Streamlined sales workflows, reduced friction, and enhanced user experience can be the difference between closing a deal and losing a customer. PandaDoc, a leader in document automation, saw an opportunity to innovate within their HubSpot integration, leveraging UI extensions to build app cards and take their offerings to the next level.
The Challenge: Enhancing User Experience within HubSpot
PandaDoc has long been a pioneer in integrating document creation and management within HubSpot’s CRM. However, as their user base grew and their customers’ needs evolved, PandaDoc began to identify limitations in their existing integration. One major pain point was the navigation and document management experience within HubSpot. For large deals involving numerous documents, users often found themselves scrolling endlessly through lists of files, disrupting their workflow.
Additionally, PandaDoc's rich analytics—one of their standout features—were not fully accessible within HubSpot. ,Vasil Remeniuk, Director of Product Management at PandaDoc, said, "We have been hearing comments from our customers that it would be great to stay as much as possible in the UI within the CRM." Users had to leave the HubSpot environment to access detailed insights about document interactions, such as who viewed a document, how long it took to sign, and where the bottlenecks occurred. This constant switching between platforms was not only inconvenient but also a barrier to efficiency.
The Solution: Leveraging HubSpot UI Extensions
With the introduction of HubSpot's UI extensions to build app cards, PandaDoc saw an opportunity to address these challenges. These extensions allowed them to create a seamless experience within HubSpot, where users could manage all aspects of their document workflows without leaving the CRM record page.
PandaDoc’s development team moved swiftly, building a proof-of-concept within two weeks and an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) within two months. Because UI extensions are built using the popular programming language React, this accelerated development and reduced the learning curve. Regarding efficiency, Remeniuk said, "The efficiency of the development—just two months to build something with UI extensions—speaks to the fact that the process was very, very efficient."
The result was a new app card that allowed users to initiate, manage, and analyze documents directly within HubSpot. This eliminated the need to switch between platforms, making the process more intuitive and efficient.
The Results: Improved User Experience and Increased Adoption
The impact of this integration was immediate. Early access customers reported a high level of satisfaction, particularly with the seamless transition between HubSpot and PandaDoc. "The connectivity at the workload aspect was so smooth that no one could really understood where HubSpot is ending and where PandaLog is beginning," Remeniuk said.
Sales teams were thrilled to have the ability to manage the entire document lifecycle within one platform, from quote initiation to final signatures. "Typically in sales organizations, there's quite a bit of friction when introducing a new tool in the toolkit," Remeniuk said. "But if you can completely eliminate this friction by providing a native experience in the HubSpot, you're jumping right away into the direct value, which is provided by the automation of the sales process."
The elimination of friction in the workflow meant that users were more likely to leverage the PandaDoc integration over more tedious and time consuming processes.
Looking Ahead: Continuous Improvement
While the current integration has already delivered significant benefits, PandaDoc is not done improving. "Right now we have a native experience, but we want to go one step further and we want to make this experience tailored," Remeniuk said of further developments. They're already planning the next steps for enhanced analytics visualization and tailored experiences. These improvements will provide deeper insights, helping sales teams to work smarter, not harder.
The new PandaDoc app card built with UI extensions is a prime example of how thoughtful development and collaboration can lead to significant improvements in user experience and product adoption. For other companies considering a similar path, the message is clear: the investment in UI extensions is not just about adding new features; it’s about creating a seamless, efficient, and engaging experience that meets the evolving needs of users.
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