The Tech Stack 6 PM Experts Would Use If They Had to Start from Scratch
Simplicity: Fewer integrated tools outperform numerous disconnected ones for efficient project management.
Platform: Choose a project management platform that matches your team's current growth stage and requirements.
Communication: Slack is the preferred choice for communication among project managers across different industries.
Documentation: Google Workspace dominates documentation for its flexibility and ability to integrate with other tools.
Knowledge: Invest early in knowledge management systems to avoid reliance on institutional memory as teams grow.
We asked seven experienced project managers a simple but revealing question: if you had to start from scratch, what tools would you actually use? No legacy systems to work around, no sunk costs, no "we've always done it this way." Just a blank slate and a chance to build smart from day one.
What came back wasn't a single definitive answer — but it was something arguably more useful. Across different industries, team sizes, and working styles, clear patterns emerged. Certain tools kept coming up. Certain principles kept getting repeated. And a few honest admissions about what doesn't work were just as illuminating as the recommendations themselves.
Here's what they said.
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The Core Principle: Simplicity and Integration Over Everything
Before getting into specific tools, it's worth understanding the philosophy that almost every expert came back to: fewer tools that work together will always beat more tools that don't.
Kayla Keizer, a project manager who has worked across telecom and IT in addition to project management, put it plainly: "the simplest way to being productive is by having the simplest workflow," adding that "the project management system, as much as possible should all be in one. It makes it a lot easier to find information."
The simplest way to be productive is by having the simplest workflow. The project management system, as much as possible, should be all-in-one.
Julia Rajic, a Chief Operating Officer, echoed this, but from a financial integration angle. Her ideal setup would have everything connected — "resourcing, timesheets, budgets, contracts and quotes to client," because as she explained, "as a project manager I've had to do budgets in Excel and then do my time sheets over here and have my project timelines over here and resourcing somewhere else. That's the worst because those things are so inherently connected."
The dream, for most of these PMs, isn't the most powerful tool stack. It's the most connected one.
The Project Management Platform: Your Home Base
Every expert agreed you need a dedicated project management platform. Where they diverged was on which one — and that divergence turned out to be less about personal preference and more about where your team or agency actually is in its growth.
Matthew Fox, a PM consultant, offered one of the more pragmatic takes: "if someone's just getting started, a tool like ClickUp is fine to run everything because you don't need anything complicated. You just need it to work. Once you start scaling is where everything falls apart." For teams that have grown past the basics but aren't ready for something highly customizable, he pointed to Asana as a strong middle ground — "very good with basic project management... if you need something more complex than Basecamp, but you don't need something super customizable, Asana is a great middle ground, and they have some really good features and tools."
If you need something more complex than Basecamp, but you don’t need something super customizable, Asana is a great middle ground and they have some really good features and tools.
Melody MacKeand, PM consultant, framed the category more broadly, noting that the platform itself matters less than having one at all: "there's your primary PM platform — that could be Teamwork, Asana, ClickUp, Monday, Airtable... we just need a structure." Her own preference, if building from scratch, would be Teamwork.
For Megan Cotterman, a PM and operations consultant, her client-facing experience led her to Asana as well, describing it as one of three tools she considers non-negotiable: "for a client, my experience has been with G-Drive, Asana, and Slack. I feel like those three types of systems are crucial."
For development teams specifically, technical PM Ryan Gilbreath lands somewhere different. "I'm still a fan of Jira," he said. "You can get as granular and detailed as you need to be. You can integrate with different tools right in Jira, right in that board and also different workflows and customized workflows as well too." He also noted GitHub Projects as a solid alternative, while acknowledging that ultimately "it's the case by case basis."
I’m still a fan of Jira. You can get as granular and detailed as you need to be. You can integrate with different tools right in Jira and customized workflows as well too.
Communication: Why Almost Everyone Said Slack
If there was one area of near-unanimous agreement, it was this. Ask a room full of experienced project managers what they'd use for communication and almost all of them will say Slack.
Kayla Keizer listed it first and without hesitation. Alexa Alfonso named it as part of the core she'd build around — "Google Workspace, Slack, Miro... that's the meat and potatoes of what I could build." Julia Rajic called it her favorite: "I'm a big fan of Slack when it comes to communication. That's probably my favorite." Megan Cotterman cited it as essential for "the day-to-day collaboration." And Melody MacKeand simply said she'd recommend Slack for comms as one of the three buckets any solid PM setup needs to fill.
That's five out of seven experts, unprompted, landing on the same tool. At a certain point, that stops being a coincidence and starts being a signal.
I’m a big fan of Slack when it comes to communication. That’s probably my favorite.
Documentation and File Management: The Google Suite Dominates
If Slack owns the communication category, Google Workspace owns documentation — and it isn't particularly close.
Kayla Keizer's dream stack includes "everything Google — Google Docs, Gmail, everything." Julia Rajic, who described herself as "fine with all the Google stuff," specifically called out Google Sheets and Gemini note-taking as part of her ideal setup. Megan Cotterman pointed to G-Drive as critical for keeping documentation organized: "G-Drive for all of the documentation lives and having consistent file naming and structure so people know where to find things." And Melody MacKeand, despite having plenty of other options available, said she'd choose Google Docs for documentation because "it's streamlined, easy, a bit cheaper in some ways, and allows for more flexibility rather than something that's a little bit more comprehensive."
The through-line here isn't that Google Workspace is perfect — it's that it's familiar, flexible, and plays well with everything else. For teams starting fresh, that combination is hard to beat.
It’s [Google Docs] streamlined, easy, a bit cheaper in some ways, and allows for more flexibility rather than something that’s a little bit more comprehensive.
SOPs and Knowledge Management: The Layer People Forget
Most teams think about where their projects will live and how their team will communicate. Fewer think about where institutional knowledge will live — until they need it and can't find it.
As Melody MacKeand described it, you need "a mechanism to manage SOPs, documentation," and that can be "as simple as Google Docs." But as companies grow, more dedicated solutions start to make sense. Megan Cotterman, who has worked with teams at various stages of scale, mentioned Scribe as "a really great one for documenting some of those SOPs as companies grow," noting that knowledge-based systems become especially valuable as headcount increases and processes need to be repeatable without relying on institutional memory.
This is the category where most early-stage teams underinvest — and where the cost of that underinvestment tends to show up later than expected.
Specialized Additions Worth Considering
Beyond the core stack, a few tools came up for specific use cases that are worth flagging.
For visual collaboration and brainstorming, Alexa Alfonso, an experienced project manager, included Miro alongside Google Workspace and Slack as part of her foundational setup. For performance management and team feedback, she also mentioned Lattice, describing it as "really nice... for providing feedback and managing different things, performance management."
[Lattice is] really nice for providing feedback and managing different things like performance management.
For development teams, Ryan Gilbreath made a strong case for incorporating AI coding tools from the start: "if I could start from scratch... I would recommend a tech stack that included an AI assistant, almost like a code editor... like Copilot or VS Code or Cursor." In his view, this is no longer optional for dev-focused teams — it's a baseline expectation.
And for anyone building out a personal or highly customized system, Megan Cotterman noted that Notion earned its place in her own workflow: "for my own personal tech stack, I built using Notion because I really wanted that one size fits all for just my own personal management system." It's worth considering if flexibility and customization matter more than out-of-the-box simplicity.
For my own personal tech stack, I built using Notion because I really wanted that one size fits all for my own project management system.
The Dream Stack: What It Actually Looks Like
So what does it all add up to? When asked to describe their ideal setup, the answers were surprisingly cohesive.
Kayla Keizer summed hers up cleanly: "my dream would be like one project management tool, preferably productive, Slack, everything Google, Zoom, and then you're done. That's your life." Julia Rajic landed somewhere similar — "Google suite of things plus Slack plus something that does like project management basics... that would be my combo stack probably." And Melody MacKeand, if given a truly blank slate, said she would go with Teamwork as the PM platform, Slack for comms, and Google Docs for documentation — "because it's streamlined, easy, a bit cheaper in some ways, and allows for more flexibility."
Three different people, three slightly different specific tools — but the same underlying architecture. A PM platform. A communication layer. A documentation layer. Connected, simple, and built to scale without getting in the way.
Conclusion
There is no perfect universal stack. Every expert we spoke to acknowledged that agencies and teams are different, that needs change as organizations grow, and that the best tool is ultimately the one your team will actually use.
But the patterns here are hard to ignore. Slack for communication. Google Workspace for documentation. A PM platform that fits where you are right now — whether that's ClickUp, Asana, Jira, Teamwork, or something else — with an eye toward integration as you scale.
Matthew Fox put the challenge honestly: "I haven't found a great tool or even a great tool stack." But the experts we spoke to have gotten closer than most. Start with the fundamentals, resist the urge to over-engineer early, and build in the connections that will save you from chaos later. That's the real takeaway from everyone who's had to figure this out the hard way.