Tools like HotJar, Crazy Egg, FullStory, and Mouseflow are like an ever-improving Swiss army knife of user insight: cheap, easy to acquire, and full of promise for how they can be used.

Talking with one busy client team, they explained that, having set up Crazy Egg and Usabilla (now GetFeedback) set up on their site, they felt they had a game plan for the whole UX thing figured out.

And what had they learned so far? Well, they hadn’t really had a chance to dig in yet.

We've all been there. Buying exercise equipment is easy; putting in the reps is hard. Setting up an insights tool is easy; gaining insight is hard.

Before you go down the path of spinning up a new insights tool, some things to consider:

• What questions do you want to answer? You'll want to allot the time to set things up properly so you gather the right info to answer them.

• Analysis will be required. What do the results mean? What other observations and insights round out the story?

• Unless you hear from real users, you may end up with certainty around the "what" and uncertainty around the "why". Don’t jump to assumptions! Prepare to use secondary methods to address questions raised by the data.

• Finally, what data does it capture or transmit? Some tools may have implications for your privacy or data security policies.

Behavior insights are invaluable, so gather away. Just keep in mind consider your team’s capacity to use the data you’re gathering.

Who is assigned to figure it out, and how much time are they able to devote to that?

Who is the audience for the insights, once you’ve got ‘em?

If you build a program around it, you can avoid seeing your intel investment turn into another unused subscription.