Two Roles To Drive Data Products

Ankit Tomar,

In today’s landscape, data isn’t just a byproduct of business—it is the business. Whether you’re in retail, finance, logistics, or healthcare, your ability to turn raw data into actionable insights through scalable tools and systems can define your competitive edge. This is where data products come in.

But building and delivering data products isn’t the job of a single data scientist or analyst anymore. It’s a team sport. And at the center of this team are two pivotal roles:
🧠 Data Product Manager (PM)
⚙️ Data Product Owner (PO)

Let’s break them down.

🧠 Data Product Manager (PM): The Visionary

The Data PM plays a strategic role—owning the “why” and “what” of the data product. Think of this person as the CEO of the data product. They are responsible for shaping the vision, aligning with business goals, and ensuring the product delivers value.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Defining the product vision and long-term roadmap
  • Translating business needs into data opportunities
  • Driving stakeholder alignment across business, data, and engineering teams
  • Setting KPIs and measurement frameworks for product success
  • Prioritizing high-impact data problems worth solving
  • Managing data ethics, governance, and risk awareness

Why This Role Matters:

Most data projects fail not because the models are wrong, but because the problem wasn’t defined clearly. A good Data PM avoids this by starting with a hypothesis-first mindset, framing questions like:

  • What decision will this data product influence?
  • How will we measure success?
  • What does “done” look like for this use case?

They act as the bridge between data science and the business, making sure everyone is solving the right problem—not just building the shiniest tool.

⚙️ Data Product Owner (PO): The Executor

The Data Product Owner works closer to delivery and execution. They translate strategy into tasks, timelines, and team coordination. Their job is to ensure the product gets built correctly and iteratively delivered.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Managing the product backlog and delivery sprints
  • Writing clear user stories and acceptance criteria
  • Coordinating development, MLOps, and QA teams
  • Ensuring data availability, quality, and integrity
  • Working with engineers and scientists to define MVP scope
  • Tracking and reporting progress to stakeholders

Why This Role Matters:

Even the best strategy is useless without execution. The PO keeps the team on track, avoids scope creep, and ensures incremental value delivery. They also handle a lot of the operational complexities—from model monitoring to pipeline stability—which are easy to underestimate but critical for product success.

How They Work Together

While the lines can sometimes blur, PM and PO are not the same. In mature organizations, they co-own the success of a data product with clear handoffs and collaboration:

RolePM (Strategic)PO (Tactical)
FocusVision, business value, long-term impactDelivery, execution, iterations
StakeholdersBusiness teams, executives, customersData engineers, analysts, developers
OutputsRoadmap, metrics, use-case definitionsTasks, user stories, release plans
Questions they askWhy are we building this?How and when will this be delivered?

Together, they ensure that data products are both impactful and usable.

Final Thoughts

In an era of LLMs, agentic AI, and real-time data streaming, businesses can’t afford to treat data as a backend reporting layer anymore. Data products are the new front-end of decision-making—and you need the right people to make them happen.

Hiring a Data PM and PO is a smart first step. Whether you’re starting with vendor support or building an internal team, these two roles will make sure your efforts align with real value.

Don’t let data be a cost center. Turn it into a competitive moat.

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Product Management

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