Documents answer questions. Collaboration features help both companies act on the answers. Add them when they replace scattered email threads, spreadsheets, or meeting follow-ups.
Build a mutual action plan
The Next Steps tab holds one shared plan for the Room. Use clear tasks, owners, and dates. Write an outcome the recipient can recognize, not an internal sales activity.
Good task: “Security team approves the data-processing terms.”
Weak task: “Follow up with prospect.”
Keep the plan short enough to review in a meeting. Add detail only when it clarifies ownership or the definition of done.
Each task has a Visibility setting. Shared shows the task in the Room. Internal keeps it in your workspace, counts toward total progress only, and never appears in the recipient's view of the plan.
Give every task an owner
Open a task and use the Owner list. It is a single list grouped by the two companies in the Room: your workspace first, then the Room's company.
- Anyone on the team puts the task on your workspace without naming a person.
- A teammate's name assigns the task to that person, who gets an assignment email while the plan's email notifications are on.
- Anyone at the company puts the task on the recipient's side without naming a person.
- A specific person… names one person on the recipient side. Add their email address and full name.
Company-level ownership is the normal case. Whoever writes “Sign the NDA” rarely knows which person on the other side signs it. A named owner appears beside their company, such as Sarah · Acme. A company-level owner appears as the company name on its own, so both sides can see where a step sits without inventing a contact.
The recipient's company appears in the Owner list only while the task is Shared. Switching a task to Internal clears a recipient owner.
Choose who ticks tasks off
Select Plan settings above the plan, then use Let recipients tick off their tasks. It is on by default.
While it is on, anyone who opens the Room can complete the Shared tasks owned by their side. They do not type an email address to do it and never need a HummingDeck account. A task that depends on unfinished work shows a Waiting on note until the earlier task is done.
Turn it off when your team maintains the plan alone. The checkboxes in the Room become read-only, and the plan tells recipients that your workspace keeps it up to date. Your own team still completes any task from the plan editor.
Read the completion record
What HummingDeck stores against a completed task follows the access mode of the Room link the person used.
| Room entry | Recorded against the task |
|---|---|
| Restricted | The verified person who completed it |
| Verify email | The verified person who completed it |
| Ask for email | The address that person entered, shown with Unconfirmed identity |
| No email required | The completion, with no name |
Choose the entry flow in Room links and access modes. Read the record as a history of what happened in the Room.
Colour the phases
Group a longer plan into phases so the Room reads as stages rather than one long list. Phase headers are neutral until you colour them, so a plan stays calm by default.
Select the circle beside a phase name to open the colour picker. Pick one of the suggested colours, or type any hex value such as #7A3FB0 to match a customer's brand. No colour returns the phase to neutral. Completed checkboxes stay the same colour in every phase, so a tick always means the same thing.
Use discussions deliberately
Discussions keep questions next to the Room rather than in a separate email chain. They are scoped to the recipient link, so different audiences do not automatically share one conversation.
Identity confidence follows the link mode. A message on an Open or Ask link is tied to a lower-confidence identity than a message on a Verify or Restricted link. If the conversation is sensitive, use verified access.
Do not use Room discussions as a formal signature or legal approval mechanism. Use Proposal responses or the appropriate external signing process when an explicit decision is required.
Add useful embeds
Embeds can bring a video introduction, calendar, form, prototype, design file, or supporting page into the Room. Prefer embeds that help the recipient complete the next action.
For an important provider:
- Test the embed in recipient preview.
- Confirm the provider allows iframe viewing.
- Keep a direct link as a fallback.
- Avoid embedding private content that requires your own logged-in session.
Use tabs and sections for scanning
Tabs separate different kinds of work, such as Documents and Next Steps. Sections divide a long tab into readable groups such as “Start here,” “Security,” and “Implementation.”
Avoid making a new tab for every file. Recipients understand a few stable areas faster than a complex internal taxonomy.
Choose the next capability by need
- Need an explicit proposal decision: use a Proposal link for the relevant document.
- Need controlled access: create a Restricted Room link.
- Need a branded recipient URL: request custom-domain setup from Support.
- Need repeated automated publishing: request API access.