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Technical product manager vs project manager

The differences between technical product managers and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a technical product manager has an average salary of $120,052, which is higher than the $91,578 average annual salary of a project manager.

The top three skills for a technical product manager include technical product, product management and cloud. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.

Technical product manager vs project manager overview

Technical Product ManagerProject Manager
Yearly salary$120,052$91,578
Hourly rate$57.72$44.03
Growth rate10%8%
Number of jobs185,305167,116
Job satisfaction-4.17
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age3947
Years of experience10-

What does a technical product manager do?

A technical product manager's responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify consumers' needs, utilizing new technologies to develop strategies and products, coordinating with different teams, and monitoring the entire progress of production. There are also instances when a technical product manager must perform clerical tasks such as producing reports, preparing presentations, responding to issues and concerns promptly, and managing schedules. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage staff to meet goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does a project manager do?

Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.

Technical product manager vs project manager salary

Technical product managers and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Technical Product ManagerProject Manager
Average salary$120,052$91,578
Salary rangeBetween $89,000 And $161,000Between $64,000 And $129,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaThe Citadel
Best paying industryTechnologyTechnology

Differences between technical product manager and project manager education

There are a few differences between a technical product manager and a project manager in terms of educational background:

Technical Product ManagerProject Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of GeorgiaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Technical product manager vs project manager demographics

Here are the differences between technical product managers' and project managers' demographics:

Technical Product ManagerProject Manager
Average age3947
Gender ratioMale, 75.8% Female, 24.2%Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1%
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, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between technical product manager and project manager duties and responsibilities

Technical product manager example responsibilities.

  • Manage user interface design for PC products, working with designers and developers to create look and feel.
  • Manage the UI domain team encompassing user interface functionality, global behavior definitions, new user paradigms and concepts.
  • Task with product ownership; implement and improve the product operations following SDLC methodologies, managing and meeting the stakeholder expectations.
  • Design and lead implementation of web-base Java application for high volume transaction processing.
  • Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
  • Involve championing the development of product requirements, use cases, and user stories for a target cloud document delivery service.
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Project manager example responsibilities.

  • Schedule and manage the GCP audit process.
  • Define, develop and manage metrics and KPIs systems for new product business group.
  • Manage the application process for the FDA medical device, minority and small business certifications.
  • Manage multiple projects and resources simultaneously while mentoring, coaching and implementing best practices, SOX and HIPAA compliance standards.
  • Lead teams using the Informatica ETL tool for the design and development of multiple financial and risk enterprise data warehouses.
  • Administer and manage Salesforce requirements.
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Technical product manager vs project manager skills

Common technical product manager skills
  • Technical Product, 10%
  • Product Management, 7%
  • Cloud, 6%
  • User Stories, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Scrum, 4%
Common project manager skills
  • Project Management, 23%
  • Project Scope, 6%
  • Customer Service, 6%
  • Infrastructure, 5%
  • Status Reports, 4%
  • Risk Management, 3%

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