Product Answers #8: How to deal with disagreement?
This question came from a head of product who is responsible for a small team of product managers and dealing with stakeholders all across the company. She regularly saw herself in situations, where parts of their team or stakeholders disagreed. A compromise everybody felt comfortable with would weaken the product and deliver a non-satisfying solution to their customers.
Disagreement is a good problem to have. When everybody agrees in the first place, you are either not making your point clear or you try to satisfy every single person in the company. That almost always leads to a product full of compromises and your customers will tell you straight away by simply not buying it. Or stop using it after you added the latest set of features (this is a major reason why many products lose its appeal while they grow over time). As Steve Jobs phrased it: “If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader, sell ice cream.”
At the same time, you need to dissolve the disagreement. Disagreement not surfaced is toxic and will lead to inaction or even harmful behaviour. We all know at least one person running around the floor and badmouthing the latest decision by management. Spreading bad energy wherever possible.
You need to involve your team members, colleagues and stakeholders while the decision is being taken. Surely not in a committee style where everybody can vote on the decision. But the involved people need to be able to express their thoughts, their views and their concerns. You might hear something new and change the direction of your decision. Once the decision is taken, everybody needs to commit to it.
One of Amazon’s leadership principles reads: “Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit.” It’s okay to have a different opinion. Express it and see what the rest of the group thinks about it. But once the decision is taken, you need to commit to support it. The point in time for disagreement is before the decision is taken. Disagreeing and complaining about it afterwards will lead to all the negative effects.
As someone taking the decision, you need to give people a chance to express their honest opinion, before you take the decision. This usually means talking to them and encourage them to express their disagreement without triggering a fear of punishment.
Just to be sure: you do not present every decision up-front. That would be way too slow. Those decisions that you believe are important to others, because it influences them, are the ones you want commitment for.