Here’s my take on the product manager vs project manager question.
I’ve managed in the digital space long enough to recognize the lack of understanding—or time to care—for what product managers do and what project managers do, and the difference between these key roles.
Maybe you’ve heard something like this:
“Why do I need to hire a project manager when George is already our product manager? He can be both!”
How about this:
“My title is product manager. It’s pretty much a project manager, but I also have product owner on my business card because we do Scrum.”
I'll provide some clarity on the differences between the two roles (and maybe help you discover which one you actually are!) and the pros and cons of having both project manager and product managers on your projects.
In this article
- What Is A Project Manager?
- What Is A Product Manager?
- Product Managers vs Project Managers: Key Differences
- Similarities Between Product & Project Managers
- Benefits of Having Both Roles
- Cons of Having Both Roles
- Product Manager vs Project Manager FAQs
What Is A Project Manager?
A project manager is someone who is responsible for a successful project from start to finish as it relates to scope, budget, and project timeline.
What Is A Product Manager?
A product manager is someone who is responsible for the quality of a product and creating a successful product for the user market that ensures customer satisfaction, as well as seeing it through to product launch.
Product Managers Vs Project Managers: 4 Key Differences
Where the product manager and project manager roles differ is in their main responsibilities, career path, skills, and salaries (spoiler: product managers just beat out project managers on salary).
1. Main Responsibilities
So, what do project managers do in their day to day work life? Their project management responsibilities and priorities lie in completing projects on time, on budget, and within the defined scope and project plan, as time and budget allows.
Project managers deal with the project team and task lists, their execution of deliverables within the defined scope, the timeline within which the scope must be completed, and the budget allocated for the project.
Read more about the project manager job description here.
On the other hand, the role of a product manager is to prioritize how to maximize the product’s value in relation to the client’s business goals. They handle the prioritization of product requirements throughout the development workflow, as it relates to the product vision and client’s business goals.
2. Product Manager vs Project Manager Certifications
There are various certifications out there specific to either product management or project management.
These project management certification programs cover the skills and technical knowledge needed for the project management side of things. The most popular certification for project managers is the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which is offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
These product manager certifications cover the skills and procedures for planning, developing, and managing products. The product manager career path is distinct from the project manager career path, so make sure you choose the certifications specific to your desired career path and the role you will play on product or project teams.
3. Product Manager vs Project Manager Salaries
Generally, salaries for product managers slightly edge out those for project managers.
According to data gathered in our most recent project manager salary survey, the average salary for a project manager in 2023 is $100,238 in the United States.
Data from Indeed suggests that this figure is $111,950 for product managers in the United States. Find more data and analysis on product manager salaries here.
4. Product Manager vs Project Manager Skills
Keep in mind that you’ll need different skills for project management vs product management.
While both roles require soft skills like critical thinking, leadership, communication, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams, project managers and product managers diverge in the hard skills that are required of them.
A non-exhaustive list of hard skills for project management includes:
- Project initiation and planning
- Risk assessment and management
- Knowledge of project management tools and software
- Project scheduling, often by creating Gantt charts
- Process management
For product managers, this list of product manager skills might look something like this:
- Knowledge of product management principles
- Familiarity with web and software development
- Writing technical specs and requirements
- Conducting market research
- Knowledge of user experience best practices
Similarities Between Product & Project Managers
Now that I’ve preached why these roles are so different, let’s look at how they’re similar.
1. Scope Impact
Both the product manager and the project manager may impact the scope, timeline, and budget.
Let’s read that again, but slower:
Both the product manager and the project manager may IMPACT (not manage) the scope, timeline, and budget.
So, who has the final say?
Let’s consider an example where both a product manager and a project manager work together on a project. The product manager comes to the table with a scope in mind that will benefit their product.
The project manager comes to the table with a project scope in mind based on what is defined within a statement of work (SOW).
Product Manager:
“Feature ABC is priority one because it will increase our user engagement and drive sales. Functionality XYZ is priority two because it is applicable to fewer users, but will still benefit the business goal.”
Project Manager:
“Feature ABC fits within our budget and can be completed by the deadline, but Functionality XYZ will require more budget and will extend the timeline. We do, however, have a simplified solution for Feature ABC which would allow the time and budget for both priorities.”
In this example, the project manager is managing scope, timeline, and budget while providing the product manager an opportunity to impact scope, timeline, and budget based on the options put forth.
At this point, the product manager's job might be to:
- choose to prioritize the original Feature ABC, which would in turn backlog Functionality XYZ
- choose to work with the client to increase the budget and adjust timeline to allow both Feature ABC and Functionality XYZ to be executed
- choose to prioritize the simplified version of Feature ABC to allow Functionality XYZ to fit within the existing timeline and budget
As it relates to scope, the product manager is focused on the value these new features bring to the product and how that will benefit the product vision. Their prioritization of product requirements impacts the scope of the project.
As it relates to scope, the project manager is focused on managing the scope of those features to fit within the budget allocated and timeline determined. If the scope must change, then the project manager is focused on managing an increased budget or new timeline.
2. Methodologies
Many of the methodologies used in project management are also common in product management, with the biggest one in the last decade or so being agile.
Both product and project management make use of common methodologies like agile, waterfall, Scrum, Kanban, and more.
Benefits Of Having Both Roles On The Same Team
When you have both a product manager and project manager on the same team, the client has the peace of mind that there is a dedicated individual whose top priority is the quality of their product as well as a separate dedicated individual whose top priority is their project being executed within scope, on time, and on budget.
The client can trust that the product manager will be the product champion while the project manager will be the project champion.
Instead of one individual being pulled in two directions (between prioritizing the product and balancing the iron triangle), there is a collaboration between two individuals which results in a shared understanding of how work will be executed.
Collaboration
While the collaboration between a product manager and project manager is not always easy, the potentially challenging dynamic between the two can be a healthy one.
The product manager should challenge the project manager to consider what is best for the product in relation to the client’s business requirements while the project manager should challenge the product manager to manage those business goals by prioritizing requirements in a way that adheres to budget and timeline.
If practiced properly and respectively, both roles may coexist and be productive. If practiced improperly or disrespectfully, each role will burn out in its own way and jeopardize project and product success.
Alignment
If both a product manager and project manager exist, it is wise for these individuals to have their own recurring meeting—apart from any team meetings—at least once a week to align on project and product development status, prioritization of the backlog, what’s in the pipeline, and complete any necessary problem-solving together.
This ensures the product manager has the information they need to validate the progress of work on their product and the value that work will bring.
This also ensures the project manager has the information they need to plan team execution of the work and assist with time management, as well as how that impacts budget, timeline, and scope.
Cons Of Having Both Roles On The Same Team
When a project does not have a product manager, the project manager typically interfaces directly with the client.
Without a product manager, the product management responsibilities essentially fall on the client stakeholder.
Generally, your team’s project isn’t your client stakeholder’s full time job. In fact, it’s likely your project takes up a fraction of your client stakeholder’s day.
Typically, the client stakeholder will provide insight throughout the product lifecycle, during the discovery phase, approvals during the design and documentation phase, testing during the UAT phase, and final blessing before release.
Ultimately, the client stakeholder does not prioritize the project’s product as a product manager would.
So when a project does have a product manager who is fully dedicated to maximizing the value of their product, the project manager can expect a lot more than deliverable reviews and sprinkled in sign offs.
If a product manager is doing their job well, they are continuously gathering product and client requirements and further defining the product needs in order to maximize the value output.
This means they are going to stay connected to the project manager to ensure current scope is being executed within budget and on time. They’ll also be challenging the project manager and project team to do whatever they can to pump in as much quality as possible in as little quantity as possible (in other words: more bang for the buck).
If the project manager is doing their job well, they are listening and hearing what the product manager has to say. They will truly consider the options available to produce the best quality work while managing budget, timeline, and product team members accordingly.
Communication between the two roles is key here.
The product manager must voice their needs and prioritize work clearly based on their understanding of the client’s business goals. The project manager must understand these needs and priorities and manage the project accordingly with the best interest of both teams in mind.
If requirements are not sufficiently defined or understood, the project team will be less clear on the task at hand.
If work is reprioritized often or unclearly, the project team loses focus and efficiency to execute.
The product manager and project manager must be in sync on these fronts for project completion to be successful. KPIs and success metrics on both the product and the project side must be defined up front, and there needs to be buy in from both sides.
It’s best when it isn’t product manager vs project manager, but instead there’s teamwork.
Product Manager vs Project Manager FAQs
Here's the answers to some frequently asked questions about project managers and product managers.
Can The Product Manager & The Project Manager Be The Same Person?
A product manager should not be the project manager because they are focused on the product vision, product roadmap, product strategy, product requirements and goals, the success of a new product as it exists, and the product’s continued growth.
A project manager should not be the product manager, because they must remain balanced in managing the agreed-upon constraints of scope, timeline, and budget.
The project manager cannot afford to always prioritize the product over all other elements of that iron triangle, or they risk jeopardizing the success of the project (ex. scope creep leading to development team burnout).
In summary, these two roles are impossible to combine because:
- Conflicting priorities exist
- No one human has the capacity to tackle all of these responsibilities (no, not even you)
If you have one individual, they can only fulfill one of the roles.
If you’re going to fulfill both roles, it takes two individuals with differing but complementary skill sets.
Product Manager vs. Project Manager: Who Is Better?
To the individual who wonders which role is “better” for them to have: it depends on where your priority is.
From a product perspective…
- If the product is ever evolving and you need someone to manage that product and optimize its value throughout its life cycle, it’s wise to have a product manager.
- If your product can be built from start to finish within a timeline and has minimal evolution or growth beyond that timeline, then a project manager may suffice (though their inherent need to balance timeline, budget, and scope management may not prioritize the product’s growth as much as you’d like).
From a project perspective…
- If the project is one of many related to one product, it’s wise to have a project manager to focus on the execution of that project and manage the iron triangle as well as the project team.
- If the project is one where budget or timeline is not of concern (what planet are you on?), then a product manager may suffice (though their priority will sway toward the quality of the product, which tends to result in scope creep, which would have a direct impact on timeline and budget).
What's The Difference Between Products & Projects?
Here's a summary table covering the differences between products and projects.
| What is a Product? | What is a Project? |
|---|---|
| A product is something created to be sold or leveraged as a solution to satisfy end user needs or customer needs. | A project is something with a start and finish in which a defined task or set of tasks is completed. |
| A product may grow and evolve continuously. | A project has a defined beginning and end. |
| A product is the “WHAT” with a “WHY”. | A project is the “HOW”, “WHEN”, “WHERE”, and “WHO”. |
What's The Difference Between Project & Product Management?
Project management is the process of organizing, deploying, and orchestrating an organization's resources to complete a project.
This includes team members, finances, and any equipment or tech required to make the project happen. Project management is concerned with scope, budget, and timeframes.
Product management can be defined as the process of shepherding a product through the phases of the product life cycle, which includes the introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage.
This discipline is more concerned with the value the product provides to customer and pitching and positioning ideas for feature or product development.
What's Next?
At the end of the day, the product manager role and project manager role are different and equally valuable in their own ways. They may be successful on their own, but they can absolutely coexist and execute projects with valuable results.
While both a product manager and project manager have the capabilities to impact scope, they may do so with different priorities in mind. The challenge this presents is a healthy one and, if each role is doing their part, growth is inevitable.
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