Come Notion ha costruito lo spazio di lavoro all-in-one dei vostri sogni

Prodotti iconici episodio 013

If “product crushes” were a thing like celebrity crushes, mine would be Notion.

It’s one of the best products in the SaaS world right now – and there’s a chance you’ve never even heard of it. 🤷‍♀️

In ogni caso, è stata soprannominata l'app da tenere d'occhio nel 2018, a ragione.

The company isn’t even a few years old and has already started to reshape how we work, collaborate and store information.

Even The Wall Street Journal referred to Notion as, “the only app you need for work-life productivity.”

And, well, I couldn’t agree more. 😍

When I discovered Notion completely by accident on (in?) the App Store about a year or so ago, I was blown away. I hadn’t been this excited for a product since my first iPhone.

Now, I’m thrilled to bring you a Notion-filled episode of Iconic Products! 🎉

Something to note: no, I’m not getting paid to write about Notion and I have zero affiliation with them whatsoever. I just genuinely love this product so much – and I think you will, too.

Alright, let’s get to it. 👊

Rallenta, Speed Racer. Che diavolo è Notion?

Alright, let’s back up for a sec. Notion is an all-in-one workspace that is designed to, well, store just about anything you can think of. 🤯

Create wikis, to-do lists, reading lists, project plans, budgets, photo galleries, blogs – yes, really anything.

Plus, it’s available on desktop, iOS and, most recently, Android.

Think about it this way: your digital life is probably strewn about in your Google Drive, Evernote account, email inbox, Trello boards…you get the idea.

Well, in the form of pages and links, you can take all of that information and put it into one cohesive, pretty and fun database. 🗃

Some people might like to create editorial calendars and blog posts in Notion, others might prefer to just store banana bread recipes and YouTube videos they want to watch later. Basically, you can make your Notion workspace as complicated or as simple as you’d like.

You can include your personal content as well as professional content in the same space, but still keep them separated – such as the screenshot below.

As you can see, the product is clean, crisp and easy to navigate – but still has everything you could possibly need in your digital life.

Each of those lines of text open up to pages that contain all of the information you want – whether it’s a spreadsheet, calendar, blog post or even a kanban board.

Incredibile, vero?

Maybe you’re starting to see why I nerd out so hard over this product – it’s so simple and so brilliant at the same time. 🤓

But let’s go a bit deeper.

Sure, I’ve briefly explained what the product is at its surface, but let’s dig into what you can do with it.

Semplice, bello, potente

As Notion puts it, “Solve your problems your way, bounded only by your imagination.”

And it’s true: there are plenty of amazing examples of people using Notion in incredible ways.

Simile a Airtable Universe, sebbene molto più leggero, è Notion Pages.

Here, you can submit examples of your own Notion pages and get inspiration from others. 🤘

Da un esempio di curriculum a uno scaffale virtuale, mostrato qui sotto, ci sono modi incredibili in cui le persone utilizzano questo prodotto.

Personalmente, uso Notion come una lista di cose da fare, una lavagna di idee, uno spazio per pianificare i viaggi e come un modo per organizzare i link che voglio leggere o guardare in seguito.

That’s what makes this product so iconic: much like Airtable and Trello, there’s no right or wrong way to use it. 🙌

Fondamentalmente, Notion si basa su tre caratteristiche fondamentali:

Wiki: Simile a un sito web, dove è possibile creare, modificare e progettare il proprio layout.
Documenti: Aprite i vostri documenti e lavorate completamente offline.
Compiti: Creare attività su nuove schede o creare un proprio elenco di cose da fare.

By separating the core features in an easy and flexible way, it means that users can still use documents for tasks, for example, or add documents to tasks. It’s all completely modular and customizable. 🛠

Want to create a task and link it back to a blog post you’re writing within Notion (or even elsewhere)? You can do that.

Want to build a product roadmap and link it back to a kanban board? Spoiler alert: you can do that, too. 😉

Sostituzione degli strumenti, semplificazione dei processi

Per dirla in breve, vi riporto una citazione dal già citato articolo del WSJ che va al cuore di ciò che intendo dire:

“Notion fuses the best of [Evernote, Google Docs, Keep, Trello, Asana]—and others—into a rare renaissance app, proficient in countless methods of creation and organization. I can’t put a price on the peace of mind that comes from an unfragmented life. Wait, yes I can: It’s eight bucks a month.”

(Devo notare che esiste una versione gratuita di Notion, ma la versione a pagamento costa tra $4-$16 al mese a seconda del piano, da cui la menzione del costo di $8).

Yep – Notion replaces, and sometimes even surpasses, many of the products you’re probably using on a regular basis (thankfully, it doesn’t replace your favorite CRM!). 😳

Come abbiamo discusso nell'ultima sezione, Notion può fare praticamente tutto ciò che si desidera.

Quindi, logicamente, ha senso che questo prodotto possa essere utilizzato in modo da svolgere funzioni simili a quelle di Trello, Google Docs e altro.

And unsurprisingly, this is exactly what Notion is aiming for. 🚀

As they explain on their website, “Google Docs made typewriters multiplayer. Dropbox brought file cabinets to the cloud. But conceptually, they evolved little beyond their Industrial Revolution ancestors. We duct-tape everything together with emails, copy/paste and countless open tabs.”

So that’s where they stepped in and created a space that combines all of these elements into one product.

Si può anche usare come wiki da condividere con gli altri come sito web di portfolio.

By removing the need for toggling from tool to tool, Notion has created a workflow that is seamless and, most importantly, in one place. 👍

Ma cosa succede se si vuole usare Notion in squadra?

Collaborazione di livello superiore

Notion allows you to collaborate across workspaces – which means you can keep your own workspace private if you’d like, and then invite users to work-related spaces. 👫

Questo crea ancora più livelli di possibilità fantastiche.

Se volete collaborare con i colleghi a un progetto, potete farlo creando roadmap, tabelle kanban di consegne, elenchi di risorse e persino caricare prototipi o bozze che necessitano di feedback.

From there, you can receive comments inline from collaborators and make edits accordingly. ✍

Non è più necessario condividere i link di Google Doc avanti e indietro, né separare la bacheca di Trello dal vostro spazio di lavoro.

And that’s certainly a breath of fresh air. 💆‍♀️

While there are some people out there who aren’t fully convinced that Notion is there…yet, it’s just a matter of trying it out for yourself and seeing how it fits into your workflow.

Ci sono molte risorse per iniziare, da questo a questo, oltre ad alcune idee uniche per altre cose che si possono costruire in Notion.

It’s really, really exciting to see where Notion is headed next. 💪

And as they continue to grow and find new ways to completely transform the way we work, I know I’ll be there cheering them on. 😄