November 21, 2024When you’re building software products, your tool stack can make or break your process. And process, ladies and gentlemen, makes or breaks timelines (and just as importantly, budgets). Over the last 15+, we’ve worked with hundreds of startups and enterprise product teams, and one thing is always clear — having the right tools is often as important as the skills of the people using them. That’s why at ENO8, we’ve carefully curated a tool stack that helps us work efficiently, stay organized, and deliver exceptional results for our clients.
So, what do we use? In today’s post, I’ll break down our go-to tools, the role they play in our process, and why they’ve earned a roster slot in our tool stack.
If you’re interested in all the details (and not just the high level overview) of why we use specific tools (and not others), check out our full video below:
If you prefer to read the tl;dr of our tool stack, then carry on!
Let’s start with the backbone of our development process — JIRA. If you’ve worked in software development, chances are you’ve had some experience with it. It’s not always a love story (JIRA’s user management quirks are real), but it’s hard to beat for flexibility and visibility when managing complex projects.
At ENO8, we primarily use JIRA for two types of projects:
Both approaches are fully supported in JIRA with built-in templates, making it easy to configure boards based on each project’s needs. What really sets JIRA apart for us, though, is its integrations. It connects seamlessly with tools like GitHub, allowing us to track pull requests, branches, and commits directly within tickets. That’s a game-changer for visibility, especially for product managers and scrum masters.
For documentation, Confluence is our go-to. It’s where we keep everything from meeting notes to onboarding instructions. Need to document API processes or capture retrospective insights? Confluence has you covered. Its real value, though, lies in its tight integration with JIRA (they are both Atlassian products after all). For instance, when documenting requirements in Confluence, you can easily create and link tickets in JIRA to keep everything in sync.
In the world of design, tools have come a long way. We’ve transitioned from using Photoshop and InVision (remember when you had to design in one tool and prototype in another?) to Figma, which has completely transformed our design process.
Figma isn’t just about creating beautiful interfaces — it’s about collaboration. Designers and non-designers alike can jump into a Figma project to add comments, share feedback, or ask questions. This real-time collaboration eliminates the need for lengthy email chains and ensures we’re all aligned on the vision.
For brainstorming sessions, workshops, and design thinking activities, we’ve adopted FigJam, Figma’s whiteboarding companion. It’s replaced tools like Miro for us, streamlining our workflow and cutting down on unnecessary subscriptions. Whether we’re mapping out user journeys or running virtual brainstorming sessions, FigJam makes it easy for teams to stay connected and creative (especially when working remotely with distributed teams).
For code repositories, GitHub is our bread and butter. Its clean interface and extensive integrations make it a no-brainer for us. Even as someone who’s not a developer, I can easily navigate GitHub to check on branching history, pull requests, and commits — all without touching a line of code.
One feature we love is how GitHub ties into JIRA. When a pull request is created, it’s automatically reflected in the corresponding JIRA ticket, giving everyone a clear picture of where the work stands.
When it comes to cloud infrastructure, AWS is our default. It offers a robust suite of tools that can often replace custom development, saving time and resources. That said, we also use Azure depending on the project’s needs — especially for clients heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
A word of caution on both, though: always, always, always set up budget alerts. No one likes surprise bills, and with the complexity and flexibility of cloud platforms, it’s easy for costs to spiral out of control if devs can spin up resource requests without oversight.
For API development and documentation, Postman is a must-have in our tool stack. It simplifies testing, sharing, and maintaining APIs, which keeps developers and stakeholders aligned. Postman’s intuitive interface allows us to create sample calls, test endpoints, and document requests all in one place. Collaboration is a breeze, too — the paid version lets teams work from shared collections to ensure everyone’s testing and documentation stay in sync. While it’s perfect for hands-on development, we pair it with tools like Confluence for high-level strategy and architectural notes, creating a comprehensive API management workflow.
Clear communication is critical for any team, and for us, Slack is the ultimate tool. It’s where we collaborate with our clients, share updates, and keep conversations organized. One of my favorite things about Slack is the transparency it can create.
Transparency is one of our core values at ENO8 (and something we think sets us apart from other custom software developers). To that end, we set up channel integrations with each client and do all of our client-specific communication within that channel. Our clients can join their respective dedicated channel to see live discussions, ask questions, and stay in the loop. It’s a great way to build confidence and avoid the “black box” feeling that can plague external development projects.
We also leverage Slack’s integrations to speed up workflows. For instance, when a developer opens a pull request or a build passes (or fails), Slack notifications ensure the right people are alerted in real time.
On the productivity side, Google Workspace keeps our internal operations humming. We use Google Docs for brainstorming, Google Sheets for tracking rough ideas, and Google Slides for presentations. Everything is collaborative, and its seamless integration with Gmail and Google Meet makes it a one-stop shop for team communication. We also find that Google makes it a lot easier to collaborate, especially with folks outside your organization, than the Microsoft 365 equivalents.
Time tracking might not be glamorous, but it’s essential — especially when you’re juggling multiple projects or working with clients on fixed-bid contracts. After testing several tools over the years, we landed on Harvest.
Why Harvest? It’s simple. The interface is intuitive, making it easy for our team to log time and for managers to review entries. We also use it to track time against specific JIRA tickets, which helps us refine our estimation process and ensure we’re staying on budget.
There are more robust solutions out there, but we’ve found them to be overly complex (aka, they make it too difficult to capture the one specific thing we need from a time tracking solution).
For agencies or in-house teams managing multiple initiatives, Harvest can provide valuable insights into where time and effort are going.
Paid licensees add up. When you’re working with distributed teams, clients, vendors, and especially fractional resources, how many seats you have in each system can stack up. If you’re not auditing those somewhat regularly (we have dedicated time every month we devote to this), you can end up wasting a healthy chunk of change on unused seats.
The flip side of this coin is what I call “don’t step over a dollar to pick up a penny.” Most of these tools have pretty good free plans that can get you started. Some even have relatively robust offerings in their free tier (see: Slack). But if you’re clinging to the free versions even when you’d be faster, more efficient and ultimately more productive with the full suite of functionalities, our advice would be to go for the paid versions (but again, audit those licenses consistently!)
At the end of the day, your tool stack is only as good as the processes it supports. What sets ENO8 apart isn’t just the tools we use — it’s how we’ve adapted them to fit our needs and deliver better results for our clients. From real-time collaboration in Figma to the visibility JIRA provides, each tool in our stack plays a critical role in helping us innovate and execute at a high level.
Got a tool you swear by? Or curious about how we use one of the platforms mentioned here? Drop me a note or connect with me on LinkedIn. And if you want to see our process in action, check out our Innovation Lab — it’s how we tackle some of the toughest product challenges for our clients.
Let’s build something amazing, together.
Jeff Francis is a veteran entrepreneur and founder of Dallas-based digital product studio ENO8. Jeff founded ENO8 to empower companies of all sizes to design, develop and deliver innovative, impactful digital products. With more than 18 years working with early-stage startups, Jeff has a passion for creating and growing new businesses from the ground up, and has honed a unique ability to assist companies with aligning their technology product initiatives with real business outcomes.
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