How do you manage internal pushback against data from your market research efforts? Ie other groups that want data to prove a point (product manager or engineer), but then don't trust the data you bring back?

Involve these functions in the actual development and execution of the research. the worst you can do is give the impression that research is a "black box" out of which slides with percentages come out! 

This means make them part of identifying the key questions, reviewing whatever instruments you are using (to a certain degree, make sure you're not violating any best practices in the spirit of inclusion) and get a sense BEFORE launching what success looks like for a particular research intiative. Also, see my answer for creating a "customer-centric" culture! Helpful tips there, hopefully! 

We've all been there. First, you think through a problem and what you need to research. You dig in with your Insights team partner on the objectives and questionnaire. You get raw data back and sythesize. You pull together a thoughtful report with recommendations. You're excited to share it out with the team.

Then you hear the doubt: "How was that question asked?" "How many people were asked?" "Are we sure we can believe that?" "Oh, yeah, I think that must be skewed."

The thing I'd encourage you to remember is that the people skills part of insights work is as valuable as the work itself.

I'd recommend three key tactics you can use to help ensure you get more, faster buy-in when sharing out results.

1. Bring them along on the journey. People are more likely to feel invested in the outcome when they feel they played a role in it. Once you have a draft research brief or questionnaire, for instance, share it with key members of your team who will be able to influence whether or not the research results are acted upon, whether that's Product, Design, Marketing, Analytics, or other teams. Giving them the opportunity to ask about the questions, phrasing, and objectives will help them feel more bought in.
2. Make it feel real to them. It's easier to divorce ourselves from how customers feel when the data is only presented in charts and stats. People often need to hear something for themselves for it to truly click. You can do this in a few ways: If you're conducting qualitative research (focus groups, calls, interviews), offer a chance for stakeholders to sit in on some of these as silent listeners. If that's not possible, play key clips from video interviews or show sample quotes from open ended questions in quantitative research. It's harder to ignore insights when we show the humanity behind them.
3. Give them sneak peeks. Look, we're all human, and you can use this knowledge to work for you when you share out research results. First, people love "social currency" -- having information that other people don't have. Second, people can react negatively when presented with new information that doesn't quite fit their world view. Third, we love modeling our behavior after others, and once somebody starts showing doubt in a meeting, it can pick up steam quickly. With all that in mind, you may want to identify a few key stakeholders who will be in the readout and offer to give them a sneak peek of the results before the formal shareout in your next one-on-one meeting with them. This can help prime them on the information they're going to see and feel like a valued partner.

You may be looking at a broader trust issue and its likely that the research and the data you are bringing back is likely only a symptom of this. One of the key soft skills as a PMM is to influence without authority. So think about what motivates your product team, and use that to influence them and bring them along with your ideas/perspective.

Before you work on your next research project, spend some time working with your product team or engineers and find out what their goals are and what is driving their day to day work. That way you will understand what they are working towards and how you can be supportive to their goals, while also pursuing your own.

The first step is to anticipate this ahead of time by developing a stakeholder analysis as part of your research brief. Identifying potential detractors who may be intent on fending off challenges to their own theories and trying to get buy-in on the project might help down the road as you debate research findings. You don't want to be arguing over methodology and whether or not you "asked the right questions" after the work is done.

At the same time, recruit a few senior leaders who can help push back against unfair criticism. Make sure you've got a team who supports the brief and the methods. And seek alignment with them on your conclusions and recommendations during the synthesis stage.

Also, be humble in recognizing that most market research is far from a silver bullet. Embrace that ambiguity as you roadshow the findings, while also standing by your own analysis and using the data to support your own arguments.