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The differences between functional leads and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a functional lead, becoming a product owner takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a functional lead has an average salary of $113,422, which is higher than the $97,070 average annual salary of a product owner.
The top three skills for a functional lead include ERP, client facing and enterprise solutions. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Functional Lead | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $113,422 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $54.53 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 33,917 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 43 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 10 |
Functional leads are professionals who analyze business requirements and provide system design while implementing system solutions for various business initiatives. These professionals must work with clients and internal stakeholders to identify and understand the functional or business requirements. They must analyze and solve complex system problems so that they can improve the organization's overall Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development and support process. Functional leads must also facilitate a team to design document control procedures that can significantly reduce process cycle time and cost.
Product owners are at the forefront of an organization's development cycle. They have various duties and responsibilities, which include ensuring that the value of products created by the development team is maximized, creating a vision and defining the goals for development projects, and working closely with all stakeholders. As the product owner, you are responsible for ensuring that the development team maintains a consistent vision and overseeing the product backlog. You are also expected to supervise the actual product development stages and anticipate the needs of clients.
Functional leads and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Functional Lead | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $113,422 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $85,000 And $149,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | Sunnyvale, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Airbnb | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a functional lead and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Functional Lead | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between functional leads' and product owners' demographics:
| Functional Lead | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 43 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 68.1% Female, 31.9% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 24.9% White, 52.1% 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 | 8% | 10% |