How Notion Grows

Be versatile.  This can mean many things — but essentially, have strong convictions, but loosely held. Don’t be married to your ideas or plans — because in the beginning they are sure to not go the way you think. Adapt to what people actually want, not what you thought they would, and pivot or rebuild if you need to.

It’s okay to copy.  Ivan Zhao said on an AMA forum,  “Our guiding light has always being history. To be honest nothing is new in Notion. We copied everything from earlier systems.”

First, build something people want.  Community cannot be forced. It’s something that buds organically around what people value and want to talk about. If your product solve a real problem and you find the right early adopters (pre-requisites for being able to grow) — look out for where these people are talking.

“We focused too much on what we wanted to bring to the world. We needed to pay attention to what the world wanted from us.”, Ivan said. And people were just not interested in a no-code programming application.

That’s a really important takeaway — you  need  a wedge into your market. A  specific problem  and use case that is real

Make it easy and rewarding for people to contribute.  Create opportunities for your existing customers to share the systems, processes and workflows they’re using successfully with others in the community. If possible, do that in a way where people can make money.

So, Notion is selling a feature-packed product with so many levels of utility by  incrementally moving people along that value curve.  This is where his concept of a value stack comes in — a layered approach to getting people to maximum product utility.

• Layer 1 : I use Notion for myself


• Layer 2 : My team and I use Notion


• Layer 3:  Co

Make it easy to try your product.  Whether you’re B2B or B2C — you need to break down any friction around trying your product. Remove risk, preempt questions, and make the decision easier for people.

Have a big vision, but find your Trojan horse.  A big and inspiring vision is what get’s people to quit their job, get paid nothing, and go to Tokyo with you. But sometimes that vision is hard to communicate on your homepage, and isn’t what resonate most with your new users  right now.  Find a wedge — a  specific problem  

So, while their mission was, and still is,  “to make it possible for everyone to shape the tools that shape their lives”  by building LEGO-style software — they focused on a different approach to getting there.