How Notion builds product

Notion has evolved its product development processes while scaling from a small engineering-driven company to over 20 million users and 550 employees. The main challenge was establishing structured product management practices during hypergrowth while maintaining coordination across highly interconnected product features that can't be developed in isolation.

Notion's approach centers on a four-point product review process: (1) defining the user problem, (2) discussing possible solution directions, (3) presenting the full solution with high-fidelity designs, and (4) conducting a final quality check before shipping. These reviews are predominantly asynchronous via email. The company operates on twice-yearly planning cycles with two-week sprint cadences aligned across all teams, though individual teams have flexibility in how they execute sprints. Notably, Notion waited until they had 50-60 engineers before hiring their first PM and still maintains fewer than 15 PMs among 550 employees.

Key takeaways for product managers include: implementing structured review checkpoints prevents last-minute feedback surprises; asynchronous communication can scale product reviews effectively; interconnected products require more central coordination than isolated product lines; and engineering-driven companies can benefit from dedicated PMs who focus on user research and go-to-market coordination. The case demonstrates how product processes must continuously evolve during rapid scaling while balancing structure with team autonomy.