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The differences between product specialists and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a product specialist, becoming a product owner takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a product owner has an average salary of $97,070, which is higher than the $85,932 average annual salary of a product specialist.
The top three skills for a product specialist include customer service, product knowledge and sales floor. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Product Specialist | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $85,932 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $41.31 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 19% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 103,863 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 37 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 10 |
A product specialist is required to have excellent knowledge about a product and work with a business unit to ensure excellent product delivery. Product specialists perform product demonstrations to customers and other stakeholders and assist in their promotions and product releases. To gain increased revenue, product specialists must be able to identify new market opportunities. They are required to conduct product and sales training for the marketing team. They must also provide reports about their product-related activities to the management.
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 specialists and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Specialist | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $85,932 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $56,000 And $130,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Bruno, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | ByteDance | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a product specialist and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Product Specialist | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Georgia | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between product specialists' and product owners' demographics:
| Product Specialist | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 37 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 59.8% Female, 40.2% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 10.6% White, 66.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | 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% |