Talking about subjective stuff like design is hard. It's deeply personal. It can make you feel exposed. When people say the don’t like something, without any further explanation, what they often mean is: “I’m afraid my explanation will sound stupid.”

So now, I’m asking myself—is this helpful? If I go back to my team and tell them the client just doesn't like it, will it improve our work? Nope. In fact, it will just make my team angry. So something very important to do at this point: Stay curious.

So I press him. I say, “Can you tell me what it is that you don’t like?”