I used to jump straight into wireframes. A client would brief me on a new feature, I'd open Figma, and I'd start placing boxes on a canvas. It felt productive. It looked like progress.

It wasn't. Most of those early screens got thrown away, because I was solving the wrong problem.

Now I ask three questions before I draw a single rectangle. They take about twenty minutes. They save hours.

Question 01
Who is the person doing this, and what do they care about right now?

Not who the product is designed for in general — who is doing this specific task in this specific moment. A user filling in an expense report at 11pm is in a completely different mental state than a user exploring features during onboarding. The screen has to meet them where they are.

I try to get as specific as possible: what are they trying to accomplish? What's the cost of making a mistake? How much cognitive load do they have right now? What would make this moment feel effortless?

Question 02
What does success look like — and how will we know when we've achieved it?

This question forces a conversation about outcomes rather than outputs. A feature isn't successful because it was shipped. It's successful because it changed user behaviour in a measurable way.

If a team can't answer this question — if they don't know what metric they're trying to move — then the design brief isn't ready yet. No amount of beautiful UI will fix an unclear goal.

"Design is not what it looks like. Design is how well it achieves its purpose."
Question 03
What's the simplest version of this that could possibly work?

This is the most important question, and the one teams resist the most. Everyone wants to build the full vision. But the full vision is expensive, takes months, and might be wrong.

The simplest version does three things: it tests your core assumption, it ships fast enough to learn from, and it doesn't lock you into decisions you might regret. Starting simple isn't giving up — it's being strategic about where you spend your design energy.

Why these three questions work

Together, they cover the three things that matter most in UX design: the person (empathy), the goal (clarity), and the scope (focus). If you can answer all three before you start, you're not just designing a screen — you're solving a real problem for a real person in the most efficient way possible.

Try it on your next project. Ask the questions before you open Figma. The screens will be better for it.