Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between product managers lead 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 lead and a product owner. Additionally, a product manager lead has an average salary of $138,531, which is higher than the $97,070 average annual salary of a product owner.
The top three skills for a product manager lead include architecture, QA and product management. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Product Manager Lead | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $138,531 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $66.60 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 110,157 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 10 | 10 |
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.
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 lead and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Manager Lead | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $138,531 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $99,000 And $192,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | The Walt Disney Company | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a product manager lead and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Product Manager Lead | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | 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 lead' and product owners' demographics:
| Product Manager Lead | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 69.4% Female, 30.6% | 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% |