Everyone and their moms want to become a Product Manager. PMs get all the glory, but product owners get no love. What’s the difference between a product owner vs product manager? What is a product owner, though? Is it the same as a product manager? Should you become a product owner instead? Is it easier to get into than a product manager? It’s still confusing to us, but we’ll go over some of the conversation points.
Product Owner vs. Product Manager Salaries
Let’s get this out of the way and talk about this first. Salaries. Let’s be real; product manager roles are desirable because they supposedly make bank. If you’re in the know, you might have heard of this “product owner” thing.
On average product owners have a lower salary than product managers. This averages around $25k lower in San Francisco. The salary cap is higher for a product manager, though. While money is a big factor in choosing a career, we’ll look at the product owner’s responsibilities below. Some people would do anything for money, but some care to have some sort of joy in what they do.
Product Owner Salary
Taking San Francisco as a sample, the average base salary for a Product Owner is $135K. With added bonuses and RSU’s it may go up to 185k.
Product Manager Salary
The average base salary for a Product Manager is $161K which is on avg $25k higher than the Product Owner. With added bonuses and RSU’s it may go up to $240k. What’s not mentioned is that the RSU packages for product managers are on average higher than a product owner.
What Does A Product Owner Do?
A Product Owner is an official role in the Scrum agile methodology. If the company runs a strict Agile environment it should have a product owner. The reality is that most companies have their own version of agile and a product owner role, is just a product manager. According to Scrum a product owner’s responsibilities are owning and managing the backlog.
- Communication on the product goals
- Creating and managing backlog items
- Order and prioritize backlog items
- Make sure the product backlog is easily understandable
What is the difference between a Product Owner and a Product Manager?
To understand the difference between a product owner and a product manager, let’s take a look at sample job postings. Take notice of the skills needed for product managers and product owners. These were both found on LinkedIn.
Product Owner and Product Manager Similarities:
- Work closely with engineering, designers
- Create user stories, mockups, chip into roadmaps
- Collaborate with multiple (cross-functional teams) to define strategy
- Enable successful delivery and demo to a large audience
Can You spot the difference between the two postings because we can’t? Recruiters will then tell you that you don’t have PM experience when you try to apply.
Definition – A Product manager will focus more on the product vision and what features to build, the product marketing, and launch. The Product Owner will focus on the execution and how to build the feature or product.
Reality – A Product Manager will do everything a product owner does and more. If you look at all the LinkedIn Product Manager job postings you’ll see all the responsibilities listed including the PO tasks. If a company is huge, it may break out the 2 roles. In practice, a product owner will also do product vision, work with go to market and be essentially a product manager.
Product Owner And Its Bad Perception
The title is everything. Even though there is 80-90% overlap in the roles, Product Owners are seen as an accessory to Product Managers. It’s an unpopular opinion but product owners are always second-class citizens and never get any of the product glory. This is reflected in the hiring and salary differences. All the mundane tasks of day-to-day tracking and prioritization project management are handed to the Product Owner. That’s why it’s pretty hard to jump from a PO to a PM role. It’s this perception.
Do a search for “Product Owner” and “Product Manager” on LinkedIn. You’ll find all the results for Product Owner openings are large banks and corporations. Whereas the search for Product Manager search returns results for FAANGs and other unicorn tech companies. Does “tech” not hire Product Owners? It just goes to show it is a title and branding issue.
Can Product Owners Become Product Managers?
Yes. They already are. This question gets asked a lot. The real answer is they’re the same thing. The other real answer is that companies are being elitist in treating product owners beneath product managers. Companies will tell you “You don’t have Product Manager experience in your resume” when your title is product owner. To go from a product owner to a product manager you’ll have to play the preception game with recruiters and hiring managers.
Should You Still Become a Product Owner?
If you have the choice, No. Some may be tempted to become product owners on the path to product management, but you’re better off just trying for the Product Manager role. It sucks, as a product owner, you’re doing the product management role, but not recognized for it. You’re actually doing the worst parts of Product Management without any of the benefits of being a PM. There is also no path to becoming a product manager.
How to Transition From Product Owner to Product Manager?
If you’re a product owner now you got a few choices to pivot into a Product manager. By pivoting we really mean getting a formal product management title. You’re doing the same work, but you need the Product Management title to get the higher salary.
Transition into a PM role within your current company
The best way to transition from a product owner to a product manager is to transition within your own company. There are fewer barriers when you already know the team and they know what you are capable of. All you really need is the title. This is by far the most common way for a product owner to become a product manager.
Modify your resume to talk like a PM
If you are going to apply to positions outside of your company, we recommend getting rid of any mention of “Product Owner” on your resume whenever possible. The one thing you can not change on your resume is your formal title. We do not condone lying on your resume, but you want to have it read as if you’re a product manager.
You can also check the formal title that is shown when hiring companies do a background check. You can check The Work Number and pull your own employee verification data report. Review what information is reported to hiring companies. If your report has a generic title, you might as well call yourself a Product Manager and it won’t raise any red flags. Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk.