The secret to arguing with CEOs

Someone once showed me a secret to winning product debates in a company, even if it’s up against the CEO.

One time one of my best designers was showing me a product design and I, as CEO, thought I knew a better solution. I’m sure we’ve all been in a meeting like that :)

But this designer did something that made me stop and give in…

Instead of arguing her point more strongly she said, simply:

“I know where you are coming from, I thought a similar thing. But then I talked to a number of our customers and validated that their real challenge is different than we expected.”

Whoever talks to the most customers wins.