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The differences between product managers and product owners 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 owner. Additionally, a product manager has an average salary of $111,729, which is higher than the $97,070 average annual salary of a product owner.
The top three skills for a product manager include product management, QA and product strategy. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Product Manager | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $111,729 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $53.72 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 125,678 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| 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.
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.
Product managers and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $111,729 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $81,000 And $152,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a product manager and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Product Manager | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between product managers' and product owners' demographics:
| Product Manager | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| 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% |