A Few of Our Favorite (Product) Things

Pendo celebrates great digital products every day. But during the holidays, we’re especially thankful for the products that make our lives better.

We asked members of our product team to share the software products they can’t live without. Either at home or work, these tools provided the most delight in 2018. Check out the highlights in this video, and read our team’s full explanations below.

Freehand

Julie Caprio, Product Manager; Kelsey Hughes, Product Designer

Julie and Kelsey used to look over each other’s shoulders as they worked on wireframes together. When her new marriage took Julie across the country, InVision’s Freehand became an even more powerful tool for the pair. Julie and Kelsey use Freehand multiple hours a day to work through product concepts and workflows. It’s like they’re still sitting side-by-side, but 3,000 miles apart.

Rider App by TransLoc

Billy French, Product Manager

The bus can be a great way to commute the 26 miles between Durham and Raleigh each day…if it’s on time. Thankfully, our local bus system uses TransLoc to provide riders up-to-the-minute bus updates and route changes. Billy can get every last second of work in and still make the bus each night.

Shazam

Suja Thomas, Data Scientist

Shazam’s impressive sound recognition algorithm helps feed Suja’s music obsession on a daily basis. She loves the extensive library of songs and its ability to ID songs even with significant background noise. “They have done something wonderfully right with machine learning,” she says.

RealtimeBoard

Eric Iwashita, Associate Product Manager

RealtimeBoard is Eric’s secret to staying organized as a PM. The tool serves as a virtual whiteboard, allowing him to capture ideas, keep his work on track, and communicate roadmap impact, risks, and progress to different stakeholders. Its flexibility and free-form nature allows him to use it in whatever way he finds most valuable.

WhatsApp

Keren Wexler, Product Manager

WhatsApp enables pretty basic communication, but yet, it invokes so much joy. Keren loves the way it connects her family and friends during their busy days or while traveling, allowing for inside jokes, sweet birthday messages and fun photos or gifs.

Instacart

Adrienne Gajownik, Director of Product Design

As a busy working mom, Instacart helps Adrienne make sure the kitchen is stocked even when she can’t find time to go to the store. Ease of use and reliability are key—she can order milk or fruit while at work, and have it on her doorstep by the time she gets home.

The Athletic

Caleb Holloway, Product Designer

Caleb loves football almost as much as he loves good design. With its elegant ad-free approach and compelling storytelling, The Athletic sports journalism app satisfies both of his interests.

Bird

Shannon Bauman, VP Product

From navigating the app to hopping on the scooter to docking and locking it for the next user, Bird offers an incredible user experience. Since Birds popped up all over Raleigh this summer, it’s become a key way Shannon gets around our hometown.

Muzli

Amit Ron Vakrat, Product Designer

While she eats her muesli each day, Amit is typically scrolling through the beautiful design ideas on InVision’s Muzli app for Google Chrome. The site offers the perfect inspiration for her work in design.

Google Maps

Aishwarya Dwivedi, Associate Product Manager

An avid traveler, Aishwarya can’t live without Google Maps. It so easily directs her to the bars and restaurants she wants to visit and helps her get from point A to B regardless of mode of transportation. For Aishwarya, any good product must fit seamlessly into life, and Google Maps fits that bill.

MindMeister

Kevin Yanushefski, Product Marketing Manager

Kevin has a ton of projects, and a ton of ideas. MindMeister helps him move all of the thoughts in his brain into a visualization, ultimately helping him share his ideas with others and prioritize his next steps.

And everyone’s favorite…. Pendo.

Pendo helps fuel our growth. And our product team couldn’t do their jobs without it. Want a demo? Click here.

Happy Holidays from Pendo!