Heatmaps: the questions we get asked most

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. The questions about heatmaps that come up most often on our calls.

Measurement is only useful when someone has agreed in advance what they would do differently. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Do we need to care about this?

They show where attention goes, not why. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not.

How do we know it is working?

Combine with recordings for context. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

What this looks like day to day

Data you do not trust is worse than no data, because it gets quoted anyway. Three things worth confirming about heatmaps before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• They show where attention goes, not why — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.