End of Currently in Workflow Property

[opendorz]

Why is HubSpot removing the "Currently In Workflow" Contact Property?  This is a vital property for managing our lead qualification and communication via workflows? 

[JMoore30]

The recommended replacement to create lists is ridiculous and not viable. We need a way to be able to see which workflow automations Contacts and Companies are on. Insane that this is available for as simple as the function is. 

[vserranoh]

The provided solution is still very manual for users, as listing all the workflows is not ideal, it will create a lot of manual work, and having to check a list of workflows every time. I also agree with the proposed solution: it would be great to be able to categorize our workflows (operational, marketing, sales, service, etc...) so we could add a 'Currently in Marketing Workflow' or the type of workflow desired. This would be extremely helpful. Many users rely on this property!!!

[RCasey]

100% agree — this is a huge change and I don’t think HubSpot realizes how much people rely on this property to keep things running smoothly. It’s frustrating to lose a feature that made things efficient, only to be asked to do more manual work instead. It feels like a step backwards when the goal should be to simplify, not complicate.

@BérangèreL @PamH 

[BérangèreL]

Hi @RCasey and @vserranoh,

Thank you for sharing your valuable feedback with the HubSpot Community!

I have passed it along internally for more visibility.

Best,
Bérangère

[RCasey]

I think the above solution is still quite manual for users - listing all the workflows is not ideal. A suggestion is to add a 'Currently in Marketing Workflow' property which only relates to marketing workflows. This would be extremely helpful. A lot of users rely on this property 

[PamCotton · Accepted solution]

Hey @opendorz, thank you for posting in our Community!

I was checking more information with the team, and there are some reasons for these changes:

• The property tells you whether the contact is in any workflow, including sales, service, or operational workflows, not only marketing workflows. Contacts could be in workflows that are not relevant to being marketed to, creating confusion and misaligned expectations when relying on this for lifecycle tracking.
   
• Due to the potential volume and speed of value changes, this property can be unreliable. For example, if a contact is only briefly enrolled in a workflow, the amount of time it can take for the property to update to TRUE may exceed the time the record spends in the workflow. This means the value can get “stuck” on TRUE, even when the contact is not in any workflows.

Our Suggested Alternatives

1. Use workflow-specific filters (eg, Contact is enrolled in/has completed workflow A, workflow B, etc)

These filters can be set up in a List for re-usability or as part of enrollment filters and suppression criteria. 

For example, create a list and add each individual “nurture” or other type of workflow, then use that list to suppress email sends or workflow enrollment. This does require that the list be maintained if new, applicable workflows are created.

2. Use other properties that track a contact’s place in the funnel, such as lifecycle stage, lead status, or any custom property.

I hope this information helps,

Pam

[KHalpin8]

Insane that we now have to change a list every single time a new workflow is created - my company publishes multiple workflows and new versions of old workflows constantly, this is an administrative nightmare for us. 

The "Currently in Workflow" property is one that our sales team relies on daily and uses to manage their population of contacts. We have custom properties set on our email workflows to label "Current Workflow," but these are constantly inconsistent and have to be managed and updated all the time, as some contacts do not complete a workflow before being unenrolled, and will show old, inaccurate info. This is exactly what will happen if we try to put a "Now in Workflow" property as a step on every one of these workflows. What happens when someone manually unenrolls a contact? Do we need a DIFFERENT workflow with every single email workflow listed and have the criteria "unenrolls from X workflow"??? This is so stupid. The field did exactly what my team needed it to do, and now this adds a massive layer of confusion and room for error on our part, not to mention a whole new list to constantly audit. 

[BérangèreL]

Hi @KHalpin8, @RCasey7, @opendorz,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience regarding this.

I would like to apologize for the frustration, data issues, and business impact this has caused.

Also, I'd like to thank you for sharing your valuable feedback! This means a lot to us.

I have shared it internally to bring more visibility to it.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with.  I'll be delighted to do so!

Best,
Bérangère