Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot personalized navigation: trim the sidebar to your tools | Shipped Jun 2026
Transcript
- Dana (AI host): HubSpot's left sidebar can list more than eighty items, whether or not you ever open them. Rob (AI host): A public beta now lets each person keep their own tools one click away, and group the rest. Dana (AI host): Here's how to try it on yourself before your whole team sees it. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Rob (AI host): Rob here, with Dana. Rob (AI host): Quick honesty up front: we're both AI hosts, so neither of us has a HubSpot login or a sidebar to trim. Dana (AI host): And I'll keep us on the sources. Rob, who are you this time? Rob (AI host): Today I'm playing a made-up admin for a growing team, the one who answers where-is-that-tool questions all week. Dana (AI host): Why it matters: each person sees the tools and groupings that matter most to them, instead of one long menu built for everyone. Dana (AI host): Here's what shipped. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's fall Spotlight lists Personalized navigation: personalize your sidebar with the tools and groupings that matter most to you. Dana (AI host): Now in public beta. Rob (AI host): Is there more from HubSpot than one line on a launch page? Dana (AI host): Yes. Dana (AI host): On the first of October, a member of HubSpot's product team posted in the HubSpot Community that two navigation features are in beta. Dana (AI host): The first is Personalized navigation. Users control their own navigation. Dana (AI host): They pick what sits one click away, add custom groupings, and reorder. Dana (AI host): The second is Admin customizable navigation, where admins configure navigation for their users and teams. Dana (AI host): That one is a private beta. Rob (AI host): So in this made-up team, I can't set one layout for everyone yet, even though that's what I'd want first. Dana (AI host): Not with Personalized navigation. That's each person's own menu. Dana (AI host): One shared layout is the admin beta's job, and private beta requests get reviewed by HubSpot. Rob (AI host): Then what does each person's personalized menu actually start with, on day one? Dana (AI host): Our research describes how the beta builds it. Dana (AI host): The main menu pulls in the tools each person opens most, plus anything they've bookmarked. Dana (AI host): New users get a menu based on the use case they picked when they signed up. Dana (AI host): Existing users see their bookmarks, their most-used tools, and relevant use cases. Rob (AI host): And it's personal to each login? Dana (AI host): Yes. Dana (AI host): It's individual to each login, not global, and it doesn't change how reports, workflows, or other tools work. Dana (AI host): Only how fast people reach them. Rob (AI host): Fine. How do I actually get in? Dana (AI host): HubSpot's help article on betas lays out the path. Dana (AI host): Click your profile picture in the top right, then Product updates. Dana (AI host): In the left sidebar, go to In beta. Dana (AI host): Find the public beta, click Join Beta, and choose Enroll only me, or Enroll entire account. Dana (AI host): Accept the beta terms, then click Join beta. Rob (AI host): Who's allowed to enroll the whole account? Dana (AI host): Opting an account into a beta takes Super Admin permissions. Dana (AI host): And if a beta you joined doesn't show up, HubSpot says to log out and back in. Rob (AI host): Enroll only me, first. Got it. Dana (AI host): That's the order our research suggests too. Dana (AI host): Test it yourself as an admin before the account opts in. Rob (AI host): And if the made-up team hates it? Dana (AI host): They can leave. Dana (AI host): In Product updates, go to Your betas, click the update's name, then Leave beta. Dana (AI host): Edit access switches between only you and the entire account. Rob (AI host): Does joining wipe any account settings? Dana (AI host): No. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's beta article says joining a beta doesn't remove existing features or change your account settings. Dana (AI host): Beta features can still change before general release, though. Rob (AI host): Fair. That's a safe start. Dana (AI host): There's a feedback path too. Dana (AI host): From Your betas, click Give feedback, pick a rating, and add a comment if you want. Dana (AI host): And the product team member who posted on the first of October asked directly for feedback on both betas, so it's worth sending. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): A cleaner sidebar helps. A cleaner portal helps more. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Every quarter a portal gets a little heavier, and the weight lands on one admin. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): HubSpot Super Admin Live is a one or two day onsite workshop where we rebuild your portal with your admin team, on your real instance. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Your team leaves with a documented architecture and a continuity playbook. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Find it under workshops at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Say the admin I'm playing joins. Rob (AI host): What can people do with the sidebar today, beta or not? Dana (AI host): Bookmarks. HubSpot's navigation help page says you can save up to ten secondary menu items. Dana (AI host): Hover over an item and click the bookmark icon to add it. Dana (AI host): To reorder, go to Bookmarks, then Manage, drag the items, and click Save. Dana (AI host): Click the same icon to remove one. Rob (AI host): And the menu that seems to vanish? Dana (AI host): The sidebar is collapsed by default. Dana (AI host): Hover over the icons to open it, or click Keep navigation open in the bottom left. Dana (AI host): If an item isn't where you expect, click More first. Rob (AI host): Does a personal menu change what someone can access? Dana (AI host): No. Dana (AI host): The help page says the items shown depend on user permissions and the subscription, and our research adds that people can only pin tools they already have. Rob (AI host): Now the skeptic part. Who actually gets it? Dana (AI host): Here's what we couldn't confirm. Dana (AI host): We didn't find a public HubSpot page that lists which plans include Personalized navigation, and our two write-ups disagree on it. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's beta article says availability can depend on your subscription, permissions, and rollout stage. Dana (AI host): So check Product updates in your own account. Rob (AI host): And the navigation help page? Dana (AI host): As of its update on the fifteenth of September, it covers bookmarks and the standard menu, not the personalized one. Rob (AI host): What if the beta isn't listed when someone looks? Dana (AI host): HubSpot says it may limit or close beta signups to manage capacity and collect feedback. Dana (AI host): If a beta is full, check its signup page again later. Rob (AI host): What breaks if a rollout goes ahead? Dana (AI host): Our research flags training. Dana (AI host): Recorded walkthroughs and internal guides that show the old navigation need updating, because the sidebar looks and behaves differently. Rob (AI host): Okay. Here's the plan for this week, as the admin I'm playing. Dana (AI host): Monday, join with Enroll only me, and bookmark the tools the team asks about most. Rob (AI host): Then update the training guides, and only after that, switch to Enroll entire account. Dana (AI host): And if one shared layout is the real need, request the Admin customizable navigation beta. Rob (AI host): Admin verdict: worth a solo test this week, with the team rollout after the guides are fixed. Dana (AI host): Personalized navigation, then. Dana (AI host): A shorter menu per person, bookmarks for up to ten tools, and an admin version in private beta. Rob (AI host): Every link we used is in the show notes, with more updates at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Thanks for clicking along with us. Rob (AI host): Trim it, then train it. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.