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Senior manager, product management vs product lead

The differences between senior managers, product management and product leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a senior manager, product management and a product lead. Additionally, a senior manager, product management has an average salary of $137,551, which is higher than the $118,828 average annual salary of a product lead.

The top three skills for a senior manager, product management include product management, SR and product development. The most important skills for a product lead are product management, project management, and architecture.

Senior manager, product management vs product lead overview

Senior Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Yearly salary$137,551$118,828
Hourly rate$66.13$57.13
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs204,09095,557
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age3939
Years of experience1010

What does a senior manager, product management do?

A senior product manager is responsible for handling the product management processes, identifying product improvement strategies, and launching the product brand on various market and media platforms. Senior product managers work closely with the marketing and public relations team to promote product releases through digital content publishing, media interviews, and social events. They also coordinate with the clients on progress updates, provide statistical analysis, and inform them of any adjustments on product development procedures. A senior product manager should have excellent critical-thinking and organizational skills in implementing and expanding product awareness to the public within budget goals and set timeframes.

What does a product lead do?

A product lead is responsible for monitoring the development of new products and services of an organization, starting from brand conceptualization to official market release and distribution. Product leads identify effective product management by conducting data analysis and evaluating market statistics of customer demands. They coordinate with the clients on their specifications and requirements, including the budget limit and timely deliverables. A product lead manages the brand promotion on media platforms, creating content that adheres to the target audience.

Senior manager, product management vs product lead salary

Senior managers, product management and product leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average salary$137,551$118,828
Salary rangeBetween $102,000 And $185,000Between $86,000 And $163,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateOregonCalifornia
Best paying companyCoinbaseAirbnb
Best paying industryRetailHospitality

Differences between senior manager, product management and product lead education

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

Senior Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia

Senior manager, product management vs product lead demographics

Here are the differences between senior managers, product management' and product leads' demographics:

Senior Manager, Product ManagementProduct Lead
Average age3939
Gender ratioMale, 72.5% Female, 27.5%Male, 71.1% Female, 28.9%
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 senior manager, product management and product lead duties and responsibilities

Senior manager, product management example responsibilities.

  • Develop and manage technology partner program, including OEM, reseller, and referral relationships.
  • Manage CRM implementation leading to efficient operations and improve customer care.
  • Developed/Manage marketing budget; negotiate and manage agency relationships to provide an optimal ROI on marketing investments.
  • Develop partnerships and strategic alliances for vehicle content delivery platform and back end cloud infrastructure.
  • Champion the acquisition of three small companies whose IP strengthen application portfolio.
  • Expend to cover virtualization environments for making a more complete range of product supports.
  • Show more

Product lead example responsibilities.

  • Manage multiple teams of designers, information architects, and UI developers across various projects for desktop, mobile and tablets.
  • Design, manage, and implement internationalization QA process for radiology software in the European office.
  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
  • Lead UX designer for multiple scrum teams.
  • Develop the first versions of cloud base web services APIs to integrate enterprise applications as well as 3rd party applications.
  • Used a combination of extreme programming, scrum, traditional waterfall processes to establish a multi-location, engineering and support operation.
  • Show more

Senior manager, product management vs product lead skills

Common senior manager, product management skills
  • Product Management, 12%
  • SR, 5%
  • Product Development, 5%
  • Product Vision, 4%
  • Product Roadmap, 4%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
Common product lead skills
  • Product Management, 9%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • Digital Marketing, 5%
  • Lifecycle Management, 4%
  • Cloud, 4%

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