Great UX isn’t about having the best idea in the room

I want to tell you about the discovery of a project and how we should kick off things. You walk into a meeting room, a kickoff meeting of a new initiative. You are completely concentrated, listening to the requirements from the product team. Wait, what is the problem here? Where is the data? What are we trying to achieve here? You can be the most annoying person in the room in a minute. Is that what a UX job is? I don’t think so.

First of all, it’s the UX job to create space for every team member. UX is there to facilitate conversations, aligning teams around the same problem and creating an early understanding of the design assumption.

Let me give you a real, simple example.

We were basically introducing a subscription-based product for the first time, and the first time paywall, a product that gets millions of daily visitors. Everyone has an opinion what the page should look like. What value to communicate on the paywall? Today, users are surrounded by thousands of subscription-based products. Expectations are high.

There were two ways I could approach this.

One option: design the page on my own, based on my research and assumptions, then bring it into a meeting and defend every decision. Why this module? Why not that layout? Where would we get that data? Did you check this with engineering? I think this is a better idea… Everyone’s opinion matters, and that can easily turn into an endless loop. Too many meetings. Too much back and forth.

So instead, I changed the approach.

I created a FigJam board and invited our product manager, engineer, and Design VP to upload examples of their favourite subscription products. I asked them to add notes:

• What caught your attention?
• What works well?
• What doesn’t?
• What should we discuss?

And suddenly, the conversation shifted.

Instead of debating my design, we aligned around shared references. We created a common language before designing anything. We discussed recurring patterns in subscription products.

We explored opportunities we could consider, not only for launch but also for future phases. When we brought everything together, it wasn’t just my solution. It was our solution. Everyone left that meeting confident and aligned; that makes all the difference.

This process took half a day; it prevented weeks of back-and-forth iteration later. Everyone had ownership, and we moved into execution with clarity.

So in a nutshell: Great UX is not about having the best idea in the room. It’s about creating the space where the best idea can emerge.