Here's how you can handle feedback you disagree with in Product Marketing.

Managing through diverse viewpoints typically makes for stronger products, positioning and campaigns. Welcome the discourse! When tackling hotly debated topics, the most effective method I've found is to list out the best arguments for a position and the best arguments for the countervailing position, along with a recommendation that includes any testing and risk mitigation that should accompany it. Leverage the facts that you have available at the time, and do your best to triangulate the data. Low risk decisions can be made more quickly, with less data and higher risk/hard to reverse decisions should be made with much more deliberation.

Recognize that disagreement can be a powerful catalyst for innovation. Instead of dismissing feedback that doesn't align with your views, use it as a springboard to explore new angles and solutions that you may not have considered. This approach can lead to more robust product features and marketing strategies.

Listen actively and empathetically to the feedback. Understand the perspective of the person giving the feedback without interrupting or dismissing their points. Ask clarifying questions and understand their concerns. This shows respect and builds trust, creating a more open and collaborative environment. This way you can uncover new insights that may lead to innovative strategies.

Instead of just hearing words, try to understand the underlying concerns and emotions. Approach the conversation with curiosity, asking open-ended questions to understand it even better. This shows respect and can also reveal critical insights that may improve your strategy. After all, fresh perspectives can spark innovation and uncover blind spots you might have missed.

Not every product marketing feedback session will be a high five. When you disagree, breathe easy! First, thank the person and acknowledge their input. Then, ask clarifying questions to see their point of view. Got data backing your strategy? Share it calmly. Instead of arguing, focus on solutions - propose ways to address their concerns while aligning with your plan. Remember, it's about collaboration, not combat. By approaching it with an open mind, you can turn this into a learning experience and an even stronger product strategy.

When you receive feedback that seems off-base, conduct an empathy mapping session. This involves diving deep into the customer’s perspective to understand their feelings, motivations, and the context behind their feedback. This can uncover underlying needs or problems that were not initially apparent, allowing you to address them in a more targeted way.

After actively listening to the feedback, evaluate it objectively by considering the source and context. Determine whether the feedback is coming from many of your customers, or is it an isolated opinion? Analyze supporting data and identify patterns that either validate or contradict the feedback. This approach helps you to identify key areas for improvement and make informed decisions.

Reflexiona y analiza. Toma literal lo que mencionaron y no lo parafrasees a lo que tu crees que quisieron decir. Toma cada una de las ideas y clasificalas. Trata de encontrar semejanzas y ordenarlas en importancia. Trata de encontrar el origen de la causa de las ideas mas importantes o repetidas.

The biggest challenge in preparing a launch campaign can be the absence of customer feedback—a real Schrödinger's cat situation. This makes objective discussions on a product's merits difficult, often leading to entrenched opinions and emotional debates. For video games, mock reviews offer valuable external perspectives, helping to resolve internal conflicts. Once the game is released, analyzing consumer feedback is crucial, but beware of strong social media voices. Making changes based on social media sentiment without understanding the underlying causes and potential consequences can lead to disastrous decisions. Experienced team can usually identify and prioritize key underlying needs rather than getting lost in consumer sentiment.

I believe we should always think that we offer solutions not products and when listening to the audience feedback we should think what product we have that can be the best solution to the audience needs considering any customisation can be made to make our offering looks more like the solution to the client needs

Respecting each other's expertise is a big way around conflict between PMMs and Engineering and Design folks. PMMs may see competitors use certain type of copy on their websites or tactics on their social media - but the Marketing Team always has a rationale for their decision. Rather than pointing out what competitors are doing try asking questions like, "Can you educate me on the rationale for XXX decision? I would love to learn."

Understand the reasoning behind the feedback, and any data supporting it. Is it based on customer insights, market trends, or other relevant information? Asking specific questions to understand the feedback better will be helpful. For example, “Can you elaborate on why you think this aspect isn’t working?” or “What alternatives do you suggest?”

Constructive disagreement can be very productive when it remains focused on the issue. Asking open ended questions to learn more about the other perspective and listening with an intent to understand rather than offer rebuttal are critical. It's also important for the party offering the feedback to approach the conversation from a humble perspective with a willingness to also ask questions, not only be there to prove a point.

I agree! Receiving any kind of feedback is critical to understanding how your product is positioned in the marketplace. When you encounter feedback that may seem negative, it is an opportunity to dig deeper and potentially discover some “holes” in your messaging. You may even be able to change the other party’s perception. This wouldn’t happen unless you heard the feedback and had the tough conversation. Through constructive dialogue, both parties can learn something.

It is important to understand the rationale behind a feedback or specific decision. If you are able to bring in data to support your point of view or negative consequences of continuing with an existing decision/ feedback - it would lead to a collaborative discussion.

Disagreements on product or campaign performance are common. To analyze feedback rationally, I embrace a "what-if" approach. For instance, if lead generation falls short, we dissect the feedback alongside campaign data. We explore what alternative messaging or channel mix could have yielded better results. Perhaps a stronger call to action or a different social media platform could have been more effective and also analysing why we actually chose this approach. By considering these alternatives objectively, we can refine our strategies for future campaigns. This ensures we learn from feedback, continuously improve, and achieve optimal results while also not letting our own strategy skills take an esteem dip by blindly taking criticism.

Feedback stems only if something is not working or an intended objective is not met. If there are leading indicators around your campaign performance and it is supported by historical precedence on campaign history , there is merit in looking at fresh perspectives to pivot / modify your strategy to amplify your intended outcomes.

Crea un focus group que te ayude a tomar decisiones sobre las propuestas e ideas que estas considerando, aunque estas no sean las que mas te agraden. Seguramente este grupo te ayudara a reforzar el por que debes considerar cierta idea que te está generando conflicto internamente.

Analyze their suggestions. No knee-jerk reactions needed. If data contradicts them, present facts clearly. It's not a war between egos.

From my experience, it is always better to have some alternative solutions up your sleeve than just simply disagreeing with the feedback you received. This way, you can show that you have considered the feedback received in an analytical and proactive way, while still making a point that there could be better ways to solve the challenge at hand.

Research is key. Just disagreeing with your manager will not get you anywhere and it could also be seen as unprofessional, depending on the company and culture. However, if you back up your point of view with data and trustworthy information from internal or external sources, you will have a better chance of being heard and actually change their mind.

Use data to drive your decisions. Look at metrics to refine your approach and measure the effectiveness. If something seems "off," it probably is, start with different buyer roles and personas you're trying to impact, and build out the "supply chain" of content, tools, and processes that impact those personas. Use data to highlight what's working and what's not.

If feedback is controversial, test it. Implement A/B testing on the suggested changes versus the current approach. This empirical method provides clear data on what truly resonates with your audience, helping to move decisions from subjective to objective grounds.

I have a bias for action so I love running small product tests and focus groups l. By testing ideas even if you think they won’t work allows you to get some real data to accelerate or prove out ideas

In my experience, processing feedback and making decisions can seomtimes be the easiest part of the job, especially with cohesive teams. Preparing a marketing campaign for a product, debating the right approach with the team, and agreeing on a plan (or disagreeing and committing) are just the first steps. Building performance requires significant back and forth. We analyze results as soon as data is available or the sample size is significant enough. This demands investing time in data analysis and fostering a data-driven mindset. Each team member must regularly stop to analyze their results, build and test new hypotheses, and share learnings with the team. Also, always give chance for team members to test their hypothesis!

Leave and start your own company. Product marketing is great training for being a startup founder. - You think about product, marketing, and sales motions at the company in a cohesive GTM strategy. - You view things from the customer’s perspective. - You are comfortable talking about the company and the product and doing public speaking. - You know how to talk to customers and prospects. - You’re used to doing everything cross-functionally.

Feedback is always learning, when you learn you can improve and master the skill. Its better to get feedback rather than a ignorance from the marketing campaign

Aligning marketing goals to business goals ( be it pipeline or revenue or new logo addition etc) fundamentally helps executive leadership buy-in on the marketing initiatives and campaigns being driven. Even from a brand perspective, having brand metrics around market recognition ( say analyst recognition) or customer advocacy ( say G2 Reviews ) or Brand led discovery ( say direct website visits/ form-fills ) can fundamentally address alignment issues between marketing, sales & executive leadership teams.

Focus on being proactive by tracking data on potential feedback areas: Messaging: Track audience demographics , A/B testing results, and social media engagement to assess message clarity and resonance. CTA: Monitor bounce rates and click-through rates to identify if CTAs drive desired actions. Tone: Sentiment analysis and customer survey feedback to understand how brand voice is perceived. Timing: Track engagement patterns by time of day/week to optimize campaign timing. Design: Use A/B testing and heatmaps to see how users interact with visual elements to assess design effectiveness. By gathering this upfront, you'll be well-equipped to analyze feedback, identify areas for improvement, and defend your decisions with data-driven insights.

Always keep the customer at the heart of your marketing strategies, and be able to explain how you are aligning your work to impact customers. Document your assumptions and logic. Understand their needs, preferences, and behaviors.