1: Visual Studio Team Services(now Azure Devops).
The de-facto tool that we use to manage our projects. This tool helps you use Scrum to manage your projects better. The user interface can be a bit intimidating, but once you get used to it, you will love it!
2: Gitlab
For source control, we recommend using Gitlab to manage your code. You get unlimited users and has a very simple and neat web interface. You can also decide to use Gitlab as an all-in-one tool including the boards feature of Azure DevOps.
3: Trello
Another great tool to use, which has a very simple interface to manage your projects. If you are dealing with a business user, Trello should be a good tool to use if the user is not used to using complex tools to manage projects.
4: Skype
The one tool that we have been using for the past 15 years! The simplest way to communicate or do sceenshare, it’s a must have tool in your arsenal!
5: InvsionApp
InvisionApp can be used for prototyping and also to create immersive experiences where users can literally feel how the app works and share feedback.
6: Sketch
The better alternative to Photoshop, including creating designs in vector, this is a must have tool for creating new designs. It also comes at a one time fee and at a fraction of the cost.
7: Zeplin
Zeplin helps teams with the heavy lifting by automatically generating code snippets, assets and specs from design. That’s one tool that our devs love a lot!
8: Google Cloud AI
Google Cloud AI has some brilliant use cases such as Vision AI, Dialogflow, AutoML and custom AutoML where you can train your own models.
9: Balsamiq
We absolutely love this tool for creating low-fidelity wireframes. We use this tool extensively when we are in ideation phase and want to create some flows without putting too much effort in the UI and to make sure clients can quickly give feedback on the flow and structure of screens.
10: Azure DevOps for CI/CD
Implementing CI/CD in your projects brings a lot of simplicity in the way you think and build projects. We have been using Azure DevOps and our teams have told us it has made life very easy for deployment. It will for you too! Pick up Either Azure DevOps or Gitlab’s in built CI/CD tool to get started.
11: Udemy
Gone are the days when developers had to learn from books which used to get outdated. At Inceptive learning is a way of life and we encourage buying training courses to learn new skills. Most of the courses are up to date and at the price we get, they are a steal.
12: Xero – Invoice management
We love this tool for managing finances. This is an absolutely brilliant SaaS software which can help you streamline your invoice management. Give it a shot!
13: Calendly
A very simple and useful way to manage your appointments and to let others book your time slot. It removes any back and forth and makes scheduling appointments a breeze.
14: Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a Godsend. The de-facto tool for development, and did we say free? We do recommend you to check their license agreement and make sure that the licensing compliance is in place in your organisation.
15: Atom
Another IDE that our teams love. Very lightweight and with deep integration with other software such as Git, this is a great editor to use.
16: Google Apps
Google Apps is used extensively for its simplicity and document management, incuding Gmail. In fact, we are so used to it, we don’t use any software on our system such as MS Office.
17: TweetDeck
Your marketing team will love this tool to manage tweets, and to “listen” for specific keywords on Twitter. Once you get the hang of it and it’s potential, it can be a game changer.
18: Selenium
Automation is Selenium for us and we recommend using Selenium for automating your test cases.
19: Docker
Docker is a way of life where you use the PaaS capabilities to automate and deploy application instances over the cloud. Give it a try and see it’s full potential. Using this with CI/CD tools and achieving your goals will take it’s own blog!
20: Hubspot CRM
Your sales team should be using a CRM and we recommend nothing but Hubspot CRM. Extremely easy to use, we haven’t felt it to be an overhead in the sales process but an enabler in managing our sales.
