My user research indicated that as companies scaled, they went from dabbling with mLang content to requiring it.

We mapped every task, action, and pain point across 4 personas and all HubSpot contention tools across 4 personas and 28 products.

Process

User Interviews
We uncovered this problem from user interviews that showed that our solution focusing only on mLang blogs wasn’t sufficient in solving our users problems. So while we tackled that at our team level, we also started to explore what a systems solution could look like.

User Journeys + Cross-Team Collaboration
I worked with my PM to map all of our content creation tools’ tasks, actions, and pain points. This work spanned 4 personas, 28 tools, and all of HubSpot’s product org. We then met with each team for greater context, update our assumptions and documentation, and gain buy-in for the customer problem.

This map showed a pattern, that 4 projects could resolve 80% of the pain points in the user journey. The other 20% could be resolved by the individual teams.

Aligning to Company Metrics
My PM was newly promoted to the Associate PM role, and didn’t have previous experience. I guided her to tie the customer problem to business objectives and goals. In this instance, our top customers were already needing mLang support, and customers who created content in HubSpot were more likely to spend more and renew. Additionally, our international customer base was growing in areas that had legal requirements for mLang content.

Stepping back and evaluating our problem statement
After we reviewed the user journeys and received feedback from teams and leadership, we paused. We had been focused on creating content, but we realized that there were other requirements for mLang users that needed to be fulfilled before mLang content creation was a top priority. So we created a hierarchy of needs to help our teams align with the problem, and not any specific solution.

Solution

We created a memo to pitch to leadership on how to prioritize our mLang user problems. Because we realized that there were other, higher priority issues, we started to advocate for resources being spent on the bottom of the hierarchy of needs.

Result + Lessons Learned

The company invested in the bottom two sections of the multi-market hierarchy of needs, specifically around data storage and user access.

Individual teams took our user journey and updated their product to resolve individual pain points.

We did not succeed in getting the company to prioritize the 4 projects that would have unblocked the teams. We would have had been more successful if we had tackled these more discretely, and involved engineering to create proofs of concepts for some of the projects.

Responsibilities

  • Created protocol and led initial user research and analysis establishing evolution of mLang users

  • Facilitated workshop with PM to create user journeys

  • Collaborated across UX + product teams to gain context on personas, journeys, and user needs

  • Co-created + presented strategy deck to leadership and group teams

  • Created hierarchy of need + memo to help promote the projects that would impact users

We identified 4 key personas and their top tasks when creating content in HubSpot that would need to be translated into different languages.

I guided my PM, who was new to the role, in aligning our customer problem with business goals and objectives.

As we gained greater context and more feedback, we realized that we needed to balance our project with several other important projects across HubSpot in order for our solution to be viable. Our work was in the middle of the hierarchy of needs under “Ease of use”

The user journey helped us identify 4 primary projects would resolve 80% of the pains, and unblock teams from resolving the remaining 20%.

Multi-Language Systems Design

Context

HubSpot Org Structure: HubSpot products are created by “autonomous teams” that identify features and builds them. This allowed the company to build products quickly, at the cost of consistency.

Multi-Language Features: Multi-Language (mLang) features allow users to create and track content in multiple languages. This is important for companies that are operating in multiple countries (eg US and Mexico) and areas that have language requirements (eg Quebec requires English and French).

Problem

Users wanted to create mLang content across almost every aspect of HubSpot, yet not every team added mLang features to their product. This forced customers into work-arounds that created duplicative efforts and increased complexity in managing content. It was a primary reason why users left HubSpot.

While my PM, Engs, and I were concerned about mLang features, we realized we were designing and building solutions in a silo, since our work could be extended and used across all content creation tools.

Hubspot

By mapping out the journeys and pain points, we saw patterns in the pain points that we could tackle collectively, and make bigger progress for the user experience.