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Notion

Score8.7 out of 10

1,136 Reviews and Ratings

What is Notion?

Notion aims to present users with an all-in-one workspace — for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases, from Notion Labs in San Francisco.

Top Performing Features

  • Integrates with Google Drive

    Integrates with Google's cloud storage platform, Google Drive.

    Category average: 7.1

  • Device sync

    Device syncing that updates files connected to the cloud, keeping all files up to date regardless of where they are edited or viewed.

    Category average: 8.6

  • Integrates with Outlook

    Integrates with Microsoft Outlook to tie in email threads.

    Category average: 8.8

Areas for Improvement

  • Surveys

    Users can create and participate in surveys to get input from other collaborators.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Workflow Automation

    Workflow automation is the ability to route work requests along an approval process automatically.

    Category average: 7.8

  • Chat

    Instant messaging tool allows users to communicate with select other users in real-time threads.

    Category average: 9

Flexible and Customizable Tool

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've used Notion on and off for years to keep my marketing business organized, and help clients understand project scope, progress, and deliverables. I also use it to organize contractors and keep people aligned with goals.
Notion's customizability is a big help, since each of my projects is bespoke to the client's needs.

Pros

  • Customizable
  • Affordable
  • Easy to share

Cons

  • Better how-to onboarding walkthrough
  • Walkthrough videos for most popular functions
  • Links can be glitchy

Return on Investment

  • Allowed me to onboard several contractors and employees for a marketing client
  • Allowed me to make custom content management system for a marketing client
  • Allowed me to track project expenses all in one place

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp, Asana and Google Tasks

Other Software Used

ClickUp, Asana, Google Drive

Notion - Powering Wikis and SoPs

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We leverage Notion as an internal Wiki and to centrally manage all of our SoPs. We had previously used it as a broader productivity and communications platform within our organization but found that it was almost too flexible. Pairing it back to be our Wiki and hub for SoPs has helped keep everything centralized. It's easy for the team to manage and edit.

Pros

  • Internal Wiki
  • Managing internal documentation
  • Drag and drop experience
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • It's almost too flexible at times
  • More controls to restrict how pages / content / dashboards can be structured

Return on Investment

  • Stopped using Google Drive and moved everything into Notion making it easier to create, find and update content
  • Migrated more than 500 internal Wiki Documents and SoPs that govern all of our operations.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive

Other Software Used

Twilio, Apollo.io, Playwise HQ

Almost perfect, but not there yet - Notion.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

1. Knowledge management - All technical, non-technical, legal, or otherwise documents written and stored on Notion. 2. High-level project and product management - Product planning for the quarter happens on Notion, as we usually write down the high-level work items we pick up and prioritize. This is also helpful as the product plan is circulated among the different teams at the companies. 3. Meeting notes - Rough meeting notes and associated recordings are always added to notion trackers to keep track of important meetings and decisions. 4. Customer release notes or customer trackers - Any deliverable we might have for customers, or if we want to track the onboarding process of any customers, the project management is done on Notion by the CSM team.

Pros

  • Project and task management.
  • Knowledge base management.
  • Formatting of documents is easy and beautiful.
  • Export / import of markdown is great.

Cons

  • AI integration - very mediocre implementation, and it doesn't work very well.
  • Clunky and slow desktop/mobile apps - very slow to load large tables.
  • No support for whiteboarding /wireframing.

Return on Investment

  • Onboarding time has significantly reduced, possibly up to 70-80%, as new joinees can just be shared required notion documents.
  • It isn't great for project management because of its clunky and slow UI, so we used something else for task and project management on a granular level.
  • Great for document collaboration and writing collaborative product specs.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Atlassian Confluence

Other Software Used

Slack, FigJam

Versatile Tool

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As head of operations, I organized the company's entire control through Notion. We use it to organize tasks, sectors, pipelines, customer cases, and more. Basically, Notion is a Lego that we can create as we wish. In addition, we use the visualizations for timelines, planning, viewing results, monitoring customer stages, defining projects, and organizing teams. There is also the possibility of creating customized formulas with dependencies on other columns, which is very useful for the company I work for.

Pros

  • Organization
  • define projects

Cons

  • Project copy and paste bugs
  • cumulative sum

Return on Investment

  • we can plan projects in an organized way
  • we structure sectors through the platform

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp and Atlassian Jira

Other Software Used

Intercom, Slack, HubSpot CRM

Notion and the tools that it added.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Notion is a fantastic no-code solution for personal and company organization. When thinking about the practical uses, one can mention database construction and sharing, kanban board customization, no-code website building, wiki construction, task management, etc. One big issue with Notion, though, is that it recently introduced AI tools that, at first, were quite inaccurate in accomplishing what you asked of them. In addition, we know that AI tools cause a large amount of carbon emissions due to the calculations required. As a company, Notion Inc. does not disclose its emissions, and we don't know how much they have increased since the introduction of these AI tools, leading to the question of whether it's good to keep using them to assist your work. On a positive note, you DO NOT need to use the AI tools to accomplish everything Notion offers you. You can see a number of guides and tutorials on how to really employ all the tools. With the exception of the AI aspects, Notion remains one of the greatest tools for management that one could hope for, and it can be as versatile as you need it to be for your ideas to come to fruition.

Pros

  • Database management.
  • Collaboration.
  • No-Code solutions.

Cons

  • Artificial Intelligence.
  • Disclose carbon emissions.
  • Web hosting.

Return on Investment

  • Time optimization.
  • Easier web development.
  • Negative carbon emissions.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Wrike, Upwork and Asana

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Discord, Wrike