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Director, strategic initiatives vs product director

The differences between directors, strategic initiatives 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 director, strategic initiatives and a product director. Additionally, a product director has an average salary of $148,910, which is higher than the $110,532 average annual salary of a director, strategic initiatives.

The top three skills for a director, strategic initiatives include project management, oversight and business development. The most important skills for a product director are product management, product strategy, and project management.

Director, strategic initiatives vs product director overview

Director, Strategic InitiativesProduct Director
Yearly salary$110,532$148,910
Hourly rate$53.14$71.59
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs32,990125,200
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a director, strategic initiatives do?

A director of strategic initiatives spearheads the business planning efforts in a company, ensuring efficiency and profit growth. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to determine the best practices for optimal operations, coordinating with analysts and other experts to devise strategies to improve existing systems and procedures, and managing budgets in adherence to the goals and needs of a company. Furthermore, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach new heights, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

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.

Director, strategic initiatives vs product director salary

Directors, strategic initiatives and product directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Director, Strategic InitiativesProduct Director
Average salary$110,532$148,910
Salary rangeBetween $71,000 And $171,000Between $104,000 And $212,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMcKinsey & Company IncMeta
Best paying industryFinanceInternet

Differences between director, strategic initiatives and product director education

There are a few differences between a director, strategic initiatives and a product director in terms of educational background:

Director, Strategic InitiativesProduct Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Director, strategic initiatives vs product director demographics

Here are the differences between directors, strategic initiatives' and product directors' demographics:

Director, Strategic InitiativesProduct Director
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 57.0% Female, 43.0%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 director, strategic initiatives and product director duties and responsibilities

Director, strategic initiatives example responsibilities.

  • Leverage native CRM service calendar to automate sales appointment and service activity scheduling & dispatch.
  • Lead central team summarizing and prioritizing all DOD opportunities, enabling more efficient and effective resource allocation across several program departments.
  • Recruit to develop programs / services to attract Medicare patients.
  • Prepare the marketing video and maintain the event website, and Facebook group.
  • Implement new CRM processes including new quoting solution, reducing time to quote from hours to minutes.
  • Create a business plan that demonstrate ROI associate with an untap customer market (sleep hybrids).
  • 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

Director, strategic initiatives vs product director skills

Common director, strategic initiatives skills
  • Project Management, 12%
  • Oversight, 7%
  • Business Development, 7%
  • Business Cases, 5%
  • Program Development, 5%
  • Process Improvement, 4%
Common product director skills
  • Product Management, 10%
  • Product Strategy, 6%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Product Roadmap, 5%
  • Product Design, 4%
  • Software Development, 4%

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