Product Manager Vs. Product Owner: One Person Or Two?

The product owner is a role in scrum agile methodology that assumes some traditional responsibilities of a product manager in a commercial development environment. Many organizations struggle to decide whether the product manager also should play the role of product owner. The Forrester Product Ownership Decision Framework outlines seven key factors to consider when determining the appropriate role design.

Many B2B product management professionals have dogmatic views on whether a product manager should also fill the role of product owner. Some insist that to maintain a connection between product vision and execution, one person must play both roles. Others claim that combining the two roles forces product managers to spend less time on strategic activities and responsibilities. In this report, we introduce the Forrester Product Ownership Decision Framework to help organizations decide whether the product manager should also play the role of product owner.