When organizations wait until Q4 to begin UX research, they often find themselves short on both insights and time. That’s why the months before – typically Q3 – are ideal for identifying and tackling key user experience issues before strategic decisions need to be made. UX planning is most effective when it happens ahead of time. By getting started in Q3, you give your team the space to explore, measure, and refine important usability concerns. This proactive approach leads to better alignment between user needs and business goals long before final plans are locked in. Here’s why early UX research matters:

1. It grounds business planning in real customer behavior

Surface-level assumptions can only take you so far. Pre-planning UX research helps validate (or challenge) those assumptions with real-world usability testing and user feedback. This means entering Q4 discussions with objective data in hand – not just gut instincts.

2. It helps prioritize features and improvements

Want to know which mobile UX fixes will improve conversion rates? Or whether your onboarding flow is where users drop off? Q3 is the time to find out. When teams invest in user experience research early, budgets and resources can be allocated more effectively during annual planning.

3. It gives your internal teams more runway

UX research isn’t just about gathering insights – it’s also about acting on them. Conducting user research now allows design, product, and development teams to begin applying changes before the new fiscal year even starts. It’s a smart use of time that can lead to faster innovation.

4. It supports cross-functional alignment

When insights, product, and marketing teams all speak from the same data, strategic alignment becomes easier. UX research conducted ahead of planning season can bring multiple departments together under a shared understanding of what users truly need.

5. It prevents rushed decisions later

Annual planning often moves quickly – and decisions made under pressure rarely benefit from thorough user validation. By doing the groundwork early, your team won't need to scramble for last-minute research when a strategic question arises. Pre-planning research doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the support of experienced user experience professionals – like those available through SIVO’s On Demand Talent network – even small teams can tackle high-priority usability issues quickly. Our experts allow you to scale research capabilities without the delays of traditional hiring, so your insights arrive when they’re needed most.

If you're wondering what UX research to do before annual planning, these are the areas most likely to yield actionable user experience insights. These research projects not only deliver meaningful improvements, but they also answer questions that often arise during strategic planning discussions – like, “Why are customers dropping off?”, “Where are we losing mobile shoppers?” or “What should we fix before a website redesign?” Here are some of the best UX projects to start in Q3:

Onboarding Flow Usability Research

First impressions matter. A confusing or lengthy onboarding flow can lead users to abandon your platform altogether. Before building a new experience or scaling acquisition efforts, it's critical to understand where drop-offs happen and why. Common research questions include:

• Are users completing the sign-up or registration process?
• Is the onboarding clear and intuitive across devices?
• What’s the emotional experience during these first touchpoints?

Even small adjustments to onboarding UX can lead to higher retention rates.

Mobile UX and Responsiveness Testing

With mobile web traffic accounting for over half of global internet usage, optimizing your mobile UX is now a must-have, not a nice-to-have. Usability testing on mobile devices can highlight pain points like laggy interfaces, non-intuitive gestures, or incomplete responsiveness. Proactive mobile UX research provides clarity on where interactions break down – especially if your funnel includes mobile checkouts, sign-ups, or media-heavy features. It’s one of the most high-impact areas of user experience improvements before yearly planning.

Checkout Optimization

If conversion rates are lower than expected, it’s often because of avoidable friction during the checkout process. This critical user touchpoint can benefit greatly from early usability testing. Key questions to explore:

• Are forms too long or confusing?
• Do users trust the payment experience?
• Are there unnecessary steps causing drop-off?

These insights can directly inform revenue-focused planning efforts.

Website Redesign Research

Thinking about a website refresh next year? Start with evidence-based discovery now. UX testing for website redesign helps you identify which parts of the current experience drive value – and which are holding you back. Conducting this research before the design process begins ensures your redesign is guided by user needs, not internal guesses. It can also reduce rework and align priorities across stakeholders from day one.

Gather Feedback from Ongoing Features or Pilots

If your team has launched new features or prototype experiences recently, the pre-planning season is an excellent time to evaluate performance. Qualitative UX research paired with light quantitative tracking can offer clear direction into whether to scale, improve, or pivot. SIVO’s On Demand Talent professionals can help facilitate any of these projects quickly, bringing immediate expertise to overstretched teams. Whether you need a UX researcher to run usability tests or simply an extra pair of expert hands to support user interviews, our flexible model puts high-caliber insight work within reach – just in time to influence your annual strategy.

As annual planning season approaches, teams that invest in strategic UX research during Q3 position themselves to make smarter, evidence-based decisions. Rather than relying on assumptions or last year’s metrics, insights drawn from targeted user experience research help build a clear picture of current customer pain points, opportunities, and behaviors.

Turning Usability Findings Into Actionable Strategy

For example, usability testing conducted in the months leading up to planning can reveal friction points in navigation, confusing interactions during checkout flows, or onboarding UX issues that might be slowing adoption. When these findings are put in front of product, marketing, and leadership teams, they shift conversations from gut instinct to user evidence.

Some common UX projects that provide a strong strategic foundation include:

• Checkout optimization: Reducing cart abandonment or addressing form-field usability dead zones
• Mobile UX audits: Identifying gestures, layouts, or CTAs that underperform in mobile environments
• Website redesign research: Testing prototypes or early concepts before committing to creative direction

Building Confidence Across Stakeholders

One of the key benefits of pre-planning UX research is building cross-functional alignment early. When customer experiences are backed by clear user behavior and feedback, it’s easier to rally teams around the right investments for the year ahead. Whether your organization is refining product onboarding, updating customer portals, or expanding digital platforms, research ensures decisions are grounded in real user needs – not internal preferences.

This kind of user experience insight becomes a valuable input for everything from budgeting to roadmap prioritization. It also gives your team language and data to advocate for UX resources during planning discussions.

Preparing for the Year, Not Just the Sprint

While agile teams often run UX research in short sprints, long-term planning requires zooming out. Pre-planning season is a time to ask bigger-picture questions, such as:

• What user journeys aren't meeting expectations, and why?
• Where are we seeing drop-offs or bottlenecks across channels?
• How will customer expectations shift in the next 12 months?

Answering these questions in Q3 means you're proactively fueling your roadmap – not scrambling to validate decisions already made. In short, early UX research is about setting the table for smarter, more user-centered annual strategy.

Timing is everything during the pre-planning season. If your internal resources are stretched thin or if your team lacks specific UX capabilities, Q3 is the ideal time to bring in specialized support. That’s where On Demand Talent makes a difference.

Why Consider On Demand Talent in Q3?

Unlike full-time hires – which can take months to recruit, onboard, and ramp up – SIVO’s On Demand Talent gives you access to experienced UX professionals who can embed quickly and start contributing within days or weeks. These are not freelancers or junior-level temp staff. They’re seasoned experts in usability testing, onboarding UX, mobile UX optimization, and more.

Common needs our clients face before annual planning include:

• Urgent UX projects that internal teams don’t have time to lead
• Specialized skill sets for mobile-first testing or conversion flow analysis
• Bandwidth constraints delaying critical insight gathering

Supporting a Range of UX Projects Easily

On Demand Talent can help with:

• Conducting usability testing on websites, apps, and prototypes
• Researching and refining confusing onboarding flows
• Running intercept studies to explore conversion blockers
• Synthesizing UX findings into stakeholder-ready summaries

Because SIVO’s experts come from diverse industries and backgrounds, they can jump into your unique environment with minimal ramp-up. Whether you need someone for a few weeks or several months, our model flexes to match your timeline and scope.

An Efficient Alternative to Traditional Hiring

Hiring permanent UX roles can be time consuming – and not always necessary for specialized or time-boxed UX projects. Consultants and large agencies alike tend to involve long onboarding cycles and costly retainers. SIVO’s On Demand Talent gives you high-caliber support without those delays or rigid contracts.

So, if Q3 arrives and you're staring down a long UX to-do list with limited capacity, it's worth asking: is this the moment to bring in an experienced UX researcher or strategist to accelerate my team’s momentum? In most cases, the answer is yes – and the earlier, the better.

Making the most of your pre-planning UX research doesn’t require a complete reinvention of your process. A few smart shifts can help you get ahead – and stay ahead – of user experience challenges before they become roadblocks in the year ahead.

Don’t Wait for Q4 to Begin

One of the biggest mistakes teams make is waiting until annual planning is already underway. By then, it's often too late to gather meaningful UX insights that will influence direction. Start your usability testing, mobile UX reviews, or onboarding assessments in Q3 to build a body of evidence that supports strategic conversations.

Keep Research Purpose-Driven

Good UX planning starts with clear questions. Whether you're exploring why users abandon your checkout process or how intuitive your onboarding experience feels on mobile, define the purpose of research upfront so that findings tie directly to business goals. This helps stakeholders take action on your insights instead of treating them as nice-to-haves.

Create a Focused Project List

Trying to tackle every part of the user journey before planning season can cause analysis fatigue. Instead, narrow your scope to UX projects with the highest potential return – such as:

• Website redesign research for pages with high traffic but low conversion
• Checkout optimization for better transaction completion rates
• Onboarding UX improvements to drive adoption and retention

A prioritized checklist for pre-planning UX research helps everyone stay aligned and focused.

Use Insights to Tell a Story

Once your Q3 research is complete, bring results to life through storytelling. Translate usability issues into relatable user frustrations. Frame mobile UX changes through a customer-first lens. Show how small UX tweaks can lead to big business impact. When leadership sees how research connects to KPIs, it's easier to advocate for resources and time in the roadmap.

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of momentum. Starting early, staying focused, and rapidly applying insights will give your yearly UX strategy a running start. And if your team needs extra muscle to get there, SIVO’s On Demand Talent can help you cross the finish line with confidence.