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 re ...Read More

Here are a few things to think about: Consider how you are briefing in the work to get alignment upfront on the ask and the criteria. 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. Do ...Read More

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. Look at your competitors and see how they are showing up in the market from a de ...Read More

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 re ...Read More