Product Owner or Product Manager, the difference

In this episode of Datadrivet, Isa Cederberg, Head of Marketing and Development at Birds Relations, unpacks two job titles that get used interchangeably far more often than they should. The Product Owner and the Product Manager sound similar, but in practice they cover different work.

Isa draws the line clearly. A Product Owner is a role inside a scrum team that keeps on top of the backlog. The focus is tactical and close to delivery: deciding what the team works on next, keeping the backlog ordered, and making sure the right things flow into each sprint. A Product Manager sits at a wider angle. It is the more strategic role, the one that leads the direction of the product itself, deciding where it should go and why before it ever reaches a sprint.

The distinction matters because companies often hire for one title while expecting the other. If you bring in a Product Owner and then ask for product strategy, or hire a Product Manager and bury them in backlog grooming, both the person and the product suffer. Knowing which job you actually need to fill is the first step to filling it well.

The takeaway is straightforward. Both roles involve looking after a product, but a Product Owner manages the backlog within a scrum framework while a Product Manager takes the broader strategic view of where the product is heading. Get the labels right and you set the right expectations for the work.

Listen to the full episode of Datadrivet for Isa’s full take on how the two roles differ and where they overlap.