Director, product & project management vs product development manager

The differences between directors, product & project management and product development managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a director, product & project management and a product development manager. Additionally, a director, product & project management has an average salary of $129,963, which is higher than the $113,437 average annual salary of a product development manager.

The top three skills for a director, product & project management include customer satisfaction, architecture and product development. The most important skills for a product development manager are product development, project management, and lifecycle management.

Director, product & project management vs product development manager overview

	Director, Product & Project Management	Product Development Manager
Yearly salary	$129,963	$113,437
Hourly rate	$62.48	$54.54
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	214,699	166,871
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	10	10

Director, product & project management vs product development manager salary

Directors, product & project management and product development managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Director, Product & Project Management	Product Development Manager
Average salary	$129,963	$113,437
Salary range	Between $94,000 And $178,000	Between $84,000 And $152,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Nevada
Best paying company	-	Meta
Best paying industry	-	Retail

Differences between director, product & project management and product development manager education

There are a few differences between a director, product & project management and a product development manager in terms of educational background:

	Director, Product & Project Management	Product Development Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Director, product & project management vs product development manager demographics

Here are the differences between directors, product & project management' and product development managers' demographics:

	Director, Product & Project Management	Product Development Manager
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 67.9% Female, 32.1%	Male, 62.2% Female, 37.8%
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, 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	10%	10%

Differences between director, product & project management and product development manager duties and responsibilities

Director, product & project management example responsibilities.

Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
Review design and perform QA testing of deliver products.
Perform QA testing, and direct internal alpha testing and customer beta testing.
Redesign core SaaS product to add industry-leading functionality and enterprise platform.
Develop detailed cloud products opportunity analysis, XaaS service matrix, value proposition, build/buy/partner analysis, and financial business case.
Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.

Product development manager example responsibilities.

Used PLM tools to track, manage, and organize the development process.
Design front-end UX for e-tailor website, manage customer service tracking and CRM solutions.
Manage the entire development and implementation process for a $750K SaaS solution for education.
Lead acquisition of StudyinBritain.com, expanding client base to schools in the UK and Ireland.
Lead development of open API, blogs, custom video player, numerous sites, and internal applications.
Establish reliable and predictable agile process, with measure KPIs and quantitative metrics; manage release schedule and risk.

Director, product & project management vs product development manager skills

Common director, product & project management skills

Customer Satisfaction, 45%
Architecture, 36%
Product Development, 3%
Project Management, 3%
Product Management, 1%
Web Content, 1%

Common product development manager skills

Product Development, 11%
Project Management, 9%
Lifecycle Management, 7%
Product Management, 6%
R, 5%
Customer Service, 4%

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Director, Product & Project Management
Director, Product & Project Management vs Product Development Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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