u/Emotionlxnb-Fill7894

Just wrapped 18 interviews with HR admins about our onboarding module. I ran a remote affinity mapping session with the PM, the eng lead and our VP of sales because I wanted buy in on the findings, not just a deck.
It went sideways. The VP kept dragging notes into a cluster he named needs better integrations, which is his existing pitch. Some of those notes were about integrations. A lot were about confusing permissions, which is a very different problem.
Nobody pushed back because he's senior. The final clusters look more like his roadmap than what 18 admins told us.
For researchers who run synthesis with stakeholders, how do you keep it honest without making people feel excluded from the process?