Through Innovation Acceleration workshops we can foster collaboration and ensuring that both teams see themselves as partners in delivering value to the customer, companies can turn potential clashes into opportunities for innovation. Aligning the perspectives over customer feedback requires open communication, periodic rhythms, unified vision, shared goals, cross functional team meetings, metrics/KPI, and celebrations for WINs.

As a PM, bridging Sales and R&D isn't just about peace-keeping - it's the secret sauce for real product innovation 🚀 My approach: Turn conflicts into opportunities - When Sales wants 'impossible' features and R&D pushes back, that tension often sparks our most creative solutions. Magic happens at the edge of possible! Innovation workshops - Get both teams in a room with user problems, not solutions. Watch how Sales' market insights combine with R&D's technical creativity to birth breakthrough ideas. Rapid experimentation culture - Sales brings the problems, R&D tests quick solutions, we learn fast together. The real win? When both teams start finishing each other's sentences about what users need next.

When a clash like this happens, it often comes down to differing priorities—sales focuses on immediate needs, while R&D looks to long-term innovation. Aligning their perspectives starts with creating a shared vision that shows how feedback drives both goals. Regular collaboration through joint discussions fosters empathy and mutual respect, while a structured feedback loop ensures customer insights are captured, evaluated, and acted upon by both teams. This shifts the dynamic from “us versus them” to a unified “we,” turning diverse perspectives into product innovation.

Facilitate Cross-Functional Workshops: Organize collaborative sessions to share insights, prioritize customer needs, and establish a unified product vision. Create a Feedback Framework: Develop a system that categorizes and quantifies customer feedback for objective evaluation by both teams. Set Shared Goals: Align both teams with metrics that balance customer satisfaction, innovation, and business growth.

We'll: Facilitate Communication: Establish a regular meeting where Sales shares customer feedback and R&D explains technical constraints or opportunities. Translate Feedback into Actionable Insights: Sales often brings raw customer feedback, while R&D focuses on technical feasibility. Bridging this gap requires translating feedback into clear, prioritized goals. Focus on Shared Goals: Remind both teams that they are working toward the same objective—creating innovative products that meet market demands. Assign Cross-Functional Teams: Create small, cross-functional groups combining Sales and R&D members to work on specific projects. Leverage Data: Use market research, customer surveys, and performance metrics to back up customer feedback.

I wonder what’s going on here? Are the sales folks trying to sell a new product that has no product-market fit? Or is the (presumably new) product at the wrong price point. Or is the clash more to do with personalities and egos? Before wading-in with solutions, I’d first like to understand the real underlying causes of this clash, so that it’s clearer what to do and how to do it. I also wonder if these questions are created by AI? They have become so bland and formulaic; are too generalised for real-world applications; are not conversational; provide little value to the answerer and for some reason, I find them quite irritating. I wonder what’s Microsoft / LinkedIn is really up to here?

Aligning sales and R&D isn't about eliminating differences but creating structures where those differences become strengths. A shared vision, regular communication, and a robust feedback loop ensure that customer feedback drives innovation, not division.

We can: Develop a Shared Vision and Common Goals Unified Product Strategy: Create a product roadmap that aligns with both customer needs (Sales) and technological feasibility (R&D). Customer-Centric Innovation: Frame innovation goals around delivering value to customers while balancing feasibility and scalability. Mutual KPIs: Establish shared key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction scores, feature adoption rates, and time-to-market to measure success collectively. Facilitate Regular Cross-Functional Communication Joint Meetings: Hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings with both Sales and R&D to review customer feedback, market trends, and product progress.