A Product Manager’s Guide to Dispute Resolution
Introduction
In life, disputes are inevitable. Disputes are unavoidable results of the diversity in values, personalities, and behaviours that accompany human interactions and relationships. That is, as long as society exists, so would disputes. However, disputes aren’t necessarily bad. Depending on how it is managed, disputes could yield positive results which is why I believe dispute resolution is an important skill every Product Manager needs to have. My belief in this skill is so strong that I added it to my resume.
Why It Matters to Product Managers
As a product manager, you are tasked with everything concerning the three Ps – Product, Process, and People. You’re probably thinking, “Aren’t “Process” and “People” the responsibilities of the Operations and Human Resources departments?”. Well, yes. However, the success of your product is heavily reliant on the people building it and the processes that guide the work they do. These are people you deal with daily. You talk with them all the time. You know your engineers, designers, and stakeholders better than HR ever would so why should you leave their welfare to the HR department?
Causes of Disputes
There are several reasons why disputes happen within teams. Most times, it is due to either personality clashes and misunderstood communication to organizational mismanagement. However, this would be an oversimplification of the problem. To better explain, I will highlight a few causes of disputes that you, as a product manager, are likely to encounter. They include:
1. Leadership challenges
At times, the cause of the dispute is the fact that people react differently to different leadership styles. For instance, while your UX researcher might tolerate being micromanaged, your Product Designer might hate it.
On a similar note, when people with a similar level of authority, work in an environment where the success of one person’s duty is reliant on another, leadership disputes are likely to occur. For example, in a scenario where the deadline for the launch of a new feature is fast approaching, your Product Marketer won’t be able to submit any report or recommend reliable marketing strategies if the Data Analyst doesn’t provide the necessary data. In this scenario, tension is likely to rise as the Product Marketer ends up breathing down the neck of the Data Analyst, even though both have similar levels of authority.
2. Creative differences
One thing that makes tech companies stand out from other types of companies is the overemphasis on innovation and creativity. Every tech company is founded by a creative problem-solver who naturally fills the company with other creative problem solvers. The result is an organization where everybody has a great idea they believe is worthy of implementation. Unfortunately, not every idea is implementable.
Resolving these types of disputes would require you, as the Product Manager, to have great prioritization skills. You should establish a feature prioritization framework and educate your team members about it. For every discarded suggestion, use the framework to explain why the suggestion would not be implemented.
3. Work-style preferences
Another reason why disputes could happen in a team is the fact that different people have different work styles. For instance, one person’s preferred means of communication could be emails while for another, it is a quick Zoom call. In such a scenario, enforcing one particular means of communication could lead to discomfort for some members of the team.
From experience, I can say that work-style differences are the biggest causes of disputes in a remote team. I have a visual designer on my team who prefers working between the hours of 10 pm — 5 am. Initially, I didn’t like or approve of his work style because it made it difficult for me to reach him during the day. However, his work style made him one of the most productive people on the team so I made adjustments to how I assigned tasks to get the best out of him and the team.
To handle disputes caused by work styles, you need to be open-minded and flexible. You also need to have a solid understanding of your organization’s work culture. Next, you need to evaluate the productivity level of the team member with a disputable work style. If the work style results in high productivity for the team and does not contradict the organization’s work culture, don’t tamper with it. Rather, you should make chances or put structures in place that would enhance the work style.
4. Personality differences
People are different so a Product Manager needs to realize that there are different personality types or temperaments and know how best to deal with each type. Some people are naturally domineering and like giving out instructions, while others are cautious and prefer being guided. Likewise, it’s likely that in a team, there’s an energetic person who is very vocal and another who is more reserved. All these are personality types and when two conflicting personality types come together, a dispute is likely to arise.
When handling disputes caused by personality differences, be patient and empathetic. Focus on understanding the personality types of each team member and what motivates them. Most importantly, remind them of the team’s shared goals.
Framework for Resolving Disputes
I came up with the D³ (or Triple D) framework. First, you have to diagnose the problem so you can understand it. Next, you need to discuss with the team members in dispute so you can better understand where each party is coming from. Finally, you should be able to arrive at a solution that dissolves the dispute.
Diagnose
At this stage, you should attempt to figure out who the disputing parties are, what the dispute is about when it began, and what stage the dispute has reached. At this point, it is okay to make assumptions based on personal observations. You can also ask other team members, who aren’t parties in the dispute, for their opinions. A total of these would give you a surface-level understanding of the dispute.
Discuss
After gathering information from other sources, it is time to communicate with the disputing parties. During this stage, you should be trying to do two things — identify and assess. First, you should endeavour to identify the causes of the dispute. While doing this, you should observe the disputing parties to better understand their personality traits, behaviours, and emotions. You should also try to understand what the parties say they want and why they want it.
Second, as a Product Manager, it’s expected that you set KPIs to evaluate your team’s attitude towards work. Such KPIs are helpful when assessing the damage the dispute is causing. KPIs you can track include team morale, employee satisfaction index, staff turnover, job performance, velocity, etc.
The discussion stage is sensitive. Depending on the situation, you might opt to have a conversation with the disputing parties separately before having a joint one with them.
Dissolve
At this stage, you already know what caused the disputes, the grievances of each party, and their demands. By now, you should also understand the lingering implications this dispute has on the team’s performance and product success if you cannot arrive at an amicable solution. When recommending solutions to the parties, make sure it is one that they both find reasonable. Any attempt to force a solution on the parties would worsen the dispute.
Things Not To Do When Resolving Disputes
1. Exhibit partiality
Trust me, you don’t want the parties to think that you have picked a side in the dispute. If there is any reason why your partiality may be questioned, address it before you begin the dispute resolution process. Likewise, avoid doing or saying anything that gives the appearance of partiality towards one of the parties.
2. Rushing
Be patient with your team members in dispute. Give them time to narrate their stories and share how they feel. Show that you empathize with them. It also helps you better understand the cause of the problem.
3. Interrupting
Aside from the fact that interrupting is a bit rude, it is also distracting. As a Product Manager, one of your strengths should be effective communication and every effective communicator knows that active listening is more important than speaking. Rather than interrupting the party who’s speaking, pay attention to their body language and vocal cues to see if they are nervous, angry, or lying. Not interrupting the parties also means you should allow the parties to arrive at a resolution on their terms.
Conclusion
No Product Manager wishes for disputes. Unfortunately, disputes are inevitable. It takes a skilled and self-aware Product Manager to handle disputes without it leaving a negative impact on the team’s performance and product success. Remember, a broken team builds a broken product.
