Reconnecting HubSpot's Hubs

HubSpot started as marketing automation in 2006. Today it's seven Hubs sharing a single database — and seven different ways of presenting it.

Marketing, Sales, Service, Content, Operations, Commerce, and Data Hub. Plus Breeze, the AI layer holding them together. Each Hub started as its own product, with its own navigation patterns, its own settings hierarchy, its own assumptions about what the user is trying to do. The database underneath is unified. The surface above isn't.

Before designing anything, I needed to validate whether this was a real systemic problem or just my outsider impression. I used AI-augmented research to synthesize signals across r/HubSpot threads, G2 reviews, Capterra reviews, the HubSpot Community forum, and a first-hand usability test of my own — opening a free HubSpot account and trying to do basic cross-Hub work as a new user.

AI was the synthesis partner, not the generator. I used it to identify patterns appearing across 3+ independent sources, distinguish feature requests from architectural complaints, and stress-test my hypotheses against contradicting evidence. The patterns surfaced quickly: users described navigation between Hubs as "overwhelming." Reviews mentioned that the UI "isn't consistent across the entire platform." Salesforce-comparison threads kept circling back to the same point — HubSpot's individual Hubs work, but the connections between them don't.

The strongest signal came from HubSpot itself. While testing the product, I found a banner reading: "Brand Identity has moved to Marketing — you can now find brand identity settings under Marketing → Brand." HubSpot is migrating its own architecture in real time, and compensating for the disruption with informational banners. The product is telling on itself.

This is an information architecture problem, not a UI problem. And it shows up most clearly in the moments between Hubs.

Every time a user crosses from one Hub to another — clicking Marketing while looking at a Contact, opening Settings to find something Hub-specific, encountering a tool they don't have access to — the system treats it as a fresh start. Context resets. Mental model breaks. The user has to mentally translate between Hubs every time they switch.

Three reframings shaped the redesign. Context should travel with the click: when a user clicks a Hub from inside an object (a Contact, a Deal, a Ticket), the system already knows what they're looking at. It should use that. Information density needs Hub awareness: a Contact record displays sections from six different Hubs simultaneously, all with equal visual weight. The user is left to mentally sort which section belongs where, and which one matters right now. Tool availability should be obvious before the click, not after: paid tools sit in the sidebar looking identical to owned tools. The user discovers the difference by clicking — and being teleported to a marketing pricing page with a chatbot waiting.

These three reframings led to three interconnected surfaces. None of them require new features. All of them are re-expressions of architecture HubSpot already has — just expressed in a way that respects the user's continuity.

Three surfaces, one system: keep the user's context intact across every Hub click.

Hub Click Preserves Context restructures the sidebar submenu so it adapts to what the user is currently looking at. When a user clicks Marketing from inside Bozena's Contact record, the submenu opens with contextual actions for Bozena ("Add to a marketing email," "View email engagement") at the top, and the regular Marketing tools below. Bozena stays visible behind the submenu. The click is no longer a teleport — it's an extension of the work in progress.

Hub-Aware Information Density restructures the Contact record's right column. Instead of six flat sections with equal visual weight, sections group by Hub (CRM, Sales, Service) and adapt to the contact's lifecycle stage. A Lead sees Sales expanded by default. An empty Service section collapses on its own. The hierarchy reflects relevance, not equality.

Tool Availability Indicators adds clear visual states to every tool in the sidebar — owned, available via trial, or upgrade-required. Locked tools show a lock icon and tier badge before the user clicks. If they click anyway, an inline upgrade panel slides in from the right with a tool description, key features, and trial CTA. The user's workflow stays visible behind it. No teleport, no chatbot, no destruction.

The three work as a system. The submenu is contextual because the system understands what's in focus. The information hierarchy adapts because the system understands lifecycle. The tool indicators work because the system understands what the user can access. Each surface depends on the same underlying logic: the product knows where the user is. It should act like it.

The point isn't to claim I've solved HubSpot's architecture. It's to show how I'd approach the problem — and to be honest about where the work would continue.