Free Product Management Templates

By Kate Eby | October 14, 2016

A product manager is often considered the “CEO” of a given product because the role involves managing product vision - everything from high-level strategy through development and release. Product managers must work closely with stakeholders - which may include customers as well as various internal teams - to ensure buy-in, manage expectations and priorities, and drive development. The product manager is responsible for creating a strategic roadmap to communicate the product vision and timeline, and define long-term goals. 

The product manager is also responsible for translating stakeholder requests into product features, and prioritizes features based on function and value. Product managers also work closely with engineering teams to communicate product requirements, and get them developed and released on schedule. In the end, however, the user experience will largely determine the success of a product release so the scope of a product manager’s responsibility extends to user experience as well. While a product manager is not a developer or UX designer, he or she must have basic technical understanding of the product’s user interface and usability to help ensure success. After all, if the customer isn’t happy, the product is not successful.

Communication and documentation are also huge parts of a product manager’s job. Therefore, writing things down is paramount, whether you’re creating a detailed product plan, roadmapping quarterly goals, tracking a daily to-do list, or leading a weekly team meeting. Ultimately, a product roadmap will provide an outline for your overarching plan. With that in place, you may document and flush out steps within that outline, such as planning specific features, building the features backlog, tracking KPIs and customer feedback, or creating reports. 

To aid your product management process, we’ve compiled a list of free, professional templates. You’ll find a range of templates for both Excel and Word covering different aspects of the product lifecycle, from strategic planning to sales productivity. Smartsheet also offers templates with enhanced features, including easy collaboration and communication capabilities. For example, see Smartsheet’s templates for defining and managing product requirements, creating a product launch plan, and collecting customer feedback for product review.

Product Management Templates for Excel

Product Roadmap Template

A product roadmap is used for high-level strategic planning, but it is not merely for presenting information. Rather, it is an evolving document that product managers use for planning and driving development. There are many ways to format a product roadmap depending on your audience and whether you want to focus on features, releases, long-term goals, or other information. The outline for a product roadmap may be simple or comprehensive, but often includes quarterly timelines, highlights milestones, and guides both long and short-term objectives. You can also use a product roadmap to track multiple projects, which can be helpful if you want to see how they relate within a larger development context. 

 

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Product Backlog Template

Use a product backlog template to track and prioritize features based on stakeholder requests. A backlog allows you to keep track of potential features for your final product, assign priority levels, and check status. This is an Agile product backlog template with sections for each Sprint. Additionally, drop-down menus are included for updating status, priority, and other columns, and story points are automatically calculated based on the points assigned for each task.

 

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SWOT Analysis Strategy Template

Analyze internal strengths and weaknesses along with external opportunities and threats to support your strategic planning. This SWOT template includes sections for listing strategies so you can determine how they align with the SWOT analysis. The layout of this template makes it easy to see relationships among different elements, which makes it appropriate for a standalone presentation or to support a product roadmapping process.

 

SWOT Analysis Strategic Template

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Product Buying Cycle Template

Use this template to analyze your prospective buyers’ buying cycle, from initial awareness to product purchase. Then, use this information to identify the actions that sales, marketing, and other teams can take to quicken the cycle. For instance, you’ll identify where potential customers are getting stuck, and what tools or services can help move them through the buying cycle faster. This is a simple template, but a valuable source of information for product managers and multiple teams.

 

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Product Comparison Template

Use this template to compare various products. An Excel chart provides a simple format for comparing products based on features, or you can organize the template based on the value of features. List as many products as needed for a comprehensive comparison.

 

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Product Revenue Dashboard

Visualize product revenue and other KPIs with this dashboard template. A quick revenue breakdown can help you track goals, present to stakeholders, and plan budget. A dashboard template is particularly useful for visualizing metrics and compiling information into a single report that’s easy to understand.

 

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Sales Productivity Dashboard

Analyze product performance and your sales team’s productivity by tracking sales data by individual, region, and product. This productivity template lists each salesperson by rank and shows performance data for location, item, and type of sale. The dashboard displays information in graphs and percentages to help viewers drill down into important metrics while also maintaining a broad overview.

 

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Product Management Templates for Word

Product Positioning Template

Messaging is vital for effective marketing and helps ensure a successful product launch. Use this template to determine product positioning and messaging by analyzing your target audience, identifying which problem(s) your product solves, and defining the benefits and features your product offers. You may need to fill out more than one positioning template for a single product if you are targeting more than one customer segment.

 

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Product Strategy Template

Create a comprehensive plan that summarizes your product vision and strategy including key information on objectives, target customers, market analysis, marketing and sales strategy, scheduling, metrics to follow, and more. While a product roadmap offers a visual outline for how your strategy will be carried out, this strategic planning template provides a detailed report that covers background information as well as action steps. 

 

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Product Specification Template

Use this product specs template to list the technical characteristics of your product as well as performance data. Create a summary of product specifications, and modify the template as needed to include more or less information. The format of this spec sheet provides a basic guide that can be customized to suit your specific needs.

 

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