A 0-to-1 feature design that created a faster, non-disruptive search experience, now handling over 80% of all search queries for HubSpot's 1.3 million+ weekly active users.
My Role
Lead Product Designer (Strategy, Vision, UX/UI, Prototyping & Testing)
Timeline
6 Months (July 2024 - Dec 2025), Concept → GA
Outcome
Successfully launched, reducing search-to-click time by 22.7% and handling 82.2% of all search clicks.
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The new Minified Search experience became the preferred way for users to find information, validating its success in addressing the core challenges.
1. The median search-to-click time decreased by 1.22 seconds—from 5.38s to 4.16s—a 22.7% improvement.
2. 82.2% of all search clicks now happen withinSe the new minified view.
The quantitative results were validated by overwhelmingly positive feedback from our users, who highlighted the efficiency gains in their daily workflows.
"LOVE IT... it feels much faster and easy, when you hover your mouse it gives you the associations. this is game changer!" - Sonny, owner of a merketing firm
"..I like the smaller screen, as it means you can still reference the information in the background..." - Natasha, marketing director of a health device company
“I heard at Inbound Hubspot emphasizes on easy and fast, this is the best representation I’ve seen.”- Chris, ops manager of a retail company
HubSpot is a leading CRM platform that helps over 200,000+ companies manage their marketing, sales, and customer service operations. For the platform's 1.3 million+ weekly active users, who are often deep in complex workflows, search is a critical feature that needs to be fast, efficient, and non-disruptive.
However, the existing full-page search experience was creating significant friction.
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Minified Search is a dropdown experience anchored to the global search bar. It’s designed for speed and context, helping users find information without leaving their workflow.
Key features:
1. Instant access to recent items – The dropdown opens with the user’s five most recent searches, making common lookups nearly instantaneous.
2. Rich previews on hover – Users see critical details (e.g., name, company, job title) before clicking, reducing unnecessary navigation.
3. Seamless transitions – Whether clicking, tabbing, or hitting Enter, users can move fluidly between results in the dropdown and the full search page without breaking their flow.
1. Decision: Dropdown over Spotlight
We explored two primary architectural patterns: a dropdown and a "spotlight" style modal. While the spotlight pattern felt modern, it presented a higher UX risk. We chose the dropdown solution because it provided a unified, less risky, and more consistent user experience.
2. Decision: Adding Clarity with Category Labels
Initial designs explored a fully mixed list of results. However, due to backend constraints, we couldn't completely blend results. We turned this constraint into a strength. We found that the top 3 search categories accounted for about 98% of all clicks. Based on this, we designed the experience to group results under clear category labels, ensuring we surfaced the most relevant information predictably.
3. Decision: Solving a Critical Discoverability Flaw in Testing
Our most significant iteration was driven by a single, critical insight from user testing: users did not know the full-page search existed. To solve this, we implemented a comprehensive, two-part fix.
Part 1: The Visual Fix (Relocating the Link)
First, we addressed the visual discoverability. In testing, we saw that users felt trapped because they never saw the "See all results" link at the top. To solve this, we relocated the link to the bottom of the results list, creating a more natural and visible next step.
Part 2: The Interaction Fix (Redefining 'Enter' Key Behavior)
Second, we addressed a critical keyboard habit. After observing users hit 'Enter' immediately after typing in tests, I validated with Amplitude data that 33% of our users share this behavior. Our original design, which defaulted focus to the first result, would have caused a frustrating error for this group.We redesigned the interaction so that no result is selected by default, and hitting 'Enter' now reliably takes the user to the full search page.
Reflection & Next Steps
This project reinforced that improving a core product workflow can deliver outsized user and business value. By focusing on efficiency and workflow continuity, Minified Search has fundamentally improved a daily user task.
Next steps include exploring V2 features based on our learnings:
- Our next steps are part of a broader roadmap to evolve the search experience further. The Post-MVP vision includes introducing a unified app that merges the minified and full-page experiences,
- adding more AI insight types beyond sales-
- creating scoped handoffs to Copilot for more complex user needs.
What I'd Do Differently Today:
Since completing this project, I've become proficient in using generative AI tools for rapid prototyping. If I were to start this project today, I would leverage these skills to quickly generate multiple, coded variations of the search result and preview components. This would allow for even earlier user testing on different information hierarchies, potentially accelerating our validation cycles.
Post-Launch IterationsFollowing the successful launch, we continued to refine the experience. One key enhancement was a visual refresh of the result cards and preview panel to improve information density and align with an updated design system.