Designers live to solve problems. But most clients instinctively offer solutions without ever stating the problem they’re trying to solve. You’ll hear «move this over here» and «make this bigger» when what you want is to know why they want this moved or that bigger.

When you know the underlying problem a client sees, you get the opportunity to actually solve the problem, rather than blindly implementing a suggestion that might not work. That’s not to say that clients can’t offer good solutions, but knowing the problem helps you make more informed design decisions in future rounds. After all, the problem they’re seeing might be bigger than the single interaction they’re looking at right now.

The most basic yet effective question is one every 4-year-old knows well: why? When the client asks you to make the logo bigger, and you ask why, you might learn that they feel their brand is underrepresented on the page. And knowing that can help you suggest a ton of other ways to present the brand without scaling the logo up to 600 pixels tall. Best of all, after you’ve asked why a few times, the client will get it and start highlighting problems, rather than handing you solutions.

Tim Dikun.