[fusslo]

Your boss needs paperwork to justify pay raises, promotions, etc to their boss & HR. Isn't the whole purpose of that question to leave a paper trail that both you and they can point to?

That's what I've been told, and such I always answer those questions in a way that has a concrete 'goal' that I can point to and either makes ME more valuable to the company OR delivered some thing that is valuable TO the company.

[boogieknite]

exactly. i just tell them something that translates to potential marginal increases in utilization and reduction in costs like automated workflows etc

[Isamu]

This is the correct thread. It has to be some words that don’t seem too fake and seem to plausibly suggest forward progress. There has to be some plausible support for decisions, that someone can point to, in order to make a decision. Taking ownership of a decision means having a paper trail where you can deny responsibility for something gone wrong.