JeffLuczak
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Product ManagementProduct DevelopmentRole Clarity

Business Analyst vs. Product Owner vs. Product Management

2 min read

My Background

Throughout my tenure in product development I have worked in various different capacities and often with titles that didn't align with my responsibilities. This is becoming more and more common now with individuals being able to leverage AI to enhance skills in domains that previously were beyond the individual's grasps.

I see Product Managers now building prototypes, defining technical requirements, or actually shipping product. The lines are becoming very blurry each day. This has become the new normal. To level set, I would like to define what was often a very confusing distinction between roles in the product development space for others who may find value.

Business Analyst

My first job in technology was as a Business Analyst. I was tasked with helping deliver reports and define technical requirements. During this time in my career I was very confused in my role in comparison to my colleagues who were Product Owners. Our work looked very similar with the exception of the level of technical detail.

A Business Analyst is more technical and thinks of design. In my role in analytics, I was helping define ETL pipelines, join conditions, and even building mockups in Python to confirm performance and feasibility before passing to developers.

Product Owner

A Product Owner's job is to ensure the delivery of a product on time and up to par based on requirements passed from Product Management. Different departments see the Product Owner wear different hats. On some teams they may also play a role of SCRUM master for their project. If the Product doesn't deliver on time, the Product Owner is the first person held responsible. They take the functional requirements and translate that to the technical teams to build. They partner with Product Management and design/research to define specifications.

Product Management

The last role is Product Management. They are the voice of the customer and should be the ones helping to define the roadmap/making tradeoffs based on value.