Why designers avoid disagreement

Most teams treat conflict as something to avoid. In this episode, I sit down with Yaprak Gültay Davison to talk about why that instinct backfires. We explore how healthy disagreement builds trust, improves decision-making, and helps teams move faster... without blowing things up.

What if the tension you’re trying to avoid at work is actually the thing your team needs most?

Most design teams say they value collaboration, empathy, and alignment, but rarely talk about disagreement. In this conversation, I sat down with Yaprak Davison, Head of Design at Goodnotes and former design leader at Spotify, to unpack why conflict isn’t a threat to good teams. It’s often the foundation of trust.

Yaprak shares how designers are trained to optimize for harmony, and how that instinct can quietly erode clarity, slow teams down, and lead to decisions being made without the right people in the room. We talk about the real signals of unaddressed conflict—delayed replies, passive agreement, quiet misalignment—and why silence often causes more damage than open disagreement ever could.

We also dig into what it actually looks like to lead through conflict: naming tension early, separating facts from the stories we tell ourselves, and turning disagreement into a co-design moment rather than a power struggle. If you’ve ever felt stuck “keeping the peace” while things quietly fall apart, this episode will change how you think about conflict and your role in it.

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Yaprak on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to “Leadership as Craft”

Topics:
• 02:49 – Diving into Conflict in Teams
• 03:18 – Guest Introduction: YRA Davidson
• 04:25 – The Role of Conflict in Design
• 05:45 – Managing Conflict in Design Teams
• 11:31 – Coaching and Cultural Differences
• 22:21 – Building Trust Through Conflict
• 25:21 – Scaling Teams and Systems
• 30:53 – Exploring the Concept of Followership
• 32:31 – Leadership as a Team Sport
• 33:40 – Balancing Leadership and Craft
• 35:43 – Building High-Performing Remote Teams
• 39:40 – Handling Remote Conflict
• 41:46 – Personal Insights and Advice
• 52:51 – Final Thoughts and Resources

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