You Sound Like You're Selling Cupcakes, Not Solving Business Problems
Every time you say "user-centered", executives stop listening
👋 Happy Saturday, my dear UX friends, Marina here!
A mentee asked me this last week:
“How do I make stakeholders take my work seriously when I don’t have metrics or access to any “business impact” data?”
This is the moment where most UX advice falls flat.
Because the usual answer is:
“Just show them numbers.”
But what if there are no numbers?
Or worse, what if the only numbers available are vanity metrics that don’t reflect what you actually solved?
This is where most designers default to the comfort zone:
“We made the experience more user-friendly.”
“We designed a more user-centered solution.”
It feels safe. Familiar. Like “doing the UX thing.”
But here’s the first aha moment:
1. “User-Friendly” is the Fastest Way to Get Ignored
“User-friendly” is not neutral. It’s noise.
To executives, it’s indistinguishable from:
“We made the button blue.”
“We changed the font.”
“We think it looks nice now.”
It’s soft language that puts your work in the aesthetic bucket instead of the business bucket.
Even worse: “User-friendly” creates an interpretation gap.
Everyone nods, but everyone imagines something different.
The CTO hears “we simplified the code path.”
The COO hears “we sped up operations.”
The CFO hears “we made it cheaper.”
The CMO hears “we made it more delightful.”
When everyone has a different mental picture, your work loses power.
2. You Don’t Need Numbers to Be Specific
Here’s the second aha: you can be specific without metrics.
Specificity is not about percentages, it’s about clarity.
Compare these two sentences:
“The new design is more user-friendly.”
“The new design removed three unnecessary steps and lets people finish the process without calling support.”
No numbers. No data dashboard.
But the second one paints a picture so clear you can almost see the user breezing through.
Specificity forces you to describe what changed, not just how you hope it feels.
And the moment you do this, stakeholders can connect dots to their world:
“Oh, fewer steps? That probably means fewer abandoned applications. Fewer calls. Less churn.”
You didn’t show them numbers.
You made them mentally calculate the impact for you.
That’s influence.
3. “User-Centered” Is NOT the Compliment You Think It Is
Here’s the third aha:
Saying your work is “user-centered” is like saying your surgeon washed their hands before surgery.
It’s the bare minimum expectation, not a selling point.
Stakeholders don’t need reassurance that you remembered the user.
They need to know what following the user’s needs actually unlocked:
Did it remove friction from a key revenue path?
Did it uncover a blocker no one saw coming?
Did it protect the company from a PR disaster?
The moment you frame your work as “user-centered,” you’ve already lost, because you’re asking them to praise you for doing your job.
4. The Real Question Isn’t “How Do I Show Impact?”
Here’s where we go deeper:
When you say you don’t have metrics, the real problem often isn’t data access.
It’s framing.
You’re waiting for perfect numbers to validate your work, but execs aren’t waiting.
They’re making decisions based on risk, cost, and opportunity right now.
So your job isn’t to present perfect data.
It’s to frame your work as a lever that moves something they already care about.
Even without numbers, you can say:
“This redesign eliminates a known failure point we saw in the previous release.”
“This change reduces effort for our highest-value customer segment.”
“This solution removes a step that was causing legal exposure.”
Those aren’t numbers, but they scream business relevance.
5. Your Language Shapes Your Career
Here’s the final aha, and the one most designers miss:
When you keep using “user-friendly” and “user-centered” as your primary proof points, you unintentionally brand yourself as:
The feel-good person in the room, not the strategic one.
The person who wants things “nicer,” not necessarily more profitable.
The person who shows up with slides, not solutions.
Executives promote the people who make THEIR jobs easier, not just the ones who make the UI easier.
So when you present your work, you’re not just teaching them about a design.
You’re teaching them what kind of designer you are:
Are you the person who makes things pretty?
OR, the person who helps them make better decisions?
Every “user-friendly” is a vote for the first.
Every specific, business-relevant framing is a vote for the second.
See you next Saturday!
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