'Product Owner' is, to me, a much easier role to step into from being a dev -- just a much lower barrier to entry, imo. whereas 'Product Manager' would general

'Product Owner' is, to me, a much easier role to step into from being a dev -- just a much lower barrier to entry, imo. whereas 'Product Manager' would generally require more experience/expertise, imo -- tho there are 'Junior Product Manager' roles out there. imo, if you know how to run a standup, and can talk semi-intelligently about how to prioritize user stories, can use Jira, etc., you can get hired as a product owner, esp in a contract-to-hire situation.