I'm Ben Lang, Head of Community at Notion. AMA 👇

@ivan_fanego This is something we think about a lot. Candidly, early on, the best way to describe our value was to talk about how Notion combined the functionality of many other tools together - this is a common way just to anchor a product in people's minds. As collaboration tools have become more critical for all teams, this messaging has evolved and become more sophisticated. Today, we call Notion collaboration software, and when it comes to value props, we underscore the benefits of speed and alignment that get unlocked when people have the ability to tailor their own tools to fit their needs. Still, though, the most helpful description tends to be the one that just says outright that it combines docs, wikis, and project management in a single, customizable space.

@benln Thanks a lot. The value of the analogy (docs, wikis, and project management) is underrated hehe.

@ninayodel Hi Nina! I think there are a few reasons Notion has resonated strongly with the Product Hunt community - You can build powerful tools/products - It's quick and easy to build - There's a growing ecosystem of early adopters using Notion The team and I have been amazed to see so many talented makers here launching template packs, individual templates, and apps built on Notion ✨

@ninayodel @benln Wow. Great explanation, Ben.

@eliezer_steinbock1 Hi Eliezer 👋 First, try to understand what exactly your core users want. - Where could you provide value - What could they learn from each other - What could they learn from you - What do they love about your product Set up as many calls with your early fans and users to build this framework together.

@denis_shatalin Yeah.

@atulghorpade @denis_shatalin 😇

@roiziko Hey Roi! I'm quite proud of International Hummus Day http://hummusday.com. It's been a lot of fun seeing so many people celebrate hummus over the years.

@donia_ahmed I'd highly recommend checking out communities and resources for community managers, there are some great ones - https://www.community.club/ - https://www.community.club/c-school - https://cmxhub.com/

@benln thank you so much

@jordimonpmm Hey Jordi! I don't quite know what you mean by remit?

@benln Me neither, to be fair. I'm on holidays and probably switched all systems off. I just want to know how Product Marketing at Notion uses Notion templates and workspaces internally. That's all.

@jordimonpmm Ah good question! Have you seen this post? https://www.notion.so/blog/how-n... We share how we use Notion at Notion.

@benln Thanks! I did. It's not specific enough. I'm thinking of message houses, positioning frameworks and stuff like that that typically product marketers manage and update.

@jordimonpmm Got it! Will share with our blog team, that would be fantastic material for a future post.

@johann_molinari That's a great question! I joined Notion after we had product market fit, so I missed that part of the company growth. I will investigate and see what I can find out 🕵️

@benln thanks for the AMA and any info you can get on this! Super useful and interesting

@johann_molinari Thanks Johann! Appreciate it.

@dafnihnd Hi Dafni, I'd say having as many conversations as possible would be tremendously valuable early on. Talk to power users, anyone who's really excited about what you're building and try to understand: - What do they love about your product - What kind of value are you unlocking for them - How could they learn more from you and other users As you understand and learn more, you could start to build a framework to grow your community.

@benln thanks, Ben! We recently starting onboarding our users via short 1-1 calls and collect so much valuable feedback. These are some great questions to bring into these conversations.

@sofia_de_mello_barreto Commenting because I definitely want to see this answer.

@sofia_de_mello_barreto @dawn_veltri1 Hi Sofia! Good question! Do - Talk to your power users, get to know them - Listen to what your users want, empower them - Test and iterate all the time Don't - Force adoption of a certain tool without getting feedback - Try to do everything yourself, outsource/delegate where possible - Move too slowly Differences - Platforms, where users hang out - Purpose of connection with others Tools I love - Notion 🙃 - Swagup - Zapier - Slack - Commsor - Luma

@gouthamj That's a great question! I wasn't working at Notion at that time, so I'd be curious to find out as well. Will investigate 🕵️

@kpyto 1) Good question, I don't know! Is there a way to check? If I had to guess, 50+ days 2) Our Customer Experience team did a fantastic job communicating with our users when that happened. It was definitely a learning experience for everyone involved!

@joshdance Hi Joshua, I'm so sorry to hear that and I feel your pain. The same things happen to me, so I totally get it. I wish I could give you a solid timeline, but unfortunately I don't have one to share. Our engineering team is working hard to make Notion a better experience for everyone, hope you can stick with us 🤞

@saurabhc We took a different approach and saw our users launching their own communities early on, you can find the list here https://www.notion.so/community They exist on Facebook, Slack, Telegram, Reddit, Discord, all over!

@tomfrankly Hey Thomas, great to see you here! Your content and everything you do in the Notion community is a big part of what I love so much about working at Notion :) That's a good question, I don't actually think we focused primarily on marketing to productivity oriented users, I think it just happened to resonate very strongly with productivity folks and in related communities. If you look at our website, the Solutions pages are Design, Engineering, Product, Managers, Startups, Students, Remote. Would be very curious to hear why you think Notion has resonated so much for productivity focused people.

@margarita_s88 Hi Margarita! That's a great question, I think with Notion it comes to down to the product and community. I love using Notion, I think it's a revolutionary product and it keeps getting better. And I love the community, I'm so inspired by everyone involved in the Notion ecosystem, it really blows my mind each day when I wake up. As for Product Hunt, I generally hunt things I'm excited about using myself. I often miss things, but I try my best! So sorry for not hunting your product.

@benln thank you for your reply, Ben. That's awesome that the product keeps you excited. In fact, I encountered many Notion plans for a Product Hunt launch and I thought to myself - hey, this Notion looks great, I can probably use it too! Just need to give me some time about what it can do :) Interesting product and inspiring community - what a great mix! Appreciate your comment on why you launch certain products :) I know you receive lots of messages about PH launches daily - so I wasn't surprised I didn't get a reply. But we did end up getting to #4 Product of the day on Monday - even without a hunter, so I am happy anyway 😀

@margarita_s88 Very happy to hear you ended up as #4, that's wonderful!

@exnerfelix A few of my favorites - Notion 🙃 (example - https://www.notion.so/community) - Swagup - Zapier - Slack - Commsor - Luma

@kapilgadhire Thank you so much Kapil! It's great to meet you here :)