Having worked both as a Product Manager and Product Owner for different organisations, I’d say that the difference between the two is… it depends.

I know that’s a bit of a non-answer, but it really does depend upon the job descriptions that an organisation defines for those roles. I’ve seen roles advertised as a Product Owner, but the organisation clearly wants a Product Manager. And I’ve also seen the opposite. And many organisations want one person to fulfil both roles in one.

So is there a difference between Product Manager and Product Owner?

Absolutely, yes. A Product Manager should have a different focus to the Product Owner – and this is often more cleanly defined in organisations that employ both these roles.

The Product Manager (PM) role is all about vision. It’s about understanding the market, the customers, and how the product solves a problem. A good PM maintains an idea in their head about what they want the product to be, and the journey they want to go on to get it there. They understand what’s unique about their product, and what value it delivers. A PM works with stakeholders across the organisation to align everyone on the shared product vision.

The Product Owner (PO) role is all about delivery. It’s about understanding the features that need to be built, and in supporting the development teams to deliver. A good PO understands the vision, and is able to articulate what is required to the engineering team. They investigate and understand the requirements of what needs to be built, and communicate them clearly to the engineers, and focus on delivering value to customers. A PO works with stakeholders across design and engineering to align everyone on the shared execution plan.

But hang on, that doesn’t match my experience of being a PM/PO

Exactly, yes. Every organisation seems to have different definitions of what a Product Manager or Product Owner is expected to do. Often the two roles are blended into one, and one person is expected to do it all. But even in organisation that have two separate roles for PM and PO often draw the line between the two positions differently.

And so, a Product Manager or Product Owner moving between organisations or even teams in the same organisation might find that what is expected of them is different. Some companies have Product Managers defining and owning the destiny of their entire product – including inception, build, marketing, launch and monitoring returns. Other companies have their Product Manager building part of a much larger product, and in this case they have much less autonomy in deciding what to build, and have to work collaboratively with other PMs to build the product vision.

So yes, everyone’s experience of being a Product Manager or Product Owner can be different.

I was hoping for a better definition of the differences between the two

Sorry if this blog post doesn’t give the answers you’re looking for. I can only speak about my own experiences working in the two roles:

• 7 years as a Product Owner, for Paddy Power and Equifax
• 4 years as a Product Manager, for Salesforce and Workday

If you want an exact definition of what what the roles of a PM and PO should be, then maybe check out something like the scaled agile PM/PO certification. But to understand what the PM and PO roles in a particular organisation mean, you’ll need to check out the job descriptions – or talk to the people that work in that organisation.

What’s your experience of being a PM / PO?

Please feel free to share your experience in the comments…