment analysis feature is a treasure trove for understanding how users perceive your product. By analyzing user feedback, it provides insights into both positive and negative sentiments, helping you improve your product’s user-friendliness.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some use cases for PXM software?
Here are some of the top use cases of product experience software -
- Personalized Customer Experience: PXM tools deliver a customer-centric, personalized, search-guided experience that attracts and converts website visitors.
- Cross-Selling and Upselling: It ensures you make it clear to customers that you’re dedicated to giving them all the information they need to choose the best product.
- Customer Feedback Management: PXM systems provide a customer-centric feedback solution – meaning that it should be easy for them to give feedback and for you to collect it.
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