Chief product officer vs director of product development

The differences between chief product officers and directors of product development can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes More than 10 years to become a chief product officer, becoming a director of product development takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a director of product development has an average salary of $140,507, which is higher than the $134,865 average annual salary of a chief product officer.

The top three skills for a chief product officer include CPO, patrol and patients. The most important skills for a director of product development are product development, project management, and product management.

Chief product officer vs director of product development overview

	Chief Product Officer	Director Of Product Development
Yearly salary	$134,865	$140,507
Hourly rate	$64.84	$67.55
Growth rate	6%	10%
Number of jobs	145,190	175,429
Job satisfaction	4	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age	52	39
Years of experience	-	10

What does a chief product officer do?

A chief product officer (CPO) is an executive professional who is responsible for managing a company's product management team to create products that can deliver sustainable value to both customers and the business. This executive must lead the strategic product direction, which includes product vision, design, development, and marketing. To get insights from the needs of customers, this executive is required to initiate various types of customer research to use it to differentiate products from competitors. This chief product officer must also take part in exhibitions to present products to the audience.

What does a director of product development do?

A Director of Product Development supervises and implements product development policies, initiatives, and objectives. They conduct market research to determine consumer needs and identify competitors.

Chief product officer vs director of product development salary

Chief product officers and directors of product development have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Chief Product Officer	Director Of Product Development
Average salary	$134,865	$140,507
Salary range	Between $74,000 And $242,000	Between $100,000 And $196,000
Highest paying City	Newark, NJ	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	New Jersey	California
Best paying company	McKinsey & Company Inc	Apple
Best paying industry	Professional	Manufacturing

Differences between chief product officer and director of product development education

There are a few differences between a chief product officer and a director of product development in terms of educational background:

	Chief Product Officer	Director Of Product Development
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Chief product officer vs director of product development demographics

Here are the differences between chief product officers' and directors of product development' demographics:

	Chief Product Officer	Director Of Product Development
Average age	52	39
Gender ratio	Male, 71.4% Female, 28.6%	Male, 72.0% Female, 28.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.7% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 7.5% White, 76.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	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	12%	10%

Differences between chief product officer and director of product development duties and responsibilities

Chief product officer example responsibilities.

Manage day-to-day research & development, manufacturing, quality control, branding, logistics, and customer support.
Monitor and assess patients with responsibility for managing medications, treatments and emergency response.
Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
Instruct lifeguard, CPR, and a classes.
Certificate and OSHA compliant course offerings
Audit and ensure OSHA compliance.

Director of product development example responsibilities.

Organize and manage project meetings between partners, vendors, and associates using both scrum and waterfall methodologies.
Manage long-term care, hospital transition, and Medicaid- Medicare expansion initiatives, that includes model of care design and implementation )
Manage packaging design and nutritional labeling within QA guidelines.
Manage company intellectual portfolio and develop key relationships with vendors and clients including leading global technology companies.
Develop using Java, JSP, J2EE, CSS, DHTML, HTML, Plugins and JavaScript.
Prepare proposals for new projects, including project feasibility, ROI, expenses and costs.

Chief product officer vs director of product development skills

Common chief product officer skills

CPO, 25%
Patrol, 11%
Patients, 8%
Safety Hazards, 5%
Criminal Justice, 4%
Project Management, 4%

Common director of product development skills

Product Development, 12%
Project Management, 9%
Product Management, 9%
R, 7%
Product Strategy, 4%
Market Research, 3%

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Chief Product Officer
Chief Product Officer vs Director Of Product Development

Updated January 8, 2025

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