Sometimes, the way that we’ve established our processes in business doesn’t work the same way as we scale and introduce new tools to manage those processes. The flowchart in our minds of how data, deals, prospects and sales should move around gets established as we grow. Whoever is in charge of processes inside the organization establishes a flow for how things should move that makes logical sense to the departments involved. 

If it isn’t broken, why fix it… right? 

There may come a point, however, that as you adopt new technologies, new roles inside your organization and new tools to help you grow - that your business processes need to be tweaked. This is especially true when it comes to complex HubSpot reporting and data architecture configurations in HubSpot.

If you’re struggling with symptoms of misconfigured data in HubSpot I’m here to tell you, it’s not HubSpot, it’s your data configuration INSIDE HubSpot. 

Don’t kill the messenger.


What came first? The chicken or the egg? 
While we all might believe that we have to configure a tool like HubSpot to match the data processes that we’ve set up inside our organization, sometimes it makes more sense to reconfigure our processes and reverse engineer our HubSpot setup to work with the structure of how data is managed in HubSpot. We can even consider making tweaks to how we manage reporting and data inside the organization as well as the processes we’ve associated with it.

In short: 
Sometimes you have to rethink your data architecture and processes entirely to really make your HubSpot data configuration work for reporting purposes. 

Not sure how you can do that, where you’d even start or what any of that looks like?

Not to worry. We interviewed a HubSpot Architect that spends all day geeking out on data in HubSpot portals and is intimately familiar with the inner workings of HubSpot at all levels. We’ve made it our mission to help you understand why your data may be misconfigured, how to optimize your workflows and properties and why an ongoing relationship after a data architecture audit and diagnostic can save your company exponential amounts of money along the way. 

What should you expect during a HubSpot Data Architecture Audit? 
I’ll tell you all about it. Let’s dig in.  ::Cracks knuckles::

First, we’ll need to know your HubSpot Product subscriptions.

You’ll be limited (or unlimited) by which HubSpot product subscription you have, and knowing that from the starting gate will help us approach your data and processes in the best possible way. Because each tier for HubSpot’s Hubs varies in the capabilities included within it, knowing this before we get started discussing your data will help your Architect unpack what the possibilities are moving into the next phase of your audit.

There’s even a possibility that based on your current subscription, your processes, your goals and your workflow, that your HubSpot Architect may make recommendations to scale up or down in certain Hubs, or eliminate or add more on. Don’t worry - we have your best interest at heart here and we’re not in this for Partner Tier commissions, we’re in it to make sure you have everything you need. 

If there’s one thing we want you to know from the outset - your Data Architect, much like a Fractional CTO or CRM Administrator, is your advocate for making sure HubSpot is working for you and giving you the ability to scale as you need to with the right tools at your disposal. In order to make the best recommendations, we need to know exactly what the situation is, so make sure you understand which subscriptions and tiers you subscribe to in advance of our initial consultation. 

Next, we’ll learn just enough about your company to determine how deep the rabbit hole is.

We can Alice in Wonderland all day long over data, data structures, your tech stack, integrations and data workflows and reporting / dashboard configurations. It’s what our resident Data Architect, Will Appenzeller does all day long. And if things go well on this initial audit (and they usually do), we’ll end up digging deep into your organization’s data structure and tech stack even deeper. But for the most part, a preliminary HubSpot data architecture audit starts with us getting to know your workflow. 

In our initial discovery call, we’ll talk to the necessary parties to understand the flow of data through your organization, the tools you use, how you make and optimize decisions now and any goals and pain points you might have. 

Things we might hear on a call with a potential client that needs an architecture overhaul?

• We are lacking clarity on true ROI for our marketing campaigns.
• We don’t have enough grasp of our sales pipeline outlook.
• We aren’t positive about how to formulate a budget based on the analytics currently available to us.

Just so you’re aware - this is not uncommon at *all*. Many HubSpot customers just like you struggle with this as well. (Which is why we suggest engaging a HubSpot Architect BEFORE you migrate). Sitting down with Will gives us the insight we need to tackle your HubSpot portal and really get a birds eye view of what is happening inside your organization, which pieces of data you need to best reach your goals, and how we can configure things moving forward to help you get there faster, for less money. (Are you chomping at the bit to work with us yet?)

That all starts with a call. The more we understand about your tech stack, your processes, and how your organization is structured now, the bigger the picture we have in our heads when we go into the trenches to analyze the existing data structure as it sits inside your HubSpot Portal.

Maybe, we’ll screenshare a little bit.

Once we understand more about how your business works, there’s a little ad-libbing here depending on how excited we are to get started. We may ask for access to your Portal or ask you to screen share a little bit of what your portal looks like to ask some questions and make sure that we’ve got everything right. 

We need to make sure that we understand your goals entirely before we dig into how we’ll need to configure your reporting and data architecture to suit your needs. So, be ready on our call and provide access to our architect as soon as you feel comfortable. 

Then, the fun stuff happens.

Well. Not the fun stuff for you. The fun stuff that our data architect, Will, loves to geek out on. A self proclaimed Vulcan (hi Trekkies! we’re still a tech company over here), he’s digging deep into the logic behind your configurations. This will help him determine, based on your subscriptions and tiers and the capabilities you have access to - which configuration is going to be most efficient and help you best reach those goals you outlined in that initial call.

He gets the birds eye view of your data configuration and then segments into each of your objects, properties and custom objects. His goal? Reverse engineer your entire HubSpot portal. Don’t be scared, when we come out on the other side of this, you’ll never want to think of life without Will ever again. This isn’t about codependency, this is about a deep business intelligence expert, here to unravel the kinks in the hose of your organization’s funnel so money comes flying out your pipeline. (Feeling better already, right?)

Finally? He comes to you with the solutions to your HubSpot data configuration woes. 

If I get to too technical here, I know I might lose you, so I’ll sift through all the fancy jargon that Will used around predicate logic and If-then conditional workflow statements and tell you this - he will take your processes, expand and move things around and create a flow board with branches and options for your data configuration to best suit the business based on how HubSpot operates and the rules that apply within HubSpot’s capabilities (again, based on your Hub subscription and tier). 

He’ll present you with your options, the re-configuration of your data architecture and discuss which solutions best suit your organization and why. So often (and through no fault of their own) HubSpot customers don’t know enough about the capabilities within their reach inside HubSpot. Will’s here not just to make things more efficient, but educate you on the logic behind the configuration. This might start with him re-configuring your sales pipeline reporting to give you more clarity by configuring objects and properties differently so that you don’t just have a mess of data to look at. Instead, you’ll come out with an organized report that helps you make the best decisions for growth. 

It’s really easy to get lost in the tech speak when it comes to understanding how your business needs to configure data architecture in HubSpot, but it all comes down to a language that any manager, executive or employee can speak - efficiency. We want your employees to operate more efficiently, your marketers to have the best insight on their actions, your CFO to be able to analyze and rationalize budgets and your salespeople and sales managers to know exactly where they stand so they can best report back and thrive, continuing to bring in revenue and creating a healthier, happier organization at large. 

We’re not just helping you Marie Kondo your data, we’re saving money, giving you happier employees, making your organization an easier place to work and dare I say it - maybe even changing the world one HubSpot Data Re-Configuration at a time.

Are you having trouble with your data architecture, reporting and making big decisions based on the data available to you in your dashboard right now? Let’s talk.