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Program manager vs product owner

The differences between program managers and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a product owner has an average salary of $97,070, which is higher than the $96,084 average annual salary of a program manager.

The top three skills for a program manager include project management, program management and oversight. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.

Program manager vs product owner overview

Program ManagerProduct Owner
Yearly salary$96,084$97,070
Hourly rate$46.19$46.67
Growth rate12%10%
Number of jobs197,556129,990
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age4739
Years of experience-10

What does a program manager do?

A program manager is responsible for monitoring the project's progress, improving and developing new strategies, and coordinate various projects across the organization to ensure the success of the business objective. Program managers also manage the program's expenses, ensuring that the projects adhere to the budget goals without compromising the quality and accuracy of the result. A program manager should regularly connect with the different teams of every project under the program to keep track of the processes and procedures for the timely delivery of the product.

What does a product owner do?

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.

Program manager vs product owner salary

Program managers and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.

Program ManagerProduct Owner
Average salary$96,084$97,070
Salary rangeBetween $65,000 And $141,000Between $71,000 And $130,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaORIX USA
Best paying industryTechnologyManufacturing

Differences between program manager and product owner education

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

Program ManagerProduct Owner
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Georgia

Program manager vs product owner demographics

Here are the differences between program managers' and product owners' demographics:

Program ManagerProduct Owner
Average age4739
Gender ratioMale, 52.9% Female, 47.1%Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 8.9% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%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 program manager and product owner duties and responsibilities

Program manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead managed services provider engagement of onshore and offshore interactive development and QA for pharmaceutical marketing department.
  • Lead multiple team workshops and initiate RFP proposals.
  • Manage the work process across projects as per PMI standards.
  • Develop, manage, and oversee EMBA study abroad in-residencies to Asia.
  • Manage content updates for all salesforce marketing materials, print and digital.
  • Manage the service level expectations with client agencies by monitoring and assessment establish KPIs, agreements and contracts.
    • Show more

Product owner example responsibilities.

  • Manage remote teams to port core and legacy components into AWS.
  • Manage a global team to create Java base EDI / XML / XSL mapping suite.
  • Gather and define requirements for the BSS require to operate and manage the SaaS offerings.
  • Serve as technical contact for affiliate partners during API integration and create and manage API documentation.
  • Manage the team to redesign the Java base desktop trading community management product to a web base portal.
  • Used Microsoft TFS to manage project phases, sprints and burn down chart of various stages of SDLC.
    • Show more

Program manager vs product owner skills

Common program manager skills
  • Project Management, 11%
  • Program Management, 11%
  • Oversight, 6%
  • Customer Service, 4%
  • Infrastructure, 3%
  • Excellent Organizational, 3%
Common product owner skills
  • User Stories, 10%
  • Acceptance Criteria, 7%
  • Product Backlog, 5%
  • Analytics, 5%
  • Product Management, 4%
  • EPICS, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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