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Product lead vs product marketing manager

The differences between product leads and product marketing 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 product lead and a product marketing manager. Additionally, a product lead has an average salary of $118,828, which is higher than the $112,220 average annual salary of a product marketing manager.

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

Product lead vs product marketing manager overview

Product LeadProduct Marketing Manager
Yearly salary$118,828$112,220
Hourly rate$57.13$53.95
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs95,557166,047
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

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.

What does a product marketing manager do?

A product marketing manager is responsible for managing the company's goods and services, promoting brand awareness, developing effective marketing campaigns to attract existing and potential clients, generating more revenues, and achieving its profitability goals. Product marketing managers must have excellent knowledge of the marketing industry, as well as broad ideas on the current industry trends to meet clients' demands and identify business opportunities. A product marketing manager should be highly communicative and display excellent leadership skills to work with other departments and respond to clients' inquiries and concerns timely and efficiently.

Product lead vs product marketing manager salary

Product leads and product marketing managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Product LeadProduct Marketing Manager
Average salary$118,828$112,220
Salary rangeBetween $86,000 And $163,000Between $83,000 And $149,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAirbnbCredit Karma
Best paying industryHospitalityTechnology

Differences between product lead and product marketing manager education

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

Product LeadProduct Marketing Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Product lead vs product marketing manager demographics

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

Product LeadProduct Marketing Manager
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 71.1% Female, 28.9%Male, 61.6% Female, 38.4%
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 product lead and product marketing manager duties and responsibilities

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

Product marketing manager example responsibilities.

  • Manage IP and IPX VPN solutions, including definition of next generation ipsec-base products.
  • Manage execution of retail signage (POS) and cross promotions for grocery partners.
  • Lead a global team representing the commercial interests of the Americas, Europe and Asia.
  • Define, design and manage next generation intranet product incorporating HTML, CGI, and JAVA.
  • Define the product and manage the development of a line of switch mode power supplies for the PC & general market.
  • Lead product development and business development of emerging mobile and cloud solutions.
  • Show more

Product lead vs product marketing manager skills

Common product lead skills
  • Product Management, 9%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • Digital Marketing, 5%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
  • Cloud, 4%
Common product marketing manager skills
  • Digital Marketing, 7%
  • Product Management, 7%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Marketing Campaigns, 5%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • B2B Marketing, 4%

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