Sunday Rewind: Product owner vs product manager

This Sunday Rewind takes us back to a 2018 post from Rosemary King that examines the difference between a product owner and a product manager.

Rosemary explains that at a high level, there are two buckets of work. The first sets strategic vision and continual alignment of the product with the rest of the organisation. The second bucket implements, tracks, and reports back on progress. In her experience, one role handles elements of both of these buckets. In Scrum that person is called the product owner. In Agile that person is called the product manager. In general, when referring to these responsibilities the two roles are completely interchangeable.

Complexity is introduced when organisations add a layer of hierarchical oversight, or the layer ultimately responsible for making decisions about product vision. Rosemary uses the example of some of the work done with her colleagues during her time as Director of Training Products for Mind the Product to illustrate how titles can change according to the nature of the work, and shows how sometimes she would be product owner and at other times would be product manager. 

She says: “The titles are not as important as understanding the outcomes that you would like to achieve, and the weaknesses in your current structure and process.”

She offers some questions for readers to take to their teams, not necessarily to impose a new or different role, but to understand whether their product role is appropriately empowered and supported to deliver the product.

Read the original post: Product owner vs product manager