Post job

Digital product manager vs product director

The differences between digital product managers and product directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a digital product manager and a product director. Additionally, a product director has an average salary of $148,910, which is higher than the $98,127 average annual salary of a digital product manager.

The top three skills for a digital product manager include product management, digital marketing and user experience. The most important skills for a product director are product management, product strategy, and project management.

Digital product manager vs product director overview

Digital Product ManagerProduct Director
Yearly salary$98,127$148,910
Hourly rate$47.18$71.59
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs129,203125,200
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a digital product manager do?

It is the key role of digital product managers to develop new online products or services. They handle the company's existing products and determine strategies to improve the products through market data. It is their duty to articulate their business value to better understand the creation of the new product. A background and knowledge in digital technology is a requirement. They should develop skills in communication, marketing, delegation, analytics, business management, and market research.

What does a product director do?

The duties of a product director depend on one's place or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around overseeing the product development operations to ensure smooth flow and efficiency, devise strategies to improve processes, gather relevant data such as sales and customer feedback, and coordinate with different departments in developing new products and services. Furthermore, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage departments to meet goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations, including its mission and vision.

Digital product manager vs product director salary

Digital product managers and product directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Digital Product ManagerProduct Director
Average salary$98,127$148,910
Salary rangeBetween $70,000 And $136,000Between $104,000 And $212,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMcKinsey & Company IncMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyInternet

Differences between digital product manager and product director education

There are a few differences between a digital product manager and a product director in terms of educational background:

Digital Product ManagerProduct Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Digital product manager vs product director demographics

Here are the differences between digital product managers' and product directors' demographics:

Digital Product ManagerProduct Director
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 61.2% Female, 38.8%Male, 72.4% Female, 27.6%
Race ratioBlack 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, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between digital product manager and product director duties and responsibilities

Digital product manager example responsibilities.

  • Collect, manage and CSS, basic report data.
  • Supervise and independently manage video content for high traffic YouTube and SEO rankings.
  • Lead the Spanish site to triple digit growth in bottom line profit YOY.
  • Manage ROI, vision, and backlog prioritization as product owner in agile/scrum environment.
  • Manage the strategic evolution of online support from consumer (B2C) to enterprise (B2B).
  • Manage information architecture for iOS mobile applications.
  • Show more

Product director example responsibilities.

  • Lead the overall site ISO implementation.
  • Manage Salesforce integration to SaaS platform and client systems.
  • Lead SaaS application visibility and performance monitoring in hybrid enterprise to accelerate adoption of cloud.
  • Utilize SQL to support data-driven analysis and decision processes to inform project prioritization, assess feature effectiveness, and troubleshoot issues.
  • Interact with FDA, CDC, and other external agencies as required to introduce novel molecular products into the market.
  • Spearhead transformation of the organization to modern best practices, ISO & lean manufacturing.
  • Show more

Digital product manager vs product director skills

Common digital product manager skills
  • Product Management, 8%
  • Digital Marketing, 5%
  • User Experience, 5%
  • Digital Transformation, 4%
  • User Stories, 4%
  • Market Research, 4%
Common product director skills
  • Product Management, 10%
  • Product Strategy, 6%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Product Roadmap, 5%
  • Product Design, 4%
  • Software Development, 4%

Browse executive management jobs