Product Owner vs Product Manager: A Comprehensive Guide In 7 Important Points

Introduction

Let us learn more about Product Owner vs Product Manager. The product owner and product manager both hold an influential place in a company. None of them can be taken for granted neither these can be ranked higher or lower. Though the comparison between the two can seem challenging, we shall discuss the importance, similarities, and difference between the product owner and product manager the two to get a clear picture. Before we start the discussion on Product owner vs product manager, let us first understand them individually.

1. Product manager
2. Various roles and responsibilities of a product manager are
3. Qualities of a good product manager
4. Product owner
5. Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
6. Qualities of a good product owner
7. Product owner vs product manager

1. Product manager

The role of a product manager is managing a product as the name suggests. This means he researches and discovers the needs of the users and then makes a foundation for the development, hence, a product manager. The research work is then laid down in front of the team to work upon.

Key roles of Product Manager

2. Various roles and responsibilities of a product manager are

• Conduct studies, surveys about the needs of the potential client’s or the users.
• Form a vision of the product that has been studied.
• Prepare a well-versed team to work on the points that have been gathered by the studies.
• Feature building of the product is another main thing that a product manager looks after.
• Collaborative the employees, the partners, and the shareholders to work together on the project.

The kind of job responsibilities a product manager has makes him essential for the most critical aspects in a company starting from discovering the potential client’s toll the products get delivered to them The entire journey needs to be well looked after by-product manager. 

3. Qualities of a good product manager

The qualities that a good product manager should possess are:

• Excellent communication: This is required because a product manager needs to interact not only with the customers but with everyone he comes across during the entire journey of product management and delivery.
• Product visionary: A manager who visions the product’s future with pros, cons, benefits, advantages, and disadvantages to ensure that everything is taken care of properly.
• Empathetic: This quality is needed in a product manager because unless he cares about the people around, which includes customers, employees, and stakeholders, he cannot progress in the right direction 
• Strategic thinker: Strategy planning plays a vital role while you think about placing customers at the top and putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. Not just the clients, but unless a product manager strategizes where he stands in terms of market standards, he would not know where and how to improve or maintain the performance.
• Ability to decide: No wonder risks are part of a business and unless a product manager possesses the ability to take actions by taking into consideration the risks, advantages, and profits involved, he cannot endure the success of the organization.

4. Product owner

A product owner is someone responsible for adding value to the product once the management teams pass it on to him. In other words, the work of a product owner starts after the product manager completes his. 

Key roles of Product Owner

Here are some of the

5. Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities

• He should be able to express the backlog of the product items in an unambiguous manner.
• The owner should have the ability to order the items in the product backlog to achieve the best results.
• He should be able to add value to the work done by the management team.
• The product manager should be able to make sure that the backlog of the products is not only transparent but also represents that which scrum team will be the one to work on it to take it to the next level.

In most cases, the product owner-employees a team to take care of the tasks. He, at times, represents the committee in the backlog of the products. It is, however, essential for the organization to respect and go with the decisions of the product owner to ensure the growth and success of the company.

6. Qualities of a good product owner

Following are some of the qualities that a product owner must have to be successful:

• He should be smart and educated enough to take wise and quick decisions regarding the products and the organization on the whole.
• He should be able to act as a middleman between the customers and the stakeholders while keeping in mind that both of them get the best.
• Open-mindedness is a must for a good product owner.
• Good knowledge of technology to work with advanced technological development is a must-have as well.
• He should possess a positive attitude that would ensure the success of the organization.
• He should able to gather information about the competitors and the position at which his company stands to ensure that appropriate actions are taken for improvement.

Now, that we have discussed in brief about product managers and product owners individually, let us now understand the concept of

7. Product Owner vs Product Manager

• While a product manager deals mainly with the customers, a product owner is the one who faces the team, solutions, and technology.
• A product manager owns the visions, the roadmaps, the pricing, and backlogs, whereas a product owner co tributes towards all these.
• A product manager is the one who drives the main objectives towards a PI and helps in releasing the content with the help of enablers and the features that are prioritized. In contrast, a product owner drives the goals and works in achieving them.
• A product manager establishes the acceptance criteria of a product, whereas a product owner establishes and accepts the stories which are in the baseline already.
• A product manager is a job title that one has in an organization whereas a product owner is a role that one plays in a team.

Why are both important?

Here are a few points that justify why does an organization needs a product owner and a product manager:

• Efficiency: one is incomplete without the other. If a company hires both, it is attempting much higher efficiency compared to hiring just one. The reason behind it is that the work gets divide among the two, and both performs their task with utmost perfection.
• Consistency: The success of an organization depends much on the consistency its employees provide and having both of them in a company, for sure promotes consistency by utilizing the knowledge and experience of a product manager and a product owner simultaneously.

Conclusion

Product manager and product might be two different entities working with a different set of guidelines, but the ultimate goal of both of them is to deliver high-quality products thereby aiding the success of an organization.

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