PM FAQ: "What do I do when I don't like their design?"
Many product managers eventually face a moment where they see a new design and their gut reaction is... not great.
It doesn’t sit right. Maybe it feels clunky, off-brand, or just "meh." You can’t imagine users loving it. But what do you say? Do you go with, “I don’t like it?" and risk sounding dismissive? Do you sugarcoat it and hope they pick up on the hint?
Or is there a better way?
Not About Taste
Let’s start here: product design isn’t a matter of personal taste.
While taste plays a role, the more important question is: does the design work?
Does it help users accomplish what they need to do? Does it support the business goals? Is it aligned with your product strategy? And is it solving the actual problem you set out to solve?
These are the questions worth asking.
So when you find yourself thinking, "I don’t like this design", try reframing it as:
What specifically isn’t working?
What goal is this falling short of?
What signal (user behavior, data, research) is telling you something's off?
It’s About Fitness
Christopher Alexander—a well known architect and design theorist—once wrote:
"Every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities: the form and its context. The form is the solution to the problem; the context defines the problem."¹ — Notes on the Synthesis of Form, by Christopher Alexander
In product design, the form is the interface, the flow, the content—the tangible result. The context is the user’s situation, the constraints of the business, the environment in which the product lives.
When there’s friction or discomfort in a design, it may be pointing to a misfit between form and context. Maybe the design assumes too much. Maybe it overcomplicates. Maybe it under-communicates.
A classic example of this misfit in digital products is a lack of consistency. This isn't just about visuals; it's about predictable behavior and affordance. When a user clicks a button, they form a mental model of what will happen. If a similar-looking button elsewhere opens a new page instead of a modal, or if one workflow saves automatically while another requires a manual save, the design breaks that model. This inconsistency creates friction and increases cognitive load, forcing the user to stop, think, and re-learn the rules. That's not a matter of taste—it's a clear, objective misfit between the form and the user's context of an easy-to-navigate product.
Sometimes, you’ll have usability testing results to point to. Sometimes, it's a gut feel backed by experience. Sometimes, you need to zoom out and question whether the problem is even the right one.
The point is: center the conversation on fit. Let that shape your feedback.
Feedback as Co-Creation
Good product teams don’t throw work over the fence. Great ones co-create.
That means approaching feedback not as a verdict but as an invitation:
"Here’s what I’m seeing. Here’s what I’m worried about. What do you think?"
This works even when you’re really unsure about a design. It shifts the dynamic away from "you made a bad thing" to "let's improve this together."
A real-world example: I once worked with a designer on a pricing page. The layout looked beautiful, but the copy was vague and the call to action was buried. Instead of saying "this isn’t good enough," I shared a user story:
"Imagine you’re on your phone, sitting on a train during your commute, and you’ve got just a few minutes before your stop. You’re trying to upgrade your plan before a deadline, but you can’t quite tell what you’re getting or where to tap. Right now, this page makes you slow down and think too much—and that’s a risk when time and attention are short."
We iterated. It got better. The conversation stayed open.
From the UX Perspective
IIf you’re a designer reading this, you might be nodding ... or cringing. Design is personal. It takes craft, care, and conviction. So getting vague feedback like "this doesn't feel right" can be deeply frustrating. But here’s a perspective many PMs might not see: for a designer, very little of the work is based on personal preference. It's a hypothesis—a proposed solution built from user feedback, data, and observation.
And just as their design decisions are grounded in evidence, they expect a PM's feedback to be grounded in something meaningful too—a user need not being met, a confusing workflow, or an inconsistency with another part of the product. If a design "isn't working," there's an objective reason. The partnership thrives when the PM and designer work together to uncover that reason. The designer brings deep knowledge of user intent and interaction principles; the PM brings the business context, the broader product strategy, and the desired outcomes. Together, they connect the design hypothesis to the larger goals and find the 'why' behind any friction.
So if you’re on the receiving end of unclear feedback, it’s fair to ask:
"Can you help me understand what’s not working for you here?”
That simple question can transform a vague comment into a powerful design critique.
Build a Partnership: Check In Early and Often
The single best way to avoid painful feedback conversations is to make them small and frequent. This isn't about micromanaging; it's about creating a culture of partnership where design is a continuous conversation.
When PM and UX can make key decisions together, then go off and execute, trust builds. The goal is an environment where check-ins are normal and nothing is considered "final" or "set in stone." The work is always a work-in-progress. This creates a safe space where going slightly off-track isn't a disaster, but simply something to discuss and course-correct in the next round.
Waiting until the end of a design cycle to say “I don’t like this” isn’t just unhelpful. It’s disrespectful to the time and effort spent. If something feels off, say it early. But say it in a way that invites conversation, not shutdown.
In Closing
"I don’t like it" isn’t the end of the world. But it's also not very useful.
Your gut instinct might be right. But your value as a PM isn’t in liking or disliking designs—it’s in helping your team build things that work.
Shift from opinion to insight. Make your feedback a starting point. And most of all, co-create.
Over to You
Have you ever struggled to give (or receive) design feedback? How do you handle that moment when something just feels "off"?
Let’s keep the conversation going—drop your thoughts below or share with someone who's been in that spot.
References
Full quote: “[…] every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities: the form in question and its context. The form is the first solution to the problem; the context defines the problem. In other words, when we speak of design, the real object of discussion is not the form alone, but the ensemble comprising the form and its context. Good fit is a desired property of this ensemble which relates to some particular division of the ensemble into the form and context.” — Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Christopher Alexander (1964), pp. 15–16
