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Manager, product management vs product lead

The differences between managers, product management and product leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a manager, product management and a product lead. Additionally, a manager, product management has an average salary of $123,250, which is higher than the $118,828 average annual salary of a product lead.

The top three skills for a manager, product management include product management, healthcare and project management. The most important skills for a product lead are product management, project management, and architecture.

Manager, product management vs product lead overview

Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Yearly salary$123,250$118,828
Hourly rate$59.25$57.13
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs188,08395,557
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a manager, product management do?

A manager of product management's role is to supervise and oversee the design and development of new products and services, ensuring efficiency and customer satisfaction. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting research and analysis to determine new opportunities and demands of customers, keeping abreast of all the market trends, and collaborating with other designers and analysts to devise new ideas. One may also perform clerical tasks such as preparing progress reports, creating presentations, resolving issues and concerns, and maintaining data, all while adhering to the policies and regulations of the company.

What does a product lead do?

A product lead is responsible for monitoring the development of new products and services of an organization, starting from brand conceptualization to official market release and distribution. Product leads identify effective product management by conducting data analysis and evaluating market statistics of customer demands. They coordinate with the clients on their specifications and requirements, including the budget limit and timely deliverables. A product lead manages the brand promotion on media platforms, creating content that adheres to the target audience.

Manager, product management vs product lead salary

Managers, product management and product leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average salary$123,250$118,828
Salary rangeBetween $93,000 And $163,000Between $86,000 And $163,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaAirbnb
Best paying industryStart-upHospitality

Differences between manager, product management and product lead education

There are a few differences between a manager, product management and a product lead in terms of educational background:

Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of Wisconsin - MadisonUniversity of Georgia

Manager, product management vs product lead demographics

Here are the differences between managers, product management' and product leads' demographics:

Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 62.0% Female, 38.0%Male, 71.1% Female, 28.9%
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 manager, product management and product lead duties and responsibilities

Manager, product management example responsibilities.

  • Lead pricing strategy and GTM positioning and global price structures.
  • Lead multiple projects/programs in an agile environment conducting scrum ceremonies and delivering business value.
  • Conduct market/customer research; define requirements, KPIs.
  • Develop Java client code to utilize the new communication protocol.
  • Establish CRM database for golf market and develop performance measures to ensure sales utilization and compliance.
  • Implement CRM functionality find through market analysis eliminating client complaints.
  • Show more

Product lead example responsibilities.

  • Manage multiple teams of designers, information architects, and UI developers across various projects for desktop, mobile and tablets.
  • Design, manage, and implement internationalization QA process for radiology software in the European office.
  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
  • Lead UX designer for multiple scrum teams.
  • Develop the first versions of cloud base web services APIs to integrate enterprise applications as well as 3rd party applications.
  • Used a combination of extreme programming, scrum, traditional waterfall processes to establish a multi-location, engineering and support operation.
  • Show more

Manager, product management vs product lead skills

Common manager, product management skills
  • Product Management, 11%
  • Healthcare, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Patients, 4%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
  • Cloud, 3%
Common product lead skills
  • Product Management, 9%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • Digital Marketing, 5%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
  • Cloud, 4%

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