This is an article I’ve been daydreaming about for months, but only summoned the willpower to put pen to paper a few days ago.

I’ve been a daily active user since I signed up to Notion ~3.5 years ago, which makes this an intimidating but satisfying piece to publish.

The build-in-public nerd in me keeps asking to ship some kind of “How I use Notion” project. One day.

Enjoy

— Tom

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Notion is a lifestyle

Chess Move

The what: A TLDR explanation of the strategy

Something is happening to software.

What software you used was once defined by utility. By features. By use case.

Today, the world’s best startups aren’t just creating tools.

They are creating identity.

Design-led products like Arc, Attio, June, beehiiv, Linear, and Raycast have amassed fiercely loyal user bases because using them says something about who you are.

We’re entering a new era:

Software as an expression of style.

No company better represents this shift than Notion.

• 30+ million users. +175% revenue growth YoY.

• The most powerful community flywheel in b2b SaaS.

• A quirky, minimalist, identity-forming system adopted by creatives and professionals alike.

Let’s unpack how it works.

Breakdown

The how: The strategic playbook boiled down to 3x key takeaways

1.  Design as ideology

Notion’s ‘productivity chic’ aesthetic is as much a design system as it is a statement of ideology:

• Intentionally limited formatting options (3 fonts, 10 colours)

• Clean, uncluttered interfaces with plenty of whitespace

• Subtle animations that delight without distracting

• Brutalist design paired with whimsical emojis

• Distinctive, hand-drawn, playful illustrations

• Stark minimalism with pops of personality

• Industrial utility meets artisanal craft

Compared to its predecessors Microsoft Word and Google Docs, Notion is more playground than processor.

→ A screenshot of a .docx or a doc.new is just a page - you don’t think think of what tool it was made on.

→ A screenshot of a Notion page is instantly recognisable - anyone remotely familiar with the tool can see it was built on Notion.

By injecting personality into productivity, Notion transforms work from obligation into creative expression.

2. A user journey that changes who you are

The beauty of Notion’s experience design is the unique yet predictable journey that every user seems to go on.

For some, Notion is a handful of documents with a simple page hierarchy.

For others, it’s a no-code software development environment.

Its Lego-like flexibility means it can be used for just about anything:

• Journal

• To-do list

• Recipe book

• Travel planner

• Note-taking app

• Collaboration space

• Company onboarding wiki

• Project management dashboard

• Automated content production engine

‘The IKEA effect’ is a cognitive bias where people attribute a disproportionately higher value to things they build themselves.

Regardless of where you begin your Notion journey, once you start creating and see what it’s capable of, you fall in love with your creation, and therefore the product.

Abraham Maslow famously said: “Give a man a hammer & everything becomes a nail”.

Once you have your first ‘win’ (i.e. useful Notion creation) on the board, you have a familiar tool that you love, and you’ll want to use it for everything.

Hence, users quickly realise they can solve every organisational use case in their lives with a Notion database.

Your Notion setup is not just a productivity tool.

It’s an everything tool, built just for you (because you built it).

It only takes a few Notion creations for a user to identify as a full-blown Notion super-fan. But this transition isn’t just about high product usage.

It’s a new expression of the users identity:

• Minimalist, organised, and clean.

• An unusual blend of technical and artistic.

• Systems thinker. Second brain. Automations.

• Appreciation for aesthetics and design-led creation.

• Collaborative and productive, but more playful than corporate.

Plus, a compulsive personal responsibility to convince all their close friends to use Notion.

It’s rare to meet a Notion user that isn’t proud to live the Notion lifestyle.

3. Notion, the tool → Notion, the movement

Once you’ve adopted Notion into your personality, it doesn’t take long to feel the giant hug of Notion content, people, references, art-style, symbolism, communities, and creations in every corner of the internet:

• YouTube channels dedicated to Notion tutorials and demos

• Branded Twitter accounts selling ready-to-use templates

• ‘Notion Certified’ consultants offering custom build-outs

• Facebook Groups to discuss the latest product updates

• Active Discord communities for sharing free templates

• Personal websites inspired by Notion’s design system

• Instagram accounts showcasing aesthetic setups

• A top 1% subreddit r/Notion with 350k members

• Viral TikToks of Notion setup tips and tricks

The organic, user-generated content ecosystem is augmented by Notion’s home-grown initiatives that continually invite you further down the Notion rabbit hole:

→ The infamous ~”poor early technical choices, run out of money, move from SF to cheaper and calmer Kyoto, no team members speak Japanese, so they can focus 100% on coding every day for 3 years to build the Notion we love today” founding story.

→ Offices that feel like the software.

→ First-person product updates directly from the founders

→ Build-in-public blog posts sharing what goes down behind-the-scenes @NotionHQ

→ Branded meetups and events for local power-users

→ Eclectic Spotify playlists with thousands of followers, keeping Notion back-of-mind mind while you work

→ Statement merch that matches the quality and philosophy of the brand

The result is more than a growing user base - it’s a movement.

Supreme started as skateboarding brand.

Wearing Patagonia means more than just “I like hiking”.

Notion’s productivity DNA has evolved into something much bigger.

Just as we identify through the clothes we wear or the neighbourhoods we live in → today, our choice of software is a fundamental expression of who we are.

Rabbit Hole

The where: 3x high-signal resources to learn more

How Notion uses Notion↗

[20 minute read]

“We get asked this question a lot. ‘How does the Notion team use Notion?’

We're in a unique position to show you how to use this tool because we made the thing. We know its nooks and crannies and generally try to stretch its limits.”

If you’ve ever wondered how Notion (the company) uses Notion (the product) to build Notion (the movement/ecosystem/transformation/operating-system) - this is a fascinating read.

Thank you. 100 million of you.↗

[3 minute read]

4 product rebuilds. A desperate loan from mom. Failed experiments like "X-ray blocks." Testing 30 shades of white paint for their office walls. A decade-long journey to build “LEGOs for software”.

Ivan Zhao's letter to users reveals how Notion's obsession with craft and beauty shaped their journey from near-death to 100 million users.

A Tweet that shaped this article↗

[1 minute read]

6 months ago I saw this Tweet, and 1-click added it to Notion using the ‘Save to Notion’ extension.

A week ago, I asked Notion AI “What Notion-related content / ideas / topics have I written / saved that could be the basis for a Strategy Breakdowns article about Notion?”

Today, I’m using Notion to organise, prioritise, track, log, research, summarise, write, edit, remix, and distribute this article about Notion.

That’s all for today’s issue, folks!

If you liked today’s edition, feel free to follow along on Twitter [@tomaldertweets] and LinkedIn [/in/tom-alder].

Thanks for being here.

— Tom

P.S. This article wasn’t sponsored by Notion. I’m just a tragic fanboy. If you or someone you know works at Notion - let’s collab! My DMs are always open :)

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