Team manager vs product owner

The differences between team managers 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 team manager, 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 $82,017 average annual salary of a team manager.

The top three skills for a team manager include patients, taking care and project management. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.

Team manager vs product owner overview

	Team Manager	Product Owner
Yearly salary	$82,017	$97,070
Hourly rate	$39.43	$46.67
Growth rate	-	10%
Number of jobs	96,615	129,990
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	47	39
Years of experience	6	10

What does a team manager do?

Team managers primarily manage the daily activities of their members. Their role includes setting targets, implementing guidelines, and supporting employees to solve any issues that may arise. It is their duty to make sure that the team's objectives are fully understood by all members and that they work closely to fulfill them. They must ensure that all of their members are working towards a common goal through constant monitoring. To manage the team, they may utilize certain principles, such as the SMART principle. They also train members to see to it that their goals are distinct, measurable, attainable, and timely.

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.

Team manager vs product owner salary

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

	Team Manager	Product Owner
Average salary	$82,017	$97,070
Salary range	Between $44,000 And $152,000	Between $71,000 And $130,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	California
Best paying company	Meta	ORIX USA
Best paying industry	-	Manufacturing

Differences between team manager and product owner education

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

	Team Manager	Product Owner
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	California State University - Bakersfield	University of Georgia

Team manager vs product owner demographics

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

	Team Manager	Product Owner
Average age	47	39
Gender ratio	Male, 55.9% Female, 44.1%	Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 17.8% Asian, 5.8% White, 61.0% 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 Percentage	8%	10%

Differences between team manager and product owner duties and responsibilities

Team manager example responsibilities.

Build and manage narcotics trafficking/use database in Unix base setting.
Facilitate appropriate usage and allocation of skil visits via authorization process for manage care insure patients.
Manage and coordinate care of medical and psychiatric patients with accountability for cost effective quality outcome.
Lead project team supporting Massachusetts payroll tax initiative, ensuring statutory information are captured and report.
Manage contact center performance to avoid financial penalty, efficiently driving client desire productivity results, meeting KPIs.
Manage an embed Facebook executive protection team that provide security and logistical support for a corporate executive and his family.

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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.

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Team manager vs product owner skills

Common team manager skills

Patients, 10%
Taking Care, 6%
Project Management, 5%
Performance Management, 4%
Leadership, 4%
Direct Reports, 4%

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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