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How do you get teams to feel bought-in for research that they aren't leading?

One challenge I've had is that teams will disregard research if their team didn't lead it, even if it's centered on small, qualitative studies.
Julian Clarke
Lattice Director, Head of Product MarketingJune 21

In my experience this usually breaks down due to underinvested relationship-building or lack of alignment of objectives across teams. If you try to convince a PM or any cross-functional stakeholder of a point with research you conducted – as quality or strategic or correct as it may be – without first establishing a foundation of credibility and trust, or understanding what that person and their team is trying to accomplish and positioning it around how this research helps them achieve those goals, then it will likely fall flat.

So I guess the tip here is to use your PMM skills to understand your audience’s motivations and identify the action you want them to take. Work backwards from where you want them to be and determine what needs to be true for them to arrive at that conclusion. Position your research around their interests or selfish benefit, and your work can drive broad impact across the business.

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Vishal Naik
Google Product Marketing Lead | Formerly DocuSignDecember 6

It starts with buy-in. If you can work with your XFN teams before the research is commissioned to chat about what questions the business wants solved and then once you have a vendor share the vendor proposal and then once you have qual/quant outlines share those with your XFNs to get their opinions on the questions being asked and research strategies being leveraged--then your partner teams will feel like they had a part in the research origination, and then they might be more interested in its output. 

Research is kind of like data, its a great mechanism, but there's so much variability that if you arent bought into the process you may find a bias in how the work was done, which would invalidate it in your opinion. Ex: a qual that may include any prospect vs a qual to just your target persona might yield different levels of trust internally. 

I also tend to believe that internal partners arent really focused on who is doing the work, or what the final outcome is, as long as they are considered in the process and their opinions are heard. So I'd suggest that in the next time you do a small qual that your team leads, bring your partner teams in on the ride from the beginning: they may help you think about the study in a fresh way and they'll feel like they have some skin in the game for the results. 

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Tracy Montour
HiredScore Head of Product MarketingJuly 29

I've said it before and I'll say it again - get alignment early and often. Help them understand how the research will help them, and why you are perfectly positioned to lead the the initiative as the voice of the customer within the organization. Ask for their feedback and incorporate their perspectives into the process. 

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