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The differences between senior business analysts and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a senior business analyst, 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 $96,844 average annual salary of a senior business analyst.
The top three skills for a senior business analyst include project management, business analysis and data analysis. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Senior Business Analyst | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $96,844 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $46.56 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 129,426 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | 4 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 10 |
A Senior Business Analyst's responsibilities may vary upon the organization or company. However, most of the time, the duties will focus on overseeing a company's business operation to analyze risks and come up with strategies that would boost financial gains and company efficiency. A Senior Business Analyst will work closely with various teams while monitoring and evaluating their performance and progress, coordinate with departments, lead fellow skilled professionals, gather and analyze data, and identify opportunities. All while prioritizing customer satisfaction and adhering to the company policies and standards.
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.
Senior business analysts and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Business Analyst | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $96,844 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $72,000 And $129,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Mateo, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a senior business analyst and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Senior Business Analyst | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between senior business analysts' and product owners' demographics:
| Senior Business Analyst | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 56.0% Female, 44.0% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.0% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | 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 | 11% | 10% |