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Product manager lead vs product manager

The differences between product managers lead and product 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 lead and a product manager. Additionally, a product manager lead has an average salary of $138,531, which is higher than the $111,729 average annual salary of a product manager.

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

Product manager lead vs product manager overview

Product Manager LeadProduct Manager
Yearly salary$138,531$111,729
Hourly rate$66.60$53.72
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs110,157125,678
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
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 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.

Product manager lead vs product manager salary

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Manager
Average salary$138,531$111,729
Salary rangeBetween $99,000 And $192,000Between $81,000 And $152,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyThe Walt Disney CompanyMeta
Best paying industryStart-upRetail

Differences between product manager lead and product manager education

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Product manager lead vs product manager demographics

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

Product Manager LeadProduct Manager
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 69.4% Female, 30.6%Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7%
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 manager 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 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 manager lead vs product manager skills

Common product manager lead skills
  • Architecture, 8%
  • QA, 8%
  • Product Management, 8%
  • Product Strategy, 7%
  • Regression, 6%
  • Lifecycle Management, 5%
Common product manager skills
  • Product Management, 11%
  • QA, 5%
  • Product Strategy, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Market Research, 4%
  • User Stories, 4%

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