Data product manager vs data scientist

The differences between data product managers and data scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a data product manager, becoming a data scientist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a data product manager has an average salary of $117,599, which is higher than the $106,104 average annual salary of a data scientist.

The top three skills for a data product manager include product management, BI and QA. The most important skills for a data scientist are python, data science, and visualization.

Data product manager vs data scientist overview

	Data Product Manager	Data Scientist
Yearly salary	$117,599	$106,104
Hourly rate	$56.54	$51.01
Growth rate	10%	16%
Number of jobs	189,532	106,973
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age	39	41
Years of experience	10	4

What does a data product manager do?

A data product manager is responsible for supervising the data flow within the product management process, ensuring that the data address the product's features and functionality. Data product managers analyze data statistics by conducting surveys and reviewing reports, adjusting business plans according to the results. They also coordinate with the clients to inform them of progress updates and assist with their additional requirements and requests. A data product manager must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially in performing quality control procedures before releasing final product outputs.

What does a data scientist do?

A Data Scientist analyzes information from multiple sources in order to gain maximum insight that can give the company a competitive advantage. They work in different domains, including manufacturing, healthcare, education, and finance.

Data product manager vs data scientist salary

Data product managers and data scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Data Product Manager	Data Scientist
Average salary	$117,599	$106,104
Salary range	Between $87,000 And $158,000	Between $75,000 And $148,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Credit Karma	The Citadel
Best paying industry	Start-up	Start-up

Differences between data product manager and data scientist education

There are a few differences between a data product manager and a data scientist in terms of educational background:

	Data Product Manager	Data Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	University of Georgia	Columbia University in the City of New York

Data product manager vs data scientist demographics

Here are the differences between data product managers' and data scientists' demographics:

	Data Product Manager	Data Scientist
Average age	39	41
Gender ratio	Male, 64.2% Female, 35.8%	Male, 79.6% Female, 20.4%
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, 4.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 6.9% Asian, 18.8% White, 64.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	10%	9%

Differences between data product manager and data scientist duties and responsibilities

Data product manager example responsibilities.

Manage translation and QA testing of data warehouse software.
Align with customer need for market fundamentals, GIS layers, and infrastructure asset trackers by managing portfolio of custom datasets.
Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
Contribute to and attend scrum activities (stand-ups, poker planning, sprint planning, sprint review, retrospective).
Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.

Data scientist example responsibilities.

Update, maintain, and manage regional CRM database and records for customers, vendors, and suppliers.
Configure and manage JobScope ERP system for a make-to-order/make-to-stock design and manufacturing environment.
Lead the analysis in SAS for data integration of mortality data using meta-analysis integration methods.
Implement a proximal stochastic gradient descent with a line search to fit a regularize logistic regression in Scala
Perform cross-validation-test on linear regression model of data using scikit-learn.
Develop python base statistical visualization to provide insights of fuzzy social media data.

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Data product manager vs data scientist skills

Common data product manager skills

Product Management, 14%
BI, 12%
QA, 9%
Regression, 9%
Product Roadmap, 6%
Project Management, 5%

Common data scientist skills

Python, 13%
Data Science, 10%
Visualization, 5%
Java, 4%
Hadoop, 4%
Tableau, 3%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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