You're debating feature priorities with clients in mobile design. How do you reach a consensus effectively?

Start by understanding the key goals of the project and what the users really need. Use data, like user feedback or competitor analysis, to show why certain features should come first. A visual tool, like a chart that compares the impact of each feature with the effort needed, can help everyone see which features offer the best value (Impact Effort Matrix). Focus on the must-have features for the initial launch and suggest adding less critical features later. Keep the conversation open, listen to concerns, and offer iterations when needed. Finally, (most important) document the agreed priorities to avoid any confusion later. This way, everyone stays on the same page, and the project can move forward smoothly.

One of the soft skills design must have is hearing more than talking so active listening to the clients especially the end users and understand their point of view. We must remember we are not designing for ourselves but for the client and users and also business goals of the clients. I would ensure that we listen to them but not to accept all what they say but logically argue which create a good discussion leading to arrival to a mutually agreeable solution which take into account all the stakeholders.

Even you can't say to client, but keep this in mind that client find difficult to articulate their needs and that is whY as part of the design process we have concept of initial brief and redefined brief and designers are trained to follow process and tools to convert initial brief into redefined brief or actionable brief by validation and discovery. This is the important phase to articulate what exactly we need to work on and only after this we should be actually start working on solving or designing for it.

Designer' mindset also need to be a collaborator and that helps them facilitating the discussion with all their stakeholders to bring out the best outcome for the project as well as the final deliverables.

I caution, not agreeing on goal with a good discussion with compelling arguments on all side. Don't accept everything what clients says, it's important to listen to them but not necessarily agreeing to all what they say but if you don't find the good reasoning or if that is not good for the final deliverables in terms of user requirements or impacting the quality negatively, it's better not to agreeing for it.