12 Questions Every UXer Should Ask Before Starting Any Project
12 Questions to Ask Before You Touch a Figma File
Great UX isn’t just about clean interfaces and nice copy. It’s about asking the right questions at the right moments before things break, not after.
This issue offers a practical set of 12 questions that can reshape how you approach your next UX project.
In This Article:
Why Better Questions = Better UX
12 High-Impact Questions to Ask Before You Begin
Real Examples from UX Teams Who Ask Better
Tool of the Week
Resource Corner
UXCON '25 Spotlight
Why Better Questions = Better UX
It’s easy to get excited about a new project the brief hits your inbox, the whiteboard fills up, Figma starts humming.
But without the right questions, we end up designing for the wrong things:
Features instead of outcomes
Assumptions instead of evidence
Stakeholders instead of users
You can’t out-design a broken foundation.
As Jared Spool puts it,
“Design is the rendering of intent. If the intent is unclear, so is the design.”
Great UX starts by asking better questions.
12 High-Impact UX Questions to Ask Before You Begin
These aren’t in any particular order.
And you don’t need to ask all 12 in one meeting.
But they will make you sharper and your product stronger.
1. What user problem are we solving?
Not “what are we building?”
What real issue is this addressing?
If you can’t answer this in one sentence, you’re not ready to design anything. Every decision should tie back to a user problem and a specific user segment. Vague goals lead to vague solutions.
2. How do we know this is a real problem?
Are we making assumptions based on our own experience, or have we spoken to actual users across ability, geography, and access levels?
Gut feelings don’t count. Ask:
What data do we have?
Have we observed this in research?
Is this feedback or a feature request?
Validate before you iterate.
🔎 3. What’s the desired outcome—for users and for the business?
Good UX solves a user problem and moves the business forward. Maybe it’s fewer support tickets, more conversions, or increased retention.
Define success clearly, or you won’t know if you’ve achieved it.
4. What constraints are we working with?
Time? Budget? Tech stack? Team skills?
No one designs in a vacuum. You need to know the sandbox before you build the castle.
5. How will this feature or product fit into the user’s existing journey?
Where are they coming from? What are they trying to do? What happens next?
Design is not about screens. It’s about seamless experiences. You’re not creating a moment, you’re designing movement.
Example:
You’re improving the cart page.
But users drop off earlier - on the product page - because they don’t trust delivery timelines.
You’re solving the wrong part of the flow.
6. What assumptions are we making?
Write them down. Test them early.
If you skip this, you’ll find out the hard way… six weeks into dev and three days before launch.
Example:
Assumption: “People won’t sign up unless we show 5 benefits first.”
Reality: Users get overwhelmed and bounce.
Document, challenge, learn.
7. Who are the real decision-makers?
Find out now. Not during the review meeting when someone with walks in and says, “Actually, I hate this.”
Map your stakeholders. Know what they care about.
8. What are we not going to do in this project?
Scope creep kills good UX. Clarify what’s not included… features, personas, edge cases, so you can focus on what matters most.
9. What existing patterns, systems, or data can we leverage?
Don’t reinvent the wheel if the wheel already works.
Look for existing design systems, analytics, and flows that can give you a head start or reduce friction.
10. How will we measure success - qualitatively and quantitatively?
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
Look beyond vanity metrics. Think:
Time to task completion
Drop-off rates
Usability scores
Post-launch feedback
The numbers should reflect user behavior, not just business goals.
11. What does success look and feel like for the user?
This one’s easy to skip. But it matters.
Ask:
What should the user be able to do now that they couldn’t before?
How should they feel after interacting with this?
Delight is in the details—but only when those details are rooted in real need.
12. What will we test and when?
Clarify what’s out of scope and why.
Research is not a one-time thing.
Plan your checkpoints:
Discovery research
Prototyping feedback
Usability testing
Testing isn’t optional. It’s part of the process. Build feedback loops early and often.
UX Teams Who Ask Better
Monzo asks: “If we removed this feature, who would be most upset?”
Slack asks: “Are we designing this for 2-person startups or 2,000-person enterprises?”
Duolingo asks: “What’s the user’s mood if they open this at 11:58 pm?”
The best UX teams don’t just start designing. They start by asking smarter questions.
UXCON '25 Spotlight
If you’re asking yourself,
“What’s next for UX in this fast-changing world?”
You’re not alone.
At UXCON '25, we’re bringing together the questions and the answers that matter. From AI to ethics, stakeholder collaboration to burnout recovery we’re digging deep into the realities UXers face in today’s market.
Interactive sessions.
Global speakers.
Real connections.
Resource Corner
Final Thought:
Good UX isn’t just built with answers.
It’s built with better questions.
If your designs feel off, your users seem confused, or your product isn’t landing maybe it’s not about a missing feature.
Maybe it’s a missing question.
Let’s get better at asking them.