If you’ve ever been a user experience designer, you’ve probably heard people say something like this when starting a new project:

• We want to make it delightful and easy to use.
• We need to do some user research.
• We want to improve our onboarding process.
• We think it needs a walkthrough for new users.
• We want a persona/photoshop mockup/wireframe/landing page/insert deliverable here.

All of these statements are absolutely useless. Why? Because none of them help you decide what to work on or how to improve a product.

So, the next time somebody introduces a UX project by asking for a specific deliverable or by giving vague instructions to “make it better,” you need to change the conversation.