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The differences between product managers and user experience designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a product manager, becoming a user experience designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a product manager has an average salary of $111,729, which is higher than the $91,159 average annual salary of a user experience designer.
The top three skills for a product manager include product management, QA and product strategy. The most important skills for a user experience designer are sketch, UI, and user research.
| Product Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $111,729 | $91,159 |
| Hourly rate | $53.72 | $43.83 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 125,678 | 52,582 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 10 | 12 |
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 User Experience (UX) designer is an individual who measures and optimizes applications to improve the experience of end-users. His/Her or her duties and responsibilities include considering a design's human-computer interaction element, defining interaction models, and working with creative directors and designers. The key skills for UX designers include strong mathematical and problem-solving skills and excellent information technology and programming skills. Having a bachelor's degree in a design or computing-related subject is an advantage to qualify for the UX designer position.
Product managers and user experience designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Average salary | $111,729 | $91,159 |
| Salary range | Between $81,000 And $152,000 | Between $65,000 And $127,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Bruno, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Meta | BitGo |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Start-up |
There are a few differences between a product manager and a user experience designer in terms of educational background:
| Product Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Business | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between product managers' and user experience designers' demographics:
| Product Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7% | Male, 59.6% Female, 40.4% |
| 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, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 13% |