“It helps us say what’s important...” Developing Serious Illness Topics: A clinical visit agenda-setting tool

•The experience of serious illness is poor and often misaligned with patient priorities.•Good communication can help improve patient experiences.•With user-centered design, we made an agenda-setting tool so patients and clinicians could set shared discussion priorities.•Called Serious Illness Topics, patients found the agenda-setting tool empowering.•Clinicians found it acceptable and helpful.