r/financialindependence • u/fidgit86 • 9d ago

What do you do that you earn six figures?

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Product Owner

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

Product Owner checking in too!

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

High five! 👋

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u/olivemb25 9d ago

Heyyyy PO here too! Love it.

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u/Nicadelphia 9d ago

What is it

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u/SFLoridan 9d ago edited 9d ago

The guy (or gal) who can speak techie, and also speak business. Who understands what the business folks want, and then translates it in the right way for the tech guys to implement.

Without him/her, we always end up with a product that falls short

It's a good semi-tech role, and worth considering if you have quick grasp and strong communication skills.

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u/Bluepuck03 9d ago

So, how would I go about putting those skills into a job or career? I'm the go to guy when IT or HVAC come in. I'm able to talk to them easily and then talk to the people posting for it and the line level guys and make sure everyone understands what's going on. I just happen to be that guy at work, how do I make it profitable? Definitely wouldn't be where I currently work, but somewhere else, maybe.

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

Typically in this space for this kind of money you're talking about a technical product - one that produces data for analytics, reporting, or a digital service.

For example, the bankers want information about their clients current relationships and activities so they can cross sell them more products (business speak/business requirement).

(Side note, there are 10 other requests for such information or capabilities of the software in the pipeline).

The Product Owner gets to work. The information becomes 'data'. The data is profiled. The business is consulted on the inventory of information that is available. Is it adequate? Do we need to source more data for the requirement? Etc. The Product Owner then takes those requirements translated in to functionality ( what the data is, where it is stored, how often it is refreshed, what grain it exists, how to translate it) and brings them to the developers to be engineered into a product that the business can consume.

Remember those 10 other requests? The Product Owner must also understand the strategy of the company to prioritize the work. Are we being threatened with regulatory fines? That means all work related to regulatory reporting gets put first. Those bankers will have to wait.

Just for kicks...look up 'The Office - People Person' clip. It's a hilarious take on one of the many things a product owner does - translate the business to the tech and tech to the business.

In this scenario, tech is HOW and business is WHY (we want to sell our clients more things to increase profitability, tech side builds the tools).

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u/Ktdid2000 9d ago

Am Product Owner and this is 100% accurate. Although in my job we’re also often tasked as Product Managers who strategized for an external facing product and recruits new funding opportunities for the product.

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u/Bluepuck03 9d ago

Oh wow, thanks for the great reply! Definitely way different than I thought and a tad above my head lol.

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u/mwedzi 9d ago

Is it like tech sales or a sales position? This is literally the first time I've heard of this job and thought the person posting was joking, like "I own products, lol"

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u/SFLoridan 9d ago

Much more than a sales position.

A Product Owner actually does have 'ownership' of the product - in the sense that this person has the primary and overall responsibility of the product and its features. S/he owns the vision of the product, the business goals behind it, the collaboration needed to make it a success. The brain (or heart?) of the project, you may say.

This term was formalized and codified by the Scrum project management framework, but frankly any successful project even in the past has had one person take the overall responsibility and see it to a finish.

It's not a wonder that a Product Owner is well paid - its not an easy job.

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u/picklefingerexpress 9d ago

Did you mean to say without?

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u/SFLoridan 9d ago

Whoops!

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u/Awkward_Difficulty_7 9d ago

Nah. I'm a Software QA Engineer and I provide the "techie" info for product owners to regurgitate to their people. Product owners are just glorified customers who get paid.

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

Glad my QA engineers and I have a better relationship than you and your product owners. They'd much rather have me be the punching bag and deal with the BS of consumers.

Don't be so salty. It's called a workflow and roles/responsibilities. If you think stakeholder management is just what you described, you're very ignorant of the environment around you.

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago

Oh a tester. Testers are just glorified customers always complaining about bugs.

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u/Impressive_Wolf_1688 9d ago

Down Voting just because you are a QA. /s

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u/drew8311 9d ago

Person to bridge the gap between customers/business and software engineers.

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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 9d ago

https://youtu.be/m4OvQIGDg4I

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u/drew8311 9d ago

As much of a joke that scene was they really do need people to do that stuff.

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u/Captain-Obvious132 9d ago

We do. Tbh it’s hard to find people that can really do it effectively. PMs/POs need to put themselves in the customer’s shoes, and really empathize. They also need to balance cost to implement vs value to customer.

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u/Unsteady_Tempo 9d ago

Yep, over the past couple of decades my wife has worked her way up to direct teams of product owners, managers, analysts, etc. Over the years she has identified a mix of soft and hard skills required to be successful and it's not easy to find them. She'll hire somebody with a journalism background capable of learning some of the more technical skills before hiring somebody with a business or computer science degree who can't communicate effectively or maintain productive relationships with the various departments. Also, being willing to learn and get on board with some very specific business practice methodologies for getting things done....and then actually follow them.

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u/cloud9ineteen 9d ago

Person to bridge the gap between customers/business and software engineers.

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u/skdesign808 9d ago edited 9d ago

Basically someone who maximizes value of a product through the efforts of the dev/QA team. It’s my title but it is also considered a role in the scrum framework. I would manage product backlog, prioritizing work, collect requirements, and work closely with the business to ensure we bring value to the business and customers through technical development work.

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u/snowyday 9d ago

That’s a good and fair description but may not be helpful to anyone who doesn’t already know.

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u/potchie626 9d ago

I wish we had a proper PO that did a couple of the things you mentioned; manage a backlog, PRIORITIZING work? Madness, according to our PO’s boss.

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago

Scrum masters job to hold them accountable for those things!

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u/potchie626 9d ago

Ours does everything they can to do that, and the “public” shaming of ending meetings 5 minutes in because the PO hasn’t done what was needed has been helping. Unfortunately we have people at the top of each department that don’t care until the business side starts complaining.

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago

Yeah sometimes change doesn't happen until something big falls over and the people up the chain start wondering who to blame.

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u/potchie626 9d ago

We sadly go through this cycle every year with the same people. Our new scrum master has been incredible in their short time with us and people finally see that planning leads to better things for us all.

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u/ffn 9d ago

Isn’t the scrum master supposed to prioritize work?

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago edited 9d ago

Nope. Prioritisation is the product owners job. He owns the product so he decides what's most important to be worked on at any given time. That's basically the whole role. When he's not telling people what to work on he should be researching so that he knows what is most important to work on. (market research on competitors or industry trends, internal research on or from customers, which bugs are causing the biggest issues etc.)

Scrum masters job is facilitating meetings (ceremonies) , clearing blockers and shielding scrum members from time wasting activities and distractions.

Product owner : Decides what needs working on

Scrum master: makes sure work gets done

Scrum member : does work

0

u/Heart_Is_Valuable 9d ago

Dial wayyy down on the corporate talk mate

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

How is this corporate speak? It's exactly what a Product Owner does. Those aren't corporate terms, it is language of the job.

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u/IlllIllllllllllIlllI 9d ago

Someone who can’t make up their mind

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago

Product owners job is to literally own the product. Their main job is to decide what the developers should be working on at any given time.

Should they be building new features? Optimising existing ones? Closing risks? Fixing bugs?

In order to do that they must spend most of their time working out what is most important. Things like market research, meetings with finance about revenue and costs, understanding their customer base, knowing which bugs are causing the biggest issues, knowing about security and risks and also compliance obligations.

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u/panconquesofrito 35M • 50% SR 9d ago

What does the income looks like PO? I am UX and I have been thinking about transition over to product.

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

I make $168k as a PO.

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u/panconquesofrito 35M • 50% SR 9d ago

That’s phenomenal! I could live without roommates with that much lol are you in a high cost of living part of the country?

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u/HelpMeDownFromHere 9d ago

Yep. I'm also 37...so mid-level. This is my first year as a PO. I've been a data professional (business/data analyst) for 5 years.

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

You can make a lot more in UX depending on seniority, experience, and company/city. Source: Best friend in UX @ $350k as Principal. They know others pushing $500k, but in UX leadership.

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u/BigSweeps 9d ago

Do you have any insight into what the difference is between what the Principal UX and Senior UX folks are making?

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

It’s actually not too far apart. Pay bands can be wide and overlap. Seniors can hit the $300k range. It depends on city and company. I’m in PNW.

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u/BigSweeps 9d ago

Damn. How much experience do you have? I’m sitting around 5 years of agency UX/UI (10+ if you wanna count “entire design career”) in PNW and feeling like I should be able to break through to six figures. Currently around $70k.

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

15 years. I’m in-house. Might be the agency pay rates.

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u/AssaultLemming 9d ago

Holy shit 300k to decide if the button should go on the left or the right and to say "that's too many clicks to get from the front page to that feature". That's awesome.

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

The job is way more than that. However, that thinking isn’t uncommon, and it’s why businesses that think along those lines have a hard time keeping good UX designers and/or have shitty products.

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u/AssaultLemming 8d ago

I'm super curious what else goes in to it?

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u/panconquesofrito 35M • 50% SR 9d ago

God damn! Lol that’s because of the location too, right? That’s got to be SF or Seattle?

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

Location is big part. Seattle.

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u/useyourturnsignal 9d ago

That right there is not the norm in UX, though. That's top-level right there.

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u/McMacMackMacaque 9d ago

It may be top-level but the post was about 6 figures. ;)

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Typically the salary range is between 90-200k. I know it’s an insanely broad range, but it really depends on your location (cost of living), experience (entry level, mid, senior, etc), industry and company size. It’s good that you have UX experience. That’s a known transition path to product.

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u/panconquesofrito 35M • 50% SR 9d ago

Very cool! Is the higher income usually in the west coast and north east cities? I am in Orlando, this market is rather small.

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Definitely! For example, Silicon Valley or California in general = high range because high cost of living. Mid west, I’m guessing it’s on the lower end. I think Orlando has a pretty strong market, so the pay might be pretty good. Once you start interviewing, your recruiter can probably give you that information :)

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u/tony_danzig 9d ago

damn, I am a PO and work in Belgium. average salary is around 50k (in euro)

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u/taichi22 9d ago

Your field sounds interesting — can I DM you to ask more about it? It sounds like a field that would be a good fit for me, and I’d like to know more.

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u/bubbalubdub 9d ago

I’m a BA now that’s making 6 figures. My responsibilities include deputy product owner. I’ve been considering an actual PO role but am nervous about needing max product knowledge to do the job well.

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Nice! It should be an easy transition. I would know because I was previously a BA 😛.

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u/takoyakiqueen 8d ago

How's the work life balance for your role?

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u/skdesign808 8d ago

I may be an anomaly, but I work for about two hours in my shift and spend the rest watching YouTube or go on Reddit (I work from home). I’ve heard of other POs that experienced the complete opposite though.

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u/waspocracy 9d ago

There are dozens of us!

Out of curiosity, are you certified in agile?

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Indeed! Nope, I’m not certified. I just have an MBA.

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u/theobro 9d ago

Ayy Jr PO here. How long did it take you to get into 6 figs?

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u/skdesign808 9d ago

Congrats on your role! This is actually my first time being a PO but making six figures. However, l was previously a Project Manager and Business Analyst.

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u/oliolivo 9d ago

It took me 4 years! I also have some PO certifications as well. I was a Business Analyst prior to this and been with the same company for almost 10 years now doing various roles. PO is by far my favorite job I’ve ever had!

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u/wilkinsk 9d ago

Product?