press the right button

press (all) the right buttons

To do something very skillfully and in a way that produces the best or desired result. While the movie's plot is a bit thin, its charming 1980s aesthetic pushes all the right buttons. I must have hit the right buttons, because they've asked me back for a second interview.
See also: button, press, right
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

press the right button

or

press the right buttons

If someone presses the right button or presses the right buttons, they skilfully do the things to have the effect they want. It is hard to know if you're pressing the right buttons because one reader's fantasy is another reader's yawn. Note: You can also say that someone presses all the right buttons. In what it describes as a well-judged performance, the newspaper says he pressed all the right buttons to please the representatives. Note: Verbs such as push and hit are sometimes used instead of press. In later talks with the chairman, he helped his cause by pushing all the right buttons.
See also: button, press, right
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
See also:
References in periodicals archive ?
Rather than having to press the right button to move forward, imagine answering a few questions at the beginning of the call describing what the issue is or what you want to accomplish, and immediately being routed to the correct person (yes, person) who will help you or to the right menu telling you store hours.
THE TRUTH ABOUT AIS IMPACT ON JOBS
MAKE sure you press the right button when answering this gun shaped like a smartphone.
The smartphone you don't want to take a selfie with
It's as simple as that: press the right button, and they'll do what you want.
Opinion: Insulting Muslims - by Gwynne Dyer
It's as simple as that: press the right button and they'll do what you want.
A nasty film
After 50 trials, the rules were reversed so the participants had to press the right button if "M" was in the middle and the left if "N" was in the middle.
Brains get confused when rules change
Summary: They call it the kayamat ki raat in Uttar Pradesh, the night when you confront both your maker and those you want to make in your own image so that they press the right button on the electronic voting machine tomorrow, a sort of Doomsday night without end.
Election Night Without End
"All my friend Lee had to do was press the right button but instead he played the first track on the CD, which was Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson singing The Best Things in Life are Free.
Wedded bliss for Jonathan! Theatre
I didn't want to call reception and have a 18-year-old Polish girl come, press the right button and throw me a look of pity.
Horror of hotel with no telly; NIGHT OF LIVING DREAD
All he had do was to position Galileo into the right slot and wait for the right moment to press the right button.
Star Galileo looks all set for true greatness
"Press the right button until you see 'Dewis iaith Wedi anfon yr'.
Watt's that mean? Meter users baffled by Welsh
All played a computerized risk-taking game that repeatedly presented a choice between a cautious and a risky behaviour: press the left button and always win one cent, or press the right button and either win five cents or lose ten cents.
Brain abnormalities cause antisocial behaviour and drug abuse in boys
So, uh, if we, like, dig sports man, we just have to press the right button on the remote and we're, like, watching sports.
Sony CSV-E77 CoCoon
| Press the right button It hasn't always been known to happen...
IN DEFENCE OF 'THIRD-RATE POMPOUS' COUNCILLORS
Where we are staying in Dubai, all I have to do is press the right button in the lift to get from our apartment to the gym and everything I need is on the doorstep,' The Daily times quoted Flintoff, as saying.
Flintoff's three-month 'push-button' rehab stint in Dubai
she looked all right spread out on the bed when she asked me to press the right button - on the remote - to take her to the Stade de France.
From Here to Eternity with Zinnemann, Zidane; TV View
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