You're balancing conflicting stakeholder opinions on user feedback. How do you decide what to prioritize?

To prioritize user feedback with conflicting stakeholder opinions, I focus on usability and impact. I analyze which feedback directly improves user experience (fixes bugs, clarifies features) and aligns with the product's core goals. Then, I weigh the impact of each suggestion - affecting a large user base or addressing a critical pain point gets prioritized. This data-driven approach balances stakeholder needs with user-centricity.

As a content strategist, navigating conflicting feedback is my bread and butter. Here's the key: understand the "why" behind each opinion. Stakeholders might prioritize features users love, but data shows low adoption. Listen to both! Focus on feedback that aligns with business goals (increased sales, improved user experience) and is backed by data (website behavior, surveys). Sometimes a compromise works: address core user needs while subtly nudging them towards under-utilized features. Remember, it's about creating content that users love and that meets business objectives.

Write down the main points from each stakeholder’s feedback. Use a matrix or chart to visualize different opinions and concerns.

You should always have two things in place: values and goals. Values are the identity – the who and how Goals are the activity – the what and when With both of these in place, you can begin to distinguish between what sounds good/exciting and what will help you actually accomplish your goals. Having an external set of agreed-upon values and goals will also help you navigate the politics of the situation since you have an external guide to measure against.

Having all stakeholders feel heard is important before moving forward. By showing you understand each person's goals/ motivations, you can help move towards next steps everyone can agree on, even if it wasn't their first choice. Listening to dissenting voices can highlight issues and areas you weren't considering so be careful not to dismiss ideas without due diligence.

Evaluate each feedback point based on how many users it affects (Reach), the potential benefit (Impact), your certainty in the solution (Confidence), and the resources required (Effort). Use and refer the MoSCoW Method (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have). Classify feedback into categories based on urgency and importance.

I typically start by outlining the "why, what, how, and where + outcome" of any content tactic in collaboration with all the stakeholders whose involvement is and will be necessary throughout the process. This helps us to prepare a summary of what we are going to build together keeping in mind the very goal of the tactic. If there are conflicting views, it helps to iron out the issues and smoothen the rough edges at a preliminary stage. However, there are times when stakeholders have vastly different views, midway, and each view may be relevant and important. Revisiting the goals and making necessary adjustments have mostly been helpful in my experience.