Good UX Doesn’t Sell Itself, Part 2: Stop Asking “Do You Like It?”
- Emre Ay
- Sep 29, 2025
- 3 min read
In the first part of this story, we agreed that good UX needs a great narrative to survive. But what happens after you’ve told the story?
The Sequel No One Asks For, But Everyone Needs
You enter the feedback session. And that’s often where good stories and good designs go to die.
Picture the scene: you’ve just presented weeks of hard work. The user flows are elegant, the interface is clean, and the solution feels right. You hold your breath, look at the stakeholders, and ask the five most dangerous words in a designer’s vocabulary:
“So… what do you think?”
A pause…
Then it begins.
The marketing manager thinks the button should be a different shade of blue.
The CEO’s spouse saw a cool app that does things another way.
The feedback dissolves into a swamp of personal taste…
Suddenly, the entire project’s fate seems to hang on the curve of a button, and you feel a bit like Boromir at the Council of Elrond, lamenting, “It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing.” The project goals are forgotten. The user is forgotten.
The first rule of selling your work is to tell a good story. The second, and equally important rule, is to never let a bad question ruin it.
Why “Do You Like It?” Is a Career-Killing Question
Asking stakeholders if they “like” your design is a trap. You’re not just asking for feedback; you’re asking for trouble. Here’s why:
It invites subjectivity, not strategy. “Liking” something is a feeling, not a metric. This question instantly shifts the conversation from “Does this solve the user’s problem?” to “Does this please my personal aesthetic?”
It positions you as a junior. It signals that you’re seeking approval, not alignment. You sound like you’re asking for a pat on the back, not a strategic partnership.
It makes the feedback about them, not the user. You’ve just spent the entire presentation focusing on user needs, and now you’re asking a stakeholder to focus on their own.
Asking “Do you like it?” is like a doctor showing a patient an X-ray and asking, “So, do you like the look of your broken bone?” The question is irrelevant to the problem we are there to solve.
A Quick Case From Experience A few years ago, I presented a redesigned dashboard for a B2B product. The user flows were simplified, key actions surfaced, and in testing we saw task completion improve by almost 40%. But in the review session, I made the mistake of asking, “So… what do you think? ”That one question derailed everything… Suddenly, the conversation wasn’t about workflows or user goals. It was about button colors and whether the sidebar should be on the left or top. Weeks of design work and research were overshadowed by personal taste. In the end, the launch was delayed because we wasted cycles debating aesthetics that didn’t matter. That was the moment I learned: asking “Do you like it?” is not feedback facilitation. It’s self-sabotage.
You’re Not a Note-Taker. You’re a Facilitator.
When you walk into a feedback session, your role is not to be a passive note-taker, dutifully writing down every comment. Your role is to be a facilitator.
You are the Gandalf in the Council of Elrond, keeping everyone focused on the mission. After all, as the wizard himself reminded us, ‘All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’ A feedback session is a finite amount of time; your job is to make sure it’s spent solving the right problems, not chasing subjective whims.
Better Questions to Ask
To get better feedback, you have to ask better questions. Ditch “Do you like it?” and replace it with questions that are specific, strategic, and user-focused.
Instead of asking, “What do you think?” ask: “Does this solution clearly address the user problem we outlined at the start?”
Instead of asking, “Is this confusing?” ask:
“What information feels like it’s missing for you to complete the main task?”
Instead of asking, “Do you like the layout?” ask:
“From your department’s perspective (e.g., marketing, engineering), does this approach create any new risks or challenges we haven’t considered?”
These questions force stakeholders to put on their problem-solving hats, not their art critic hats. They anchor the conversation in strategy and user needs.
Ask Questions That Build, Not Just Validate
Selling your UX is a continuous process. It doesn’t end with a great presentation; it lives on in how you manage the conversations that follow.
The quality of your final design is directly proportional to the quality of the feedback you’re able to guide and gather. Stop asking for approval and start facilitating a discussion. Because great design isn’t about having all the right answers, it’s about asking the right questions.
