I start with the working day. Not a persona slide. Not a feature checklist. The actual hour when someone is already in motion and their tools are either helping or getting in the way.
That person might be halfway through a crowded day, handling a family errand, or running a business without a bench of extras. The details change. The scarcity of attention does not.
Useful first means the thing I make earns its place in that hour. Beautiful, around here, is not decoration. It is the feeling that someone cared enough to make the next step obvious.
If the work needs a lecture, I went too far. If it respects the day in front of you, we are getting somewhere.