As a product marketer, how do you handle design disagreements on something you're working on with your designer?

I must admit that design disagreements have been rare in my experience. The best way to ensure alignment is to really think of your design partner as a true partner (vs. just a service role), bring them in early and upfront, provide them with context (e.g. maybe even have them be part of planning sessions), and take a collaborative vs. directive approach.

While there may always be one-off disagreements on individual efforts, overall a collaborative approach should lead to a much better working relationship and end result since you’ll now be aligned on goals and desired outcomes.

Whenever possible I try to have a customer-first, data-driven approach. We've used A/B testing, customer research, or referencing market standards to hash out disagreements in the past. If those aren't an option, but the decision is crucial to the success of the project, I recommend forming a RAPID team/framework to ensure the best option is selected. 

Here are a few things to think about:

1. Consider how you are briefing in the work to get alignment upfront on the ask and the criteria.
2. Related, bring them along on the insights journey to empower them to design in a way that will hit the mark for your target customers. Link them to your customer personas, usage data or research that highlights what they care about, past interaction data or qualitative input from customers and prospects on what they value in design or information architecture.
3. Do you have an opportunity to get feedback directly from users? Is there a way to AB test a creative in a way that would generate useful insights to guide future design decisions? Or do you have a customer advisory board (whether formal, or just an informal handful of customers you could ask for feedback from) that could help you and the designer understand which is the right design path to pursue from the customer’s perspective?
4. Ultimately, try and persuade the designer using customer stories and data. If that isn’t successful, design likely holds the final decision. Use a disagree and commit framework, and ponder what might drive more alignment in the next project you work on together.

This is a tough situation because if you are at the design phase, you probably already have an idea of how you want something to look. The designer however can bring a different viewpoint to the discussion. They often know how someone will interact with something visually and may end up creating something magical if given more free rein. That said, in this scenario you are the customer - and the customer is usually right!

If there's truly a disagreement then make sure you've got your data and research. Show the design to others in your team and also some outside of your team. Show it to a few people outside of marketing completely as sometimes marketers will not see things as differently as non-marketers. Show it to friends outside of your industry. If it resonates with them without having to come with detailed explanations then you know the visual will be more likely to work.

I've always been pleasantly surprised by what the creative teams I've worked with come up with. They usually work best given less instructions but if you can't agree then definitely make sure you've done the research and have the data to back up your ideas!

I yell at them! Just kidding. Design is a visual representation of your positioning & messaging.

If there's a disagreement, I find it often comes from a different understanding of either your positioning, your audience, or how you want to show up against competitors. To solve a disagreement with design, it may require taking a step back to look at those factors together to ensure you have a shared understanding.

1. Look at your competitors and see how they are showing up in the market from a design perspective. Is the design you're working on going stand out and be compelling?

2. Revisit your personas together. For example, we market to developers and when looking at design we think about the other tools that developers use and try to ensure that we're in the same camp. Dark mode everywhere!

3. Write a tone & feel section in your message house if you haven't already. What adjectives do you want your audience to come away with from your designs, and do the designs you're working on align with that?

4. Finally, be kind and respect each others crafts. The above are three ways to make design more objective, but lets face it, good design is art and strong reactions are usually what make it good. If you still can't agree, ask your customers!

I handle disagreements by backing away from the decision at hand and first getting alignment on our philosophical approach to product design and then defining roles and responsibilities. I'm a firm believer that disagreements usually stem from a lack of alignment on the aforementioned.