A Frustrating Website is a Canary in the Coal Mine for an Organization
After consulting on over 100 websites and products, I've noticed a pattern. When clients approach me asking for a "refresh" or "redesign," I often find that content and navigation are the main contributors to their website woes. But that isn’t thinking deeply enough. On every site I've worked on, the root of the problem lies in the organization's culture and operations. When asked about goals and audiences, inconsistent answers reveal a deeper truth: website struggles are usually symptoms of misaligned internal priorities and processes.
Here are the top four complaints I've heard over the years, and the true organizational issue they were a symptom of.
We hear/know users can't find anything
When users can't find what they need on your website, it's not just a visual design issue, nor rarely is it a navigation problem. It's a signal that your organization has fundamental disagreements or misunderstandings about company priorities and audience needs that extend far beyond the website. The website is where those conflicting views become obvious.
Teams are often pulled in different directions throughout the organization. Marketing might be focused on donor acquisition and public awareness, structuring content around impact stories and donation calls-to-action. Meanwhile, program teams may be trying to ensure their resources reach community members and partners, organizing information around service delivery and program details. This is just one example of how when each group has their own independent goals, it leads to misaligned priorities. A confusing website is a manifestation of this deeper misalignment in organizational priorities.
We don't know where we should put new content
This seemingly simple content organization problem reveals a much more fundamental issue: the organization lacks clear, shared goals and decision-making frameworks. When teams can't agree on where content belongs on the website, it's because they don't have a common understanding of their priorities and audience needs.
Website content is just one place where the lack of clear organizational direction becomes apparent. Confusion around goals, priorities, and processes shows up everywhere in the organization—in product roadmap discussions or in marketing campaign planning. When no one can confidently say "this content serves this specific goal for this specific audience," it's because those fundamental strategic decisions haven't been made at an organizational level.
We need the website to be more evergreen and easier to update
This outwardly straightforward request usually masks deeper issues with organizational capacity and knowledge management. When websites become outdated and difficult to maintain, it typically means:
The organization lacks sufficient resources or clear ownership for ongoing content maintenance
Subject matter experts are bottlenecked and can't contribute efficiently
There's no clear process for reviewing and updating content regularly
Institutional knowledge is siloed or poorly documented
Such patterns point to a deeper truth: your organization is struggling with how knowledge flows between teams and across initiatives. The website isn't suffering from a technical problem—it's revealing gaps in how you capture, share, and maintain institutional knowledge across every aspect of your work. Solving this means looking beyond content management systems (CMS) to the core of how your organization documents and transmits its expertise.
We have too many websites
This common issue stems from two major organizational dysfunctions:
When teams find it too difficult to work within existing systems or processes, they often create their own solutions to them instead of addressing the underlying collaboration problems. This doesn't just happen with websites – you'll often find duplicate tools, separate databases, and parallel processes throughout the organization. The multiple websites are the public face of this broader pattern of working around rather than working together.
When organizations take on new initiatives or funding without clear integration strategies, it creates fragmentation at every level. Each new project or partnership comes with its own goals and requirements that aren't properly integrated into the organization's overall strategy. The separate websites are the visible manifestation of this deeper strategic disconnect.
The Way Forward
Your website isn't broken – it's speaking. Each frustration points to a specific organizational challenge that needs attention:
When users can't find things, don't just reorganize navigation—align your teams' goals and priorities.
When content has no clear home, don't add more sections—create shared frameworks for evaluating what matters.
When knowledge isn't flowing, don't chase "evergreen" solutions—build better processes for sharing expertise.
When websites multiply, don't launch another site—examine what's driving teams to work in isolation.
