Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between product managers and product line 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 manager and a product line manager. Additionally, a product manager has an average salary of $111,729, which is higher than the $97,237 average annual salary of a product line manager.
The top three skills for a product manager include product management, QA and product strategy. The most important skills for a product line manager are product management, customer service, and PLM.
| Product Manager | Product Line Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $111,729 | $97,237 |
| Hourly rate | $53.72 | $46.75 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 125,678 | 158,908 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 10 | 10 |
A product manager is responsible for ensuring product development, providing the best marketing strategies, and effectively handling the sales and marketing team. Product managers' duties include monitoring the market trends and conditions, identifying business opportunities and plan initiatives, and collaborating the product launch process with the appropriate departments. A product manager is also responsible for generating ideas on improving product features, determining timetables and reasonable pricing, and analyzing product sales. A product manager must have excellent strategic and decision-making skills to contribute to its growth and profitability.
A product line manager is an individual who provides product and market intelligence by increasing the market share of a company. Product line managers must create competitive analysis and interpret market trends so that they can provide recommendations and guidance to the company. They are required to identify target markets and should come up with strategies for market penetration. Product line managers must also monitor the creation and development of new products as well as to measure the success of the products in the market.
Product managers and product line managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Manager | Product Line Manager | |
| Average salary | $111,729 | $97,237 |
| Salary range | Between $81,000 And $152,000 | Between $52,000 And $178,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | ON Semiconductor |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Energy |
There are a few differences between a product manager and a product line manager in terms of educational background:
| Product Manager | Product Line Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between product managers' and product line managers' demographics:
| Product Manager | Product Line Manager | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7% | Male, 78.8% Female, 21.2% |
| 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% |