Yes, you read that right. Disagreement within your product development team is proof that you have a great combination of personalities and strong ideas.
Disagreement creates 6 benefits:
1) Clarity of thought,
2) Clarity of the message
3) Fills in knowledge gaps,
4) Strengthens the value proposition,
5) Highlights the weaknesses of a design,
6) Pushes the best ideas to the top.
This is only true if there is respectful discussion and disagreement.
We become more effective through discourse as our ideas and decisions are tempered and honed through discussion. The act of communication and persuasion forces one to clarify their ideas, thought processes, and reasoning. The simple act of describing an idea to someone who isn't familiar with it improves your own understanding. Reading the person's face to see if they understand what you are saying or if their eyes glaze over. This is important feedback as someone refines their message. Keep talking to people about it. Either you'll find the best way to deliver your message or you'll realize that your idea is flawed. Then you can address the flaw.
One person isn't capable of understanding the depth of knowledge required to completely share someone else's perspective. Different viewpoints are additive, they fix weaknesses by connecting puzzle pieces to form a representation of the user's perspective. As the team gets a holistic view of the user experience the solution improves and the value proposition gets stronger.
Product development is a battlefield; a clash of ideas, assumptions, and beliefs towards a common goal. All of these are tested as they vie for their place as the chosen solution. Each team member comes armed with their priorities of what needs to be implemented to achieve success. This needs to be negotiated throughout the process.
You're not going into battle to kill the other side's ideas. Your ego may tell you, "Hold the line. Don't give an inch." You are creating enemies if you do. This approach will eventually lead to the death of your ideas and people will refuse to collaborate with you. It's the balance between these priorities that create success. Not equal parts of influence at all times but the balancing out is similar to the change of seasons or day and night. Situations will come up where one group's skill set will be necessary to problem solve and it will change when the next problem arises. If one completely trumps the others throughout the project the product will fail.
If you truly believe in something, don't give up. Incorporate the team's feedback by acknowledging valid counterpoints that are brought to you. This process makes your ideas stronger. Try again. Repeat the process until they understand. Communicating clearly is your goal. There will be times when you may be placing too much importance on an idea. In reality, it sits underneath other objectives in the hierarchy or there are better ideas. When and if that happens, make peace with it and move on. You're not going to win all the battles when defending your ideas.
What if the team isn't embracing your idea?
- You aren't seeing the entire picture.
- You aren't communicating the idea and value clearly.
- Your idea isn't as good as you think it is. No really, it isn't.
What if your product development team has no conflict, here are some things that might be causing it.
- Strong personalities mixed with highly agreeable people.
- People don't care, they just want to get it done.
- Culture values metrics over excellence.
What to do depending on your personality:
Alpha/conscientious - Be a leader and facilitate the discussion. Ask your team, if you know there is a quiet team member ask them directly. It's not a waste of time. Different perspectives are necessary.
Extravert - Allow opportunities for the quiet ones to share their thoughts. Be quiet. If you feel the need to say something ask a quiet team member what they think.
Agreeable - keeping the peace is not more important than the potential of your product. Keep the focus on the consumer and not on another team member. Disagree while making the conversation focused on who you're designing for instead of who you disagree with.
Introvert - speak up, it's important. Once you start, it gets easier after a few seconds. Also, don't be the person that waits until the end of the meeting to bring something up. That will annoy everyone. I was guilty of this early in my career.
Not confident - Your perspective is unique and it represents a percentage of your users. Believe in what your gut is telling you.
Neuroticism - stop thinking and share with the team. People don't think about you as much as you think they do. You are a valuable member of the team. Your perspective matters.
Apathetic - find something to care about. Put yourself in the shoes of the user or a loved one. If that's not possible you might be working in the wrong industry or the company culture might be toxic. Most likely it's you though. Amazing things can be done when people go against the grain and give a shit about what they're doing.
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