Stakeholders are divided on new product features. Which design direction will lead to success?

Understanding user needs is crucial in resolving stakeholder conflicts over product features. Go beyond data and focus on empathy—truly grasp your customers' problems and desires. Use surveys, interviews, and usability tests to engage with users and gather valuable insights. These insights will guide you in prioritizing features that offer real value. Remember, a feature that doesn't solve a user problem or improve their experience risks leading the product into treacherous waters.

1) Write down growth hypothesis, 2) Test with real target segment 3) Iterate quickly 4) Follow the money & customer engagement to find a direction !

Companies and products who put the stakeholders opinions first, are doomed to fail. This is not an authority measurement game. The ones who address real life needs and provide smart solutions to actual and not imaginary problems, build the commercial relationship with the customer and take the big prize home. Real users opinions are the only opinions that really matter when shaping a product. This is the law all legitimate and successful products adhere to.

La clave radica en una comprensión profunda de las necesidades de los usuarios. No se trata solo de recopilar datos, sino de generar empatía. A lo largo de mi experiencia liderando equipos comerciales y proyectos de transformación digital, he comprobado que interactuar directamente con los usuarios mediante encuestas y pruebas de usabilidad permite identificar y priorizar funcionalidades que aportan verdadero valor. Las características que no resuelven problemas específicos o mejoran la experiencia del usuario solo a?aden complejidad y riesgos innecesarios.

Have and communicate a clear definition of success, usually based on agreed-upon value drivers and/or target metrics. Once you have that, determine which design approach will ensure the feature achieves those value drivers/target metrics. If you really can't be sure, do some A/B testing with stakeholders and gather some preliminary metrics to make a data-driven decision on approach.

Engaging stakeholders in a collaborative workshop can be a game changer. It fosters creativity and allows everyone to contribute ideas, helping us align on a design direction that resonates with all parties involved!

When we were asked to Create a new Reporting Dashboard which would integrate AI to do trend analysis against using a already existing BI Tool. We needed to make a call on the approach, Making this choice was important since it would impact the way our reporting systems worked. We need to consider the cost to value as well. Hence, We carried out a comprehensive risk analysis that included evaluations of value, usability, viability, and feasibility in order to come to a solution. This approach aided in removing Assumptions?while encouraging collaborative decision-making. We were able to balance the trade-offs and make a more smart educated choice by providing stakeholders with unbiased, fact-based information.

Your question indicates that your decision framework is broken There is no such thing as "stakeholders" when it comes to decisions. There is one person, and if this squabbling is going on, that means that that person is unwilling to stick out his or her neck You need to get risk data (including known and unknown as well as unknowable risks), market data, feasibility and a bunch of other things, but such data is usually perfect only when the competition has already beaten you The problem you are describing is reminiscent of large corporations where people become VP by avoiding decision making in their careers, or startups where founders didn't decide who owns such decisions Otherwise this question shouldn't arise

Before finalizing, validate the chosen direction through user testing and feedback loops. This ensures the design aligns with both user expectations and business goals.