Product Owner vs. Product Manager vs. Scrum Master
Easy to mix up because all three run meetings with the same team. A Product Manager decides what to build and why, based on customers and the market. A Product Owner is the Scrum role that manages the backlog and priorities, sometimes the same person as the PM and sometimes a more hands-on delivery role. A Scrum Master owns the process, not the product, and removes blockers.
How to tell them apart on a resume
Product Manager / Owner
Roadmaps, customer research, prioritisation, feature launches, success metrics, backlog and user stories.
Scrum Master
Running ceremonies, velocity, removing blockers, coaching the team on Agile, improving delivery. Not deciding what gets built.
The question that settles it
“Did you decide what the team built next, or how the team worked?”
Read the full definitions
Open the full tool for the other look-alike pairs, role profiles, and the JD decoder.