My PM Deep Dive: Building a DocuSign Integration
In the world of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), managing policy updates isn’t very helpful without an ironclad paper trail. I recently had the chance to step into a more product management role for a new DocuSign integration within StandardFusion.
Having just graduated from the eCornell University Product Management course, this was the perfect opportunity to take what I learned and apply it to a real-world problem. Our strategic decision going into the project was simple: we weren’t going to build a broad, generic integration.
Rather than scattering value across multiple workflows, I wanted to see if we could solve one exact problem for our users using the infrastructure we already had.
Uncovering the True Customer Pain
The project began when I sat down with a customer to map out their policy management workflow. They told me they needed the official signature of three specific officers every time a policy changed.
StandardFusion already had solid policy management features to assign policies to users and establish approvers. Our native approval process handled the workflow nicely but lacked the legal paper trail that a DocuSign signature provides. The customer was basically forced to jump out of our platform, manage the DocuSign envelopes manually, and then manually upload the finalized PDFs back into our system.
I worked directly with the users to pinpoint exactly where this disconnect happened. We brainstormed a way to bridge the gap without reinventing the wheel. The solution ended up being straightforward: we just mapped their DocuSign requirements directly to our existing user roles.
Learning to Say “No”
A huge takeaway from the eCornell course was the importance of strictly defining a use case. For this project, our only goal was obtaining required signatures on finalized policies.
To hit an aggressive target launch by the end of February, we had to say “no” quite a bit. For instance, we explicitly said no to allowing people to edit PDF files within our platform right before sending them to DocuSign.
By refusing to build a complex PDF editor, we kept the scope tight and focused our engineering resources on the immediate problem.
Our blueprint was guided by a dedicated Product Requirements Document (PRD) initially started by another Product Manager, which I then took over and refined. Having this solid documentation meant the engineering team knew exactly what we were building, and more importantly, what we were avoiding.
Leveraging Existing Infrastructure
The fastest code to write is the code that is already written. Instead of building a parallel system just for DocuSign, we tied the integration directly into StandardFusion’s existing policy management setup.
We reused nearly all of our core components. We plugged into the existing policy approval process, leveraged our mature user roles system for routing, and utilized our established file storage system to save the final documents.
Now, a customer can simply set up their DocuSign integration and assign the users that need to sign off on the policy. The system automatically creates the envelope, sends it, receives the final signatures, and stores the file attached to the correct policy.
Designing a Seamless User Experience
Because we reused our existing infrastructure so heavily, the User Experience (UX) required very few changes. We didn’t need to train users on a massive new module.
All that changed from a UX perspective was the addition of a clean dialog box where the user can pick the people who need to sign off on the document. We also introduced a new status to track when a policy is actively out for signatures.
Keeping things familiar and minimalist gave us a UX that users are happy with, all while saving us from weeks of extra development.
During our quarterly Product Content Meeting, we demoed the integration by showing the workflow straight from DocuSign’s perspective. It helped everybody instantly clear up the context and understand the benefits within their existing habits.
Putting Theory into Action
The development of our DocuSign integration proved to me that a strict product strategy really does work in the wild. By committing to a single use case and reusing what we already had, we delivered a solid integration on a fast timeline.
It was a fantastic way to put my PM learnings to the test: listening to the actual process, managing scope creep, and finding the most practical path to value.
Fresh off my eCornell Product Management course, I put theory into practice by leading a focused DocuSign integration. When customers needed formal paper trails for policy changes, we mapped the workflow directly to our existing user roles instead of building a generic tool. By using existing infrastructure and saying “no” to scope creep, like advanced PDF editing, we kept development light and hit our February launch. The result is a simple, effective UX that automatically handles secure signatures right on the policy.
