Item: Notion
Rating: 5
Author: Braxton Bragg

Overall Satisfaction with Notion

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Notion primarily for meeting agendas, planning documents (memos), product specifications, and project lists. In some of these, we use tables to better organize our thoughts.

In general, Notion is attempting to be a substitute for tools such as Microsoft Word/Google Docs and/or Microsoft PowerPoint/Google Slides. The innovations it brings to the table are some automated formatting and styles that some people enjoy, because it can (out of the box) make documents appear cleaner than in those other tools. Notion also has a sidebar that some of my colleagues appreciate for bringing some organization to various notes that are created.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Nested documents
Prefab formatting for written docs
Table construction and organization
Document search
Generative AI integration

Cons

Keyboard shortcuts are different from standard PC/Mac/Browser
In-line images are more difficult to manage and notate
Commenting can be annoying if you prefer Google/Microsoft approach

Return on Investment

Some frustration across groups or individuals within my org who prefer Notion vs. those who prefer Google Workspace
Perfectly acceptable for document creation and sharing
Strong collaboration features (although no better than Google's)

Usability

Notion is generally intuitive to use, with a few "notable" exceptions that I always call out when I discuss this product with someone. So, I'll stick to my complaints (which I've also documented elsewhere in this review):
--Keyboard shortcuts are not consistent with those that are otherwise standard across Windows/Mac/Browser
--Adding and annotating images to a document is a bit clunkier than doing so in Google Slides or PowerPoint (people who prefer this tool for visual presentations are crazy, IMO)
--Manaing permissions can be a bit awkward and difficult (caveat: the struggles I and others ran into with this particular area were 2-3 years ago and they may have gotten better)

Alternatives Considered

Google Workspace

I've used Notion only against my will and better judgment, when founders have preferred it. As a startup leader, my recommendation is typically to stick with Google Workspace as you can do everything that you can in Notion, and more, without any additional expense or onboarding everyone to another tool.

Key Insights

Do you think Notion delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Notion's feature set?

Did Notion live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Notion go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Notion again?

Other Software Used

Amplitude Analytics, Google Workspace, Slack

Likelihood to Recommend

My background is primarily in earlier stage startups (seed through Series C), which typically use Google for email along with the suite of tools included with Google Workspace. Notion is totally fine, and some people like it very much because they believe it has a clean design and helps them stay organized. However, as a leader in this type of organization, I think Notion is very redundant to what is already included in Google Workspace. I'd rather save the expense and cognitive load of another app and use Google tools, instead, which are also automatically integrated better with Gmail.

Notion Feature Ratings

Comments

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Notion is fine, but, in my opinion, stick to Google Workspace

Software Version