After a decade working with Agile teams, I have been able to witness the interplay between the who is scrum master and product owner roles and how both can enable or disable a project. These two roles tend to confuse Agile beginners and with good reason - they are both in charge and require a specific set of skills and strategies.
Agile skills and capabilities have become a requirement. If you're considering a career change, new opportunities within your current company, or simply trying to deepen your knowledge of the Scrum framework, differentiating between the Product Owner and Scrum Master is important.
As part of my coaching, I have guided professionals making the transition into these two paths individually. From my observations, the right decision largely depends on one's strengths, interests, goals, and aspirations. This guide will provide everything to help make an informed decision regarding the professional path of interest in regards to the Product Owner versus Scrum Master debate.
This article compares Product Owners and Scrum Masters across responsibilities, skills, salaries, and career paths to help you choose the right Agile role.
Examining Product Owners vs Scrum Masters is best done by first comparing their roles and responsibilites. The table below captures a detailed overview of each role to the extent where it can be compared with others:
| Element | Product Owner | Scrum Master |
| Main Concern | Product: vision, ROI, value to customers | Process: team effectiveness |
| Major Duties | Product backlog management, stakeholder configuration, and prioritization | Impediment removal, event facilitation, coaching |
| Key Stakeholders | Stakeholders, customers, users | Development team, organization, Product Owner |
| Account Manager | Business, Product Management | Engineering/ delivery lead |
| Strategic Objectives | Success of product, revenue, and level of customer satisfaction | Team: velocity, process improvement, team health |
| Primary Competencies | Business skills, vision-setting, decision making | Facilitation, coaching, servant leadership |
| Common History | Business, product management along with domain knowledge | Team lead, project management, development |
| Activities Performed Daily | Backlog refinement sessions, stakeholder meetings, and backlog grooming | Impediment removal and coaching: daily stand-ups |
| Certification Routes | CSPO, PSPO | CSM, PSM |
| Professional Development | CPO, Product Manager, Senior PO | Transformation Lead, Agile Coach, Senior SM |
| Average Income | $85,000-$135,000 | $80,000-$125,000 |
| Authority in Making Decisions | Decisions on product | Process decisions |
| Resolving Conflict | Stakeholders' priorities | Dynamical structure among teams |
This comparison seeks to simplify the discussion around the question of whether it is better to consider the product owner or the Scrum Master. The answer is not universal as it depends highly on the individual's skills, interests and career targets.
Both positions are equally important and respected, and both have great career advancement opportunities.
Key Role: The Product Owner integrates business and customer needs. Most importantly, they prioritize backlog items to maximize ROI. Based on the official Scrum Guide, a Product Owner is "to maximize the value of the product or service and ensure the Development Team is working on the tasks that give the most value."
As a Product Owner, I have come to understand that the role involves far more responsibilities than most people assume at first:
In my typical day as a Product Owner, I might accomplish:
This type of schedule illustrates why the Product Owner needs to have strong communication and time management skills.
Upon reviewing the differences between the key Product Owner vs Scrum Master skills captured in the table above, it's noticeable that the Product Owners are required to have the following skills:
The role of a Product Owner comes with a significant burden:
A Scrum Master serves in a servant leadership role for the Scrum Team. For the purpose of this training, we quote them directly: "Pro Scrum Masters are responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand the theory, practices, rules, and values of Scrum."
It involves more than one might expect from a Scrum Master:
Activities I normally do (or might) as a Scrum Master:
Such tasks illustrate the organizational vigilance and interpersonal finesse that Scrum Masters need to exercise.
Compared to Product Owners, Scrum Masters posses the following key scrum master skills:
These are the most common Scrum Master challenges on a regular basis:
Looking at the comparison between the Product Owner career path and a Scrum Master, the latter tends to follow this path:
For prospective Product Owners, there is no single educational requirement. However, the following fields of study may provide useful prior training:
The most prominent Product Owners have experience in:
In the competition between Product Owner and Scrum Master certification, candidates with Product Owner focus generally obtain:
Alongside other competencies, the role of Scrum Master provides an alternate route to the career path of Product Owner versus Scrum Master:
Common educational backgrounds for Scrum Masters include:
Effective Scrum Masters often have experience in:
In the comparison of Product Owner to Scrum Master certification, Scrum Masters are more likely to hold:
The discussion regarding which is a better role between Product Owner vs Scrum Master is not focused on which is better, but rather which is the best fit for your competencies, passions, and professional goals.
The business and stakeholder interactions are what Product Owners love. They take pride in and want to make the hard, tough calls like determining what market needs to be prioritized and watching their successful products come to life.
Helping others to improve themselves and removing system blockers to build efficient teams brings fulfillment to Scrum Masters. These people-oriented workers transform team collaboration, organizational systems, and overall workforce effectiveness.
In our rapidly Agile economy, both careers are sustainable, rewarding, and strategically appealing. To succeed in these roles, you have to understand their primary differing functions and master the abilities specific to each.
Evaluate your next career aspiration and ask yourself, what parts of Agile work excite you the most? Are you interested in product strategy and customer value? It seems like your path is Product Owner. How about developing team processes? You might be looking at is scrum master a good career path.
Regardless of any circumstances, follow the guidance of lifelong learning, seek mentorship from seasoned professionals, and keep in mind that both positions aim to deliver exceptional outcome value collaboratively using Agile methodologies.
Paul Lister, an Agilist and a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) with 20+ years of experience, coaches Scrum courses, co-founded the Surrey & Sussex Agile meetup. He also writes short stories, novels, and have directed and produced short films.
QUICK FACTS
A Scrum Master can evolve into a Product Owner. However, it comes with a need for additional skills or competencies. Scrum Masters possess important knowledge of team dynamics and processes. However, they must develop business context understanding, stakeholder engagement, and product vision and strategy competencies. It usually comes with purposeful or deliberate developing of skills such as formal training in product management, acquiring relevant knowledge, and gradually assuming responsibilities before transitioning to the role completely.