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Product manager lead vs product management director

The differences between product managers lead 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 lead and a product management director. Additionally, a product management director has an average salary of $156,724, which is higher than the $138,531 average annual salary of a product manager lead.

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

Product manager lead vs product management director overview

Product Manager LeadProduct Management Director
Yearly salary$138,531$156,724
Hourly rate$66.60$75.35
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs110,157170,460
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a product manager lead do?

A product manager lead is responsible for supervising the development and strategic launch of the company's products from conceptualization to final market release. Product managers work closely with the marketing and sales team to identify efficient promotional techniques to enhance the brand's image across the market and develop outstanding features according to trends and public demands. They also handle media commitments and press releases and maximize product vision. A product manager lead directs the budgeting and sales forecasting, ensuring that the process adheres to budget limitations and deadlines.

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 lead vs product management director salary

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Management Director
Average salary$138,531$156,724
Salary rangeBetween $99,000 And $192,000Between $112,000 And $219,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyThe Walt Disney CompanyMeta
Best paying industryStart-upTechnology

Differences between product manager lead and product management director education

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Management Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Product manager lead vs product management director demographics

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Management Director
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 69.4% Female, 30.6%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 lead and product management director duties and responsibilities

Product manager lead example responsibilities.

  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
  • Work alongside a team of 24 frontend and backend engineers, designers and QA engineers.
  • Develop overall market and product requirements for WiMAX smart antenna base stations, customer premise equipment and wireless management infrastructure.
  • Used source codes for tracking programs against marketing costs for ROI analysis.
  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.

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 lead vs product management director skills

Common product manager lead skills
  • Architecture, 8%
  • QA, 8%
  • Product Management, 8%
  • Product Strategy, 7%
  • Regression, 6%
  • Lifecycle Management, 5%
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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