You’ve implemented a new feature on your web site. You’ve published some new content on your site. And then the results are disappointing. Why?

Were you throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what stuck? Only to find that nothing stuck and you’re back to square one?

Why’d you do that?

Some validation through user discovery testing might have provided some guidance. What features to implement or not implement. Where content preferences might lie. What user experience might be best to deliver those features and content. Are you even trying to solve a problem for your target audience that they want solved?

It doesn’t require a cumbersome, long term research project to identify features and content that would connect with your market. User discovery and UX testing platforms exist, where you can get some sense of what might work or not — in a week or two. Provided you have a good understanding of your target audience, focus your testing on your market, and don’t try to be everything to everyone.

You can get good quantitative, survey based data complemented by qualitative usability testing. From that you can get an idea of whether you should pursue an initiative, or how you might pursue the initiative differently than you had originally envisioned. Or not pursue it at all, because it’s spaghetti that’s not sticking to any wall—regardless of how great and idea it might have seemed before you actually asked people they wanted it or now.