GroRapid Labs’ Post

OrgChartHub isn't taking on new customers 😮 Here's what happened: HubSpot acquired OrgChartHub a while ago. But so far, they haven't announced an official timeline yet for when the org chart functionality will be available as a built-in feature. This leaves potential customers in a bad situation. They need an org chart functionality, but can't access it. Luckily, vizrm now also offers org charts for HubSpot CRMs 🚀 If you're one of those who wanted to go with Org Chart Hub, you might want to check out our solution at https://www.vizrm.com/

When leads aren't converting to sales, who's to blame? 👀 This topic has come up a lot in HubSpot's 2025 bootcamp discussions and it's one of my favourite aspects of the crossover between ops and analytics! Let's say marketing have a target of 500 leads per month. Sales have a target of £X in revenue per month. That's pretty normal. But when marketing's goal is volume-based instead of value-based, the path of least resistance is to heavily push content like eBooks and thought leadership pieces because it's waaaaay easier to get leads that way. So much easier than getting demo requests, I'm sure all marketers will agree!! This means marketing hit their 500 leads goal (woop woop!), but sales is left with a pipeline full of people who downloaded an eBook but aren't ready to buy 😶 This isn't a people issue, it's a process and goals issue. And this is one area in which ops can make a huge difference. Identifying points of friction, looking at the data to find out what's really causing the problem, and then setting new goals that align (bootcamp word of the week 💁♀️) teams around a common goal like revenue. Absolutely loved this cheatsheet from today's RevOps bootcamp call to help us all figure out where on earth to start. And getting to chat to Faith Oyamendan in a breakout room too! Big thanks to the ongoing incredible content from Connor Jeffers, Ryan Gunn, Nick L., Jen Bergren, MBA, Gem Rugg-Gunn, Lica Wouters 👩💼🌟, and Jillian Streit. 10/10 every time.

This post, and the great comments, is a fantastic deep dive into CEOs and how they build a culture that drives a scaling startup.

🧡 2 Years at HubSpot 🧡 Two years ago today, I started at HubSpot as a Product Manager. I remember my first week thinking: “Did I make the right call leaving a startup where I knew everyone and everything?” I had an incredible manager there. A team I loved. Leaving that was hard. And I still miss them. But here’s what two years at HubSpot has taught me: 1. You can have great managers in different chapters I was lucky at the startup I was at and I’m lucky now. Great leadership isn’t about company size, it’s about people who push you to think bigger, trust your instincts, and own your decisions. 2. Customer obsession isn’t just a value, it’s a practice Coming from customer-facing roles, I thought I understood customers. But being a PM at HubSpot showed me the difference between hearing feedback and turning it into insights that drive product strategy. That shift changed how I build. 3. Scale teaches you what startup life can’t At a startup, I learned to move fast and be scrappy. At HubSpot, I’ve learned how to build systems that scale, navigate cross-functional complexity, and ship features that impact millions of users across Reporting & Dashboards. I started working with 1 team. Now I’m working across 3. 4. You can grow your craft and your community at the same time In the last two years, I’ve: • Led a global go-to-market launch for Analytics Suite in my first 6 months • Took dashboard creation from 14 steps down to 2 with drag-and-drop functionality • Currently tackling some of our biggest reporting challenges with contextual customization • Started Stef the PM, my weekly newsletter for aspiring and early-career PMs • Mentored 20+ people breaking into product through ADPList HubSpot didn’t just give me room to grow as a PM. It gave me space to build something beyond my day job. 5. The “messy middle” never goes away Big launches still feel chaotic. Priorities still shift. Stakeholders still have competing needs. The difference is I’ve learned which plates are glass and which ones are rubber. (Shoutout to my manager for that advice before INBOUND this year.) 6. Your background is your superpower I used to worry that coming from customer-facing roles instead of a traditional PM path made me “less than.” Now I see it as my edge. Understanding customer pain firsthand makes me a better PM, not a less credible one. Here’s to year three. 🚀 🧡

I ran a research to study how HubSpot built and scaled its community. A few things stood out that I think are worth noting for anyone thinking about community as part of their product strategy. 1. They built trust before they built any software - HubSpot launched its blog before it had a product. The goal wasn’t lead generation at first- it was education. In many ways, HubSpot also educated the industry about inbound marketing. That early credibility became the foundation for everything that came after. 2. Their community replaced what most companies use sales for - Before hiring any sales reps, they doubled down on tools and content that helped people for free. Tools like "Website Grader", inbound marketing guides and open certifications. The result was that they had distribution built on value and not on ads. 3. The most effective programs started organically - HubSpot User Groups started as just meetups that were organized by their customers. Instead of taking control over them, HubSpot supported and systematized them. That decision gave the company a global reach without heavy infrastructure, and their customers the feeling of being part of the process. 4. Education became a significant moat- HubSpot Academy now certifies over 200,000 professionals. Free education turned their users into experts, then experts into advocates, and finally advocates into a self-sustaining growth loop. 5. Transparency built long-term trust - They run a public "Ideas Forum" where anyone can suggest or upvote product features, and they close the loop by actually showing progress. It’s a simple system, but many companies still fail to implement it. 6. Their mistakes were part of the process - From nearly failing because of flat pricing to running six years without a community operations team, they treated their errors as public lessons. Being open about their mistakes helped the company boost trust from their users. HubSpot never treated community as a department, but a crucial part of their infrastructure. Their model shows what happens when community is a core part of how a product grows. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝟮𝟬–𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗛𝘂𝗯𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 "𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆" (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿). - - - - Are there any other products or communities you’d like me to cover next? Always looking for ideas.

Welcome to Optimize October, your month to refine strategy, align efforts, and maximize results before the year wraps. Smarter campaigns, stronger engagement, and measurable wins start here. Who’s ready to make every click count? Here are 3 HubSpot tips to optimize October: 1. Leverage Smart Content – Use HubSpot’s smart rules to personalize CTAs, emails, and landing pages so each visitor sees content tailored to their stage in the buyer’s journey. 2. Audit & Automate Workflows – Review existing workflows for outdated triggers or gaps. Add automation where possible to nurture leads consistently without extra manual effort. 3. Dive into Attribution Reporting – Use HubSpot’s attribution reports to identify which channels and campaigns are actually driving revenue, then double down on what’s working before year's end.

🔄 Try on HubSpot: Use Substage Milestones to Automate Deal and Ticket Stages This one is pretty abstract, but I ran into it on reddit, then used it for a client: Substages. These are for your mini milestones that might not necessarily happen in order. Maybe they are manually ticked off, maybe it is via workflow but the unlock is here: The movement from stage to stage will be based on the substages within it all being checked off. So for example, if you have two deal stages called “Proposal sent” and “Proposal approved”, maybe there are a few different things that happen in between. The prospect views the proposal, they give feedback on it, maybe even it gets iterated or there is other information they are sent and acknowledge. All of these could be “substages” that would show in the deal record for a deal in the “Proposal sent stage” (thank you conditional logic for record cards!), and whether it is fully automated or somewhat manual, once all of those boxes are checked, it moves to “proposal approved”. Want more HubSpot Tips & Traps? Subscribe to Spotter at the link in my bio. #HubSpotTipsAndTricks

Found $13,000 sitting on the table. We were paying for HubSpot Service Hub. Barely using it. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹: Used HubSpot's capability spreadsheet (then customized it) to audit exactly what we had access to versus what we actually used. The results? We were paying for features we didn't need. Took the analysis to leadership. Saved the company $13k annually. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀: HubSpot is powerful, but that power comes with a price tag. If you're not using 70%+ of what you're paying for, you're either: • Leaving money on the table • Paying for capabilities you've never turned on • Missing optimization opportunities 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱: ✅ Download HubSpot's capability spreadsheet ✅ Customize it for your actual workflows ✅ Map current usage vs. available features ✅ Present data-driven recommendations to leadership The audit took 3 hours. The savings? Recurring every year. I'll be honest—I was nervous presenting this to leadership. Would they think we made a mistake upgrading in the first place? But the data told the story. Sometimes the best marketing ops move is knowing when to scale back. Your turn: When's the last time you audited what you're actually using in your MarTech stack? Drop a 💰 if you think your HubSpot instance has money sitting on the table. #MarketingOperations #HubSpot #MarTech #CostOptimization #MOps

On this glorious day kicking off FeverDreamforce, many of us HubSpot users are probably not getting as much out of our subscription as we could... But rest assured, you don’t need a new integration, especially not SalesFarce. But you may need a new mindset. So, as a seasoned-like-delicious-BBQ-butt-rub HubSpot realist (and part-time chaos agent), I’ve put together a quick guide: “JB's Ridiculous HubSpot Advice That Might Make Sense Actually” 1) Find HubSpot Inner Peace - Stop fighting your CRM. Clean your lists. Breathe (through the mouth, not the nose, you maniac) 2) Make a Weekly Offering to the Reporting Gods - Check your dashboards before your KPIs check you. 3) Take Your Workflows on a Date - If it’s been a while since you opened “Welcome Email v3 – FINAL_FINAL,” that’s your sign. 4) Wear More Orange - Confidence is contagious. So is good automation. So is wearing orange, and not just because it's fall or it's a Swifty color. #GBO 5) Start a Small, Benign HubSpot Cult - Convert one coworker at a time. Salvation comes through consistent CRM adoption. And, for many, this last one is the hardest of the bunch... just mention "meeting recording" to some of the Sales guys and see what happens. Is this absurd? Maybe a little. Does it also kind of make sense? Yes, maybe a little. Perhaps a lot. Swipe through the carousel for the full ridiculous guide and maybe, just maybe, a better relationship with your CRM.

⚠️ Hubspot Trap: Clean Up Ownership for deactivated users Situation: you have some deactivated users who still own contacts, companies, deals, or tickets. It’s way too many to go through manually, and you might have workflows that are assigning them. Step 1: Clear what exists. This is usually easier done in the index for the object. Filter by the inactive user ownership, select all, and reassign. Step 2: Use inactive user ownership as a workflow trigger. Set these objects to be reassigned. To a round robin, or to a specific person. Looking for more Hubspot tips & traps? Subscribe to Spotter at the link in my bio. #HubSpotTipsAndTricks