Product Manager vs. Product Owner: What’s the Difference and Which Do You Need?

You’re looking to hire someone to own your product roadmap and work with your development team. You search “product manager job description” and “product owner job description”—and the results look almost identical.

So what’s the difference? Do you need a product manager or a product owner? Can one person do both? And does it even matter?

Short answer: Yes, it matters—but probably less than you think.

Here’s what you need to know to make the right hire.

What Is a Product Manager?

A product manager owns the product strategy and vision. They’re responsible for understanding market needs, defining what gets built and why, and ensuring the product delivers business value.

Product managers spend their time:

• Researching user needs and market opportunities
• Defining product strategy and roadmap
• Prioritizing features based on business impact
• Working with engineering, design, marketing, and sales
• Analyzing product metrics and iterating based on data
• Communicating vision to stakeholders and leadership

The PM role is broad and strategic. They’re thinking about the “why” behind the product: why this feature matters, why now, why this solves a real problem worth solving.

What Is a Product Owner?

A product owner is a role that comes from Agile/Scrum frameworks. They own the product backlog and work closely with the development team to ensure work gets done efficiently.

Product owners spend their time:

• Managing and prioritizing the product backlog
• Writing user stories and acceptance criteria
• Answering development team questions during sprints
• Participating in sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives
• Making tactical decisions about scope and implementation
• Ensuring the team delivers working software each sprint

The PO role is usually more tactical and execution-focused than that of a product manager. They’re thinking about the “what” and “how”—what gets built this sprint, how to break down features into deliverable chunks.

Further reading: The Benefits of Nearshore Agile Development and How to Find the Talent You Need

The Key Differences Between a Product Manager and a Product Owner

Here’s where the roles differ:

Product Manager vs. Product Owner

When You Need a Product Manager

You need a product manager when:

• You’re figuring out what to build. If you’re still validating product-market fit, exploring new markets, or deciding which direction to take your product, you need strategic thinking more than backlog management.
• You have multiple stakeholders. If your product decisions involve sales, marketing, customer success, and leadership—not just engineering—you need someone who can navigate those relationships.
• Business outcomes matter more than shipping velocity. If you’d rather ship one high-impact feature than ten low-impact ones, you need someone focused on business value, not just throughput.
• You’re pre-Agile or multi-methodology. Not every company runs Scrum. If you’re not doing formal sprints, the “product owner” role doesn’t fit your process.

When You Need a Product Owner

You need a product owner when:

• You’re running Scrum and need someone in that role. If your development team follows Scrum ceremonies, someone needs to own the backlog and be available for daily questions.
• Your strategy is set; execution is the problem. If you know what to build but struggle to ship it efficiently, you need someone focused on unblocking the team and managing workflow.
• You have a dedicated Scrum team. Product owners work best when embedded with a single team. If you have multiple teams or cross-functional coordination, a PM makes more sense.
• The development process is your bottleneck. If your team keeps getting blocked by unclear requirements or scope creep, a product owner who can clarify and prioritize in real-time helps.

{{state-latam-hiring}}

Can One Person Do Both the Product Manager and Product Owner Roles?

Yes. And at many companies, they do.

In practice, especially at startups and mid-size companies, the person with “product manager” in their title does both jobs. They set strategy and manage the backlog. They talk to customers and write user stories.

This is totally normal and often necessary.

The distinction between PM and PO matters most at:

• Large enterprises running formal Agile with multiple teams
• Agencies that need a dedicated PO on client teams
• Companies with separate strategy and execution teams (rare, but it happens)

For most growing companies, you’re hiring someone to do product management work, which includes the backlog management and sprint participation that technically falls under “product owner.”

What This Means for Your Hiring

If you know exactly which role you need—a dedicated product owner for your Scrum team or a strategic product manager—hire for that. But if you’re unsure or need someone who can handle both strategy and execution, here’s how to approach it:

• Use “Product Manager” in your job title. It’s the more common term, attracts a broader candidate pool, and doesn’t lock you into Agile-specific expectations.
• Be clear about day-to-day work. In your job description, mention both strategic responsibilities (roadmap, user research, metrics) and execution responsibilities (backlog management, sprint planning, working with eng team daily).
• Don’t get hung up on terminology. During interviews, focus on whether candidates can do the actual work, regardless of what their previous title was. A great product owner can probably do product management. A strong product manager definitely knows how to manage a backlog.
• Ask about their experience with Agile. If you run Scrum, make sure they’re comfortable with sprint ceremonies and backlog management. If you don’t, make sure they can work within your actual process.
• Look for strategic thinking and execution skills. The best hires can do both. They can think big picture (product strategy, user needs, business outcomes) and get tactical (user stories, acceptance criteria, sprint planning).

For more detailed guidance on what skills to prioritize and how to evaluate PM candidates, check out our comprehensive How to Hire a Product Manager: Your Complete 2025 Guide.

Interview Questions That Reveal the Full Skill Set for Product Management

When interviewing candidates, ask questions that test both strategic and tactical abilities:

• Strategic thinking: “Walk me through how you decided what to build in your last product. What did you prioritize and why?”
• Execution focus: “How do you work with engineering teams during a sprint? What happens when scope changes mid-sprint?”
• Backlog management: “How do you decide what goes in the backlog versus what stays in the icebox?”
• Stakeholder balance: “Tell me about a time stakeholders wanted one thing and your dev team pushed back. How did you handle it?”

These questions surface whether candidates can operate at both levels—strategic vision and tactical execution.

{{prevetted-banner}}

Final Thoughts

The difference between product manager and product owner matters for job descriptions and Agile purists—but not as much as finding someone who can do the actual work.

Most companies need someone who can think strategically about the product and work tactically with the development team. Whether you call that person a product manager, product owner, or both doesn’t matter nearly as much as hiring someone with the right skills.

Focus less on the title and more on the responsibilities. Do you need someone who can set product strategy, talk to users, prioritize a roadmap, work with stakeholders, manage a backlog, and keep your dev team unblocked?

That’s what you’re hiring for. Everything else is semantics.

If you’re ready to hire but want help finding product management talent who can handle both strategy and execution, book a free consultation with Near. We can help you hire top product managers and product owners in Latin America. We’ll find you the right person for your actual needs, regardless of what you call the role.