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The differences between application managers and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become an application manager, becoming a product owner takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, an application manager has an average salary of $122,748, which is higher than the $97,070 average annual salary of a product owner.
The top three skills for an application manager include customer service, project management and application development. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Application Manager | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $122,748 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $59.01 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 16% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 125,760 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 47 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 10 |
An application manager is in charge of overseeing software applications and systems within a company, ensuring efficiency and quality. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around conducting research and analysis to identify company needs, assessing existing applications to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and implementing solutions to optimize the quality of services. They may also conduct regular maintenance checks to ensure the efficiency of applications, performing corrective measures when necessary. Furthermore, as an application manager, it is essential to coordinate with the information technology staff, encouraging them to reach goals and new heights.
Product owners are at the forefront of an organization's development cycle. They have various duties and responsibilities, which include ensuring that the value of products created by the development team is maximized, creating a vision and defining the goals for development projects, and working closely with all stakeholders. As the product owner, you are responsible for ensuring that the development team maintains a consistent vision and overseeing the product backlog. You are also expected to supervise the actual product development stages and anticipate the needs of clients.
Application managers and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Application Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $122,748 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $93,000 And $160,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Roku | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between an application manager and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Application Manager | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between application managers' and product owners' demographics:
| Application Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 47 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 71.1% Female, 28.9% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.8% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.2% Asian, 13.5% White, 64.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 10% |