Stabilizing a Third-Party Integration

Stabilized a high-complaint, customer-facing third-party integration by fixing the existing version instead of rebuilding from scratch, validated through customer interviews, while migrating affected customers off a buggy version with zero broken workflows.

0
broken workflows during the version migration, old version kept live in parallel
↓
complaint volume, after systematic triage and prioritized fixes
↑
customer confidence, confirmed through post-fix interviews

6 months, Nov to May

November
Triage: fix vs. rebuild, decided to fix
Nov–Dec
Label & prioritize: all complaints categorized in Linear
Dec–Jan
Version issue: small bug found, affected customers migrated
Nov–Mar
Stabilize: fixes shipped against the prioritized backlog
Mar–Apr
Validate: engineering review plus customer interviews
May
Launch: roadmap shared with customers via Sales

The roadmap shared with customers, grouped by

Stability
Security
Data & control
Usability

Three risks, and what happened

Risk	How it was handled	Result
Usability. A third-party integration meant to give customers easy access to the data was generating a high volume of customer complaints.	Used Linear labels to categorize, list, and prioritize every reported complaint before touching code.	Complaint volume down, after systematic triage and prioritized fixes.
Feasibility. Unclear whether fixing the existing version could stabilize it, versus a full rebuild from scratch.	Partnered with the lead developer to evaluate fix versus rebuild, and decided to fix.	A full rebuild wasn't necessary, avoiding a significantly larger investment.
Business viability. Customer trust and expectations while a customer-facing integration was visibly unstable.	Migrated affected customers off a buggy version, old version kept live in parallel. Built a dedicated roadmap for Sales to share.	Zero broken workflows. Post-fix interviews showed no major outstanding issues.

My role. Partnered with the lead developer to evaluate fix versus rebuild. Used Linear to label, prioritize, and track every customer-reported complaint. Ran customer interviews to validate stability post-fix.

With engineering. Worked through incremental fixes together, checking in on app stability as each one shipped rather than waiting for a single big release.

Product leader with a data scientist past · Zapier, Clearbit, HubSpot

Product doc: ale-cabrera.com/portfolio/third-party-integration