Work September 2026
6 apps for your first product manager job
The first product manager job is mostly context you do not have yet: what the team is building, what the designer meant, what was decided in the meeting you missed. These six keep it within reach — the issue tracker, the design file, the recorded walkthrough, the spec, the meeting transcript, and a way to make a fuzzy prioritisation call in the time you actually have.
The apps for your first product manager job are Linear Mobile, Framework, Figma, Loom, Notion and Otter Transcribe Voice Notes. I built Framework; the other 5 are other developers’ apps.
MiaAppLog— an iOS developer who reviews other people’s apps
Published September 2026 · apps and prices last checked 6 October 2026
Linear Mobile
★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Business · App Store 4.8 (2,182)
Where the team's issues, projects and roadmap live. The phone app is for filing a bug the moment you see it and keeping up with the streams you care about, away from your desk.
Skip it if you want to run the backlog from your phone — reviewers find the iOS app missing the web app's views and filters, with search and editing awkward; it works as a companion to the desktop, not a replacement.
Framework Editor’s pick
★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · Free · Business · App Store 5.0 (6)
Pick a framework — RICE, MoSCoW, Eisenhower, 100+ more — and the AI fills the canvas, pressure-tests the logic and writes the action plan. Describe a fuzzy decision and it walks you to a recommendation.
Figma
★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Graphics & Design · App Store 4.6 (20,922)
Open the design files, play the prototype full screen, leave comments and mention the designer, all from your phone. Mirror a frame from the desktop to see it on a real device.
Skip it if you hope to design on the phone or iPad — the app opens, plays and comments on files but does not edit design files, and reviewers report the mirror view freezing and losing its frame.
Loom
★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Business · App Store 4.8 (19,100)
Record your screen or camera with one tap and share the link, so a walkthrough replaces the long email. Time-stamped comments come back on the video.
Skip it if you record on an iPhone or iPad — reviewers report videos stuck on uploading for days or lost outright, and the free plan caps each recording at five minutes.
Notion
★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Productivity · App Store 4.8 (90,319)
Notes, docs, tasks and projects in one workspace. The spec, the meeting notes and the roadmap table can live on the same page, and the AI can answer questions about what's in there.
Skip it if you mostly work on an iPhone or iPad — reviewers find the mobile apps slower and thinner than the desktop, with search that misses pages and AI prompts that get in the way.
Otter Transcribe Voice Notes
★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Productivity · App Store 4.8 (83,247)
Records the meeting and transcribes it live, then writes the summary. Every call is searchable afterwards, so “what did we decide” has an answer.
Skip it if you record long meetings on the free plan — each recording is capped, imports are limited, and reviewers report the minutes allowance shrinking while the price rose, with refunds hard to get.
Framework is one of mine — everything else on this list is someone else’s app. How that works.
Questions
What are the apps for your first product manager job?
The apps for your first product manager job are Linear Mobile, Framework, Figma, Loom, Notion and Otter Transcribe Voice Notes. Each one had to do a different job in this particular moment — where two apps work the same way, only one of them makes the list.
Which of these apps is free?
All 6 are free to download on the App Store; some sell extras or a full version inside the app.
Which of these apps did the author build?
Framework — I built it. The other 5 are other developers’ apps, and none of them knew they were going to be on this list. There are no affiliate links and no paid placements anywhere on the site.