New Details screen for Deals

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Well, that was a nasty morning for me. I think I have received a nastygram from each and every Sales Rep this morning about the rearranged details screen for deals.

Looking at it, I think they have a point. Pipedrive is already pretty "left-leaning" with its information and now more information is on the left, less at the top and still nothing on the right. In a nutshell, there is even more scrolling now to take in all the information.

Please don't tell me that this change is final!

Marko

Comments

  • Amit Sarda (AmitSarda.xyz)
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    I am with you on this Marko.

  • Rene H
    Rene H Pipedrive Team Posts: 22 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    Hi Marko and Amit

    Really appreciate your feedback and I'll also discuss this with our designers. But also wanted to share some of the thinking behind these changes.

    One part of it is that we see Pipedrive being used as one of the tools alongside for example emails (GMail), calling apps (Zoom, Meet), spreadsheets etc. Having a left aligned approach, makes it easier to lay out your screen in a way where you can focus not only on Pipedrive, but other useful apps side by side. Contrasting to previous approach where content was centered and even on larger external monitor you had extra room on both sides, but rarely enough to put something else useful there.

    Also this gives us more flexibility in the future, for example we're experimenting with making sidebar width manually adjustable (so you can drag it to your preferred width), which would also be limited in a centered view approach.

    And no, it's never final :) More specifically, we do have a number of feedback from users like yourself and we're working on addressing most popular items. That being said, currently we aren't thinking of restoring the center-aligned approach.


    Best regards,

    Rene from Pipedrive

  • AFGP
    AFGP Member Posts: 6
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    Hi Rene,

    Thanks for the explanation. Not all of us want to have apps running side by side, particularly on a laptop, which is what anyone working in the field will be using.

    I use Pipedrive on my laptop on a full screen. If I want my email I click the email tab. It´s simple, quick, and easy.

    I understand that all your users are not doing field-based sales so perhaps it is time for our company to change CRM. It´s a shame because until now I really liked Pipedrive.

    This afternoon another very useful feature has disappeared. I can no longer see the predicted close date of a deal without opening the summary on the side bar. Previously you took away the value, which was below the client´s name. These were both very useful features, and now it takes more time and effort to see this essential information.

  • Josh Buesking
    Josh Buesking Member Posts: 176
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    The summary section should go back to the top in the header.

    That is my main gripe.

    My second gripe is the focus section. Rarely do I have focus items so now dead center of my screen is "No focus Items yet" on every deal. If I don't have one, I shouldn't lose a huge percentage of my screen. I am doing way more scrolling than ever.

    My third gripe is the left sections need better division. They all blend together like one big section.


    Move the summary back to the top and get rid of the focus section if I don't have anything to focus on.

  • Admin unilegion
    Admin unilegion Member Posts: 14
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    edited March 2023 #6
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    Thanks for your reply and explanation, Rene.

    What you describe as your thinking however shows really poor judgement including absolutely nonsensical examples like:

    1. We moved things around so people can use Gmail side by side?

    A) Pipedrive can integrate / sync w/ Gmail and it works completely fine.

    B) If need be, anyone could simply have another browser tab open and switch to Gmail.

    Both better options than what you describe as your design teams "thinking".

    2 . We worsened the layout of the core product to make space for people using multitasking with calling apps like Zoom or Meet?

    A) What about your actual users that work with Pipedrive Caller (within Pipedrive) that now have to scroll and tediously navigate much more to regain access to previously practically located core information (deal view!)

    B) Have you or your design team actually tested this? Its even more confusing as you mention the use of external monitor (very confusingly), while it is clear that any user who has access to more than one screen (e.g. laptop + external monitor) AND is using Zoom / Meet for calling would most likely and conveniently place the call / video on one screen and Pipedrive on the second screen...

    --

    I am sorry but the resounding feedback from all our active users has been that the changes - excuse my clear words here - are rubbish.

    Just two straight forward examples:

    In the deal view, both "label" and "value" have moved away from being in clear sight and a useful position to being less (or not at all, when collapsed) visible in a not very useful "summary" side element.

    Instead the deal name is now larger - for no practical reason whatsoever.

    It's really just flabbergastingly poor design choices and gives a really out-of-touch impression.

    Frankly, we do not care for the rather weak rationale behind cramping things into some left side section or the so called flexibility you seem to strive for in design. The feedback from every single one of our active seats (25+) has been negative (and justified in that assessment)

    I can only and strongly recommend reverting these non-improvements or at least giving users a toggle to go back to the previous layout.

  • Marko Hilzendegen
    Marko Hilzendegen Member Posts: 3
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    edited March 2023 #7
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    Absolutely agree with you @AFGP @Admin unilegion.

    The answer shows a lack of understanding of what the most common use case and capabilities of their own software... Why push gmail in side by side when you can sync it? Not too confident in your own integrations? Most users will either be working on a laptop in the field and not do side by side because the screen is too small, or they will be at home with their laptops and use a second screen. This entire "update" is an utter and complete downgrade. I have talked to several of my sales reps and every single one showed me that what took three clicks now takes five. Most important info no longer available at a glance etc.

    Very sad to double down on it calling it a necessary and logical upgrade. I guess for us the next logical upgrade will be migrating to a different solution.

  • Kreete K
    Kreete K Pipedrive Team Posts: 355 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
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    Thank you everyone for the feedback. We do appreciate your understanding of your workflow and what is and what is not working for you. We will surely have some updates to the new view based on recent feedback also.

    I just want to assure you also that we have not made these changes or decisions rushing, but have collected previous feedback, tested etc. I understand not all changes can work for everyone, and please keep sharing the problems that come up with as much context to the workflow as you can. We are reading these and marking them down also. But as always, we can't fully guarantee a specific update.

  • Admin unilegion
    Admin unilegion Member Posts: 14
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    Hi Kreete,

    thanks for your reply.

    One can only be really surprised that you seem to claim that changes like

    • Move a visible "Label" from a useful position into a non-visible, cumbersome position to create useless blank space (basically everything next to the deal title is now empty, where the label was previously visible)

    or

    • Hide away the previously front-and-center "Value" (it is called VALUE for a reason!) into the same cumbersome Summary box (that can collapse or not and when expanded contains additional information that is not always actually useful)

    was based on positive panel suggestions from actual users of Pipedrive, who individually process 100-200 activities or more every day (most of it spent in individual deal view, which is now much less easy to navigate).

    On the contrary, We have at least one user who already stated that while you did take his feedback it was all but ignored (Graham Cox_55849).

    Frankly, saying that you invested a lot of time in these changes does not make them any better and that is a moot point to raise.

    Bring back "Label" and "Value" into their original and practical position - then you will quickly realize that the "Summary" side element is rather useless, at which point it should be clear enough that going back to the old layout is actually better.

    No need to defend and cling to a change that is not an improvement at all.

    Unless the key message here is that you are designing to move Pipedrive as an integrated solution out of the way, in other words: Everyone, please use a different solution than Pipedrive.

  • Marko Hilzendegen
    Marko Hilzendegen Member Posts: 3
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    edited March 2023 #10
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    Hi Kreete,

    thank you for pretty much stating that you are unwilling to accept feedback. This change makes zero sense. Zero! Hiding critical information and creating a giant whitespace is maybe the worst UX idea, I have ever heard. And of course enter the usual we are infallible and we cannot accept that we made a mistake and now have to cling to the change. Hubspot is the magic word at my company today.

  • Josh Buesking
    Josh Buesking Member Posts: 176
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    The summary just needs to go back into the header. Like everyone else has said it makes no sense to move it.

    The rest you could argue all day and is an opinion but it's fact the summary should be in the header.

  • AFGP
    AFGP Member Posts: 6
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    100% with Josh, aside from our previous comments, IMHO you also seem to have ignored the situation where a client actually calls one of us sales people rather than the other way round ... a golden opportunity as these are the clients we are most likely to sell to. Bear in mind I am talking about unscheduled calls following some type of prior contact.

    Previously, in the few seconds that one was dispensing with the initial standard greetings, one could already have the deal open ... even on the phone, and immediately see the value, tag, predicted close date etc... essential info that enabled us to make useful comments to the client and build trust right away.

    This was also very valuable for repeat business when a previous client suddenly contacted again by phone... one could make almost instant comments about a deal from months or even years back.

    Now we are forced to click and scroll around, half listening to the client whilst trying to find something useful to say in the initial, and crucial moments of the call.

    and K. Kreete - I appreciate that, as you say, "not all changes can work for everyone" but that is a very long way from no changes at all being helpful, as is the case for our team.

    PLEASE revert to the original version, so that we can all optimise our time and not lose clients and money whilst you reinvent the wheel.

  • Amit Sarda (AmitSarda.xyz)
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    Pipedrive can keep the new deals layout. Just give everyone the option to revert to the old version. You had that when you announced the beta. There is honestly nothing better in the new version, and I speak as a Pipedrive consultant, having worked with the tool for over 4 years now.

  • Josh Buesking
    Josh Buesking Member Posts: 176
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    Just wanted to comment that the new font/spacing or whatever is an improvement.

    Still need that summary back up in the header!!!!!!!!

  • Graham Cox
    Graham Cox Member Posts: 156
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    I agree about the summary back up in the header. Where it is at the moment just takes up a huge amount of space.

  • Bruna Brum
    Bruna Brum Member Posts: 3
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    If there is a way to revert to the old version, please do it. 😣

  • Admin unilegion
    Admin unilegion Member Posts: 14
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    Hi Bruna,

    can only ECHO your request.

    But so far it has been dealt with superficially (an out of touch reply) and since then Pipedrive has been completely silent about possibly rolling back this crippling "update" (which in fact, made things worse).

  • Josh Buesking
    Josh Buesking Member Posts: 176
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    It's frustrating dealing with it day in day out.


    Summarty takes up a huge amount of space that was perfect in the header and now you do more scrolling to get to side bars.

    Focus is useless as well, takes up to much space.

    I agree the product team is losing it's core focus of a simple efficent CRM and giving us bloat we can't turn off and adding to much lip stick.

  • AFGP
    AFGP Member Posts: 6
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    Completely agree, we´ve been telling them this now for almost 3 weeks as we all waste time and effort every single day with unnecessary scrolling but they do nothing about it.

    Can it really be that difficult to put it back to how it was? Or give us the choice of keeping the original?

  • JaMes75
    JaMes75 Member Posts: 5
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    Any news about the sidebar ? I have generally 5 informations on my deal, so fullscreen it's hover kill 😅

  • Sascha Briest
    Sascha Briest Member Posts: 10
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    Hi all,

    I agree with the previous posts, flexibility would be the key I guess. We usually call our contacts on regular basis. Some of them though only want to be contacted via email and opted-out for phone. This custom field I would love to see just below the phone and mobile field in SUMMARY of contact. That means, being able to modify a summary section for deals, orgs, contacts would be nice. You could say there is one certain company-view with central customized "viewport", and - even better - for further individual customization (on user or empleyee role basis), the granular field items / groups / blocks could be moved to the header (again), to SUMMARY, or even jumps to a NEW right-hand sidebar, when frame width of PipeDrive is larger than 50% of global screenwidth on screens larger than 1600px ?