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The differences between change 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 a change manager, becoming a product owner takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a product owner has an average salary of $97,070, which is higher than the $96,652 average annual salary of a change manager.
The top three skills for a change manager include project management, organizational change management and portfolio. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Change Manager | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $96,652 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $46.47 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 16% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 79,685 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 47 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 10 |
The primary role of a change manager is to ensure the timely achievement of corporate projects. Change managers will see to it that the projects are on the budget allotted by the company through heightened employee usage and adoption. They focus on changes in technology and systems, organizational structure, job roles, and business processes. The most significant skills for this job include strategic analysis, digital literacy, leadership, and communication skills.
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.
Change managers and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Change Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $96,652 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $72,000 And $128,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a change manager and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Change Manager | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between change managers' and product owners' demographics:
| Change Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 47 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 56.7% Female, 43.3% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.8% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.2% Asian, 12.6% White, 65.0% 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% |