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Product manager vs product management director

The differences between product managers and product management 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 product manager and a product management director. Additionally, a product management director has an average salary of $156,724, which is higher than the $111,729 average annual salary of a product manager.

The top three skills for a product manager include product management, QA and product strategy. The most important skills for a product management director are product management, product strategy, and cloud.

Product manager vs product management director overview

Product ManagerProduct Management Director
Yearly salary$111,729$156,724
Hourly rate$53.72$75.35
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs125,678170,460
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a product manager do?

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.

What does a product management director do?

A Product Management Director is responsible for a business product planning as well as execution throughout the life cycle of the business. They create the product strategy and requirements, develop and execute tactical plans, and maintain product and market knowledge.

Product manager vs product management director salary

Product managers and product management directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

Product ManagerProduct Management Director
Average salary$111,729$156,724
Salary rangeBetween $81,000 And $152,000Between $112,000 And $219,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryRetailTechnology

Differences between product manager and product management director education

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

Product ManagerProduct Management Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Product manager vs product management director demographics

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

Product ManagerProduct Management Director
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 65.3% Female, 34.7%Male, 77.1% Female, 22.9%
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 product manager and product management director duties and responsibilities

Product manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead collaborative efforts within the PMO, vendors, customers, and internal stakeholders.
  • Manage developers accountable for coding, database development, UI implementation, and system architecture.
  • Manage inventory service levels / overstocks /defective inventory and supplier buy-in opportunities to maximize ROI.
  • Lead customization of the company's administrative SaaS software solution by defining features and functionality for internal/external stakeholder teams.
  • Lead weekly meetings between engineering, sales/marketing, and QA departments to facilitate communication, collaboration and resolution of product issues.
  • Handle design and specification of administration system requirements to efficiently manage, operate, and support client API configurations and sessions.
  • Show more

Product management director example responsibilities.

  • Lead initiatives across broad categories ranging from search engine optimization to promotions and CRM to customer retention.
  • Deploy a highly customize third-party CRM and sales management software, managing $40MM annual ad sales revenue.
  • Manage a team of 8 developers , 3 editors , 1 QA person, and 1 graphic designer.
  • Manage cross-functional projects to integrate new products and features into the roadmap and GTM approach and drive adoption.
  • Manage the product management, business analyst, and UI teams in the development of a new class of EMM applications.
  • Manage the design development process from designer sketch handover to bulk production delivery.
  • Show more

Product manager vs product management director skills

Common product manager skills
  • Product Management, 11%
  • QA, 5%
  • Product Strategy, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • User Stories, 4%
Common product management director skills
  • Product Management, 13%
  • Product Strategy, 7%
  • Cloud, 6%
  • Analytics, 5%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • Product Roadmap, 4%

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