Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between business product managers and business unit managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a business product manager, becoming a business unit manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a business product manager has an average salary of $123,607, which is higher than the $122,782 average annual salary of a business unit manager.
The top three skills for a business product manager include product management, project management and market research. The most important skills for a business unit manager are continuous improvement, customer service, and product line.
| Business Product Manager | Business Unit Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $123,607 | $122,782 |
| Hourly rate | $59.43 | $59.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 189,393 | 295,151 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 39 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 10 | 6 |
A business product manager is primarily in charge of overseeing a company's product and service development procedures, ensuring quality and marketability. Their responsibilities typically revolve around gathering and analyzing data to understand and identify product requirements, coordinating with the engineering and quality control teams, determining the marketing opportunities, managing the roadmaps, and developing strategies to meet the consumers' needs. Furthermore, as a business product manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
A business unit manager handles a unit or segment of the company. This unit may be a specialized team on specific projects or a part of a significant production process. The business unit manager ensures that the unit works efficiently and productively by implementing strategies and techniques that will enhance the productive output. A business unit manager also provides suggestions, offers solutions to problems, handles tasks delegation, planning production processes, and training and monitoring of employees in a unit.
Business product managers and business unit managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Business Product Manager | Business Unit Manager | |
| Average salary | $123,607 | $122,782 |
| Salary range | Between $88,000 And $173,000 | Between $81,000 And $184,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | East Providence, RI |
| Highest paying state | California | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | Meta | Citi |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a business product manager and a business unit manager in terms of educational background:
| Business Product Manager | Business Unit Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between business product managers' and business unit managers' demographics:
| Business Product Manager | Business Unit Manager | |
| Average age | 39 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 64.1% Female, 35.9% | Male, 82.8% Female, 17.2% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |