I spent years designing flows. Now I understand the decisions behind them

One habit has helped me a lot:

I ask many questions.

Sometimes it can make me look like I don’t fully understand the topic.

That’s okay.

When a new feature is discussed, teams often move quickly to the solution.

I usually want to understand a few things first:

Who will use it?

What problem are we solving?

How do people solve this problem today?

And what does the business want to achieve?

The current way is very important.

It may be another app.

Or Excel.

WhatsApp.

A phone call.

A paper form.

Or a person doing the work manually.

If you don’t understand how people work today, you can easily build a digital product that makes their life harder.

These questions also help me understand the business and technical side of the feature.

So when I start designing, I already have much more context.

And when I present the solution, I’m not only showing screens.

By that point, the design already reflects the user, the business, the technology, and the real process behind the feature.

Many times, I’m not introducing a completely new idea to the team.

I’m showing them how the things we discussed can work together in one clear solution.

Ask enough to understand.

Then design.