What is the difference between a Product Manager and a Product Owner in Australia?
TL;DR Nobody knows!
Especially in Australia these definitions are used interchangeably,
and it depends per company on how it's interpreted.
Fresh to Australia, I was fairly confused in which box I fitted and how I should market myself.
Everytime I asked someone in the industry, I would harldy ever get the same answer.
In Holland it's easy, Product Managers often work for "offline" products or markets (e.g. shampoo, beauty products, FMCG, furniture etc).
They're specialized in setting up an operational retail line involving:
- Market research: What kind of people is our target audience for the new product?
- Business case: What is the price the targeted people would be willing to pay? etc
- Research and development of the new product: What kind of flavour should we create?
- Setting up marketing calendars and branding
- Setting up the logistics/warehousing
- Reaching out to sellers
In Holland, Product Owners usually work for online companies, and work on online products, e.g. websites and apps.
They usually have a different skill set than a product manager's skill set.
A typical skill set of a Product Owner is
- Product Strategy
- Stakeholder management
- Prioritize, plan, create and deliver roadmap
- Scrum/Agile/KanBan methodology
- An understanding of the technology involved
- Presenting
- A/B testing
- Google Analytics
- Usability Testing
- Manual testing
- Jira
- PowerPoint
Being in Australia, over time, I realized that these definitions are used interchangeably,
and that it depends per company how it's interpreted. Therefore, I concluded it might be best for now if I
just market myself as both. In addition, I added the words "Digital",
"Agile" or "Technical" to make clear that I don't specialize in offline products.
About ProductOwner.com.au
ProductOwner.com.au is a boutique tech product agency
We help companies grow and create top-notch tech products together by providing 3 services
1. Train & Transfer
- In pairs, a senior Product Owner trains a junior on the job, who could eventually transfer to the client.
- ProductOwner.com.au proactively supports indigenous Australians in technology. Job description - Junior Product Owner
- Interesting for companies looking for a short-term hire, and are also, in parallel, thinking about a long-term new hire to take over and fill the gap, while growing their workforce's diversity. Learn more about Train & Transfer
2. In-House Training & Consulting
- Train or upskill employees - Product, Scrum, or optimise the way of working.
- Interesting for companies who feel their Product/Scrum processes, or way of working could be improved to become more efficient or effective (Scrum Consultant, Product Consultant, Product Owner Training). Learn more about In-House Training & Consulting
3. Recruitment & Staffing
Get in touch now