How I’d Improve Notion’s Power Discovery for Technical Generalists & Early Teams

Who I Am

As a daily user with a background in Product, UX, and internal tools, I have identified a key opportunity in Notion’s power-user activation.

What I Noticed

• Many technical users still use Notion primarily as a notes app despite broader capabilities
• Users discover databases and workflows through external videos, not the product itself
• The app opens to a blank page instead of guiding users toward use cases
• Core features are buried behind documentation instead of surfaced in-product
• Notion’s powerful backend is undermined by a ‘blank slate’ onboarding process, hindering power discovery.

Why This Matters

• Power features are likely reached only by a small percentage of users
• Teams underutilize core functionality
• Activation depends on external learning
• High churn before habit formation
• Missed expansion revenue

3 Concrete Improvements

1. First-Launch Intent Mapping

• On first launch, Notion asks, “What are you trying to build?” citing options like personal knowledge base, startup workspace, project management dashboard, CRM, or content system. Then it builds the skeleton automatically: no blank pages involved.

2. Capability Reveal Flow

• Instead of the occasional popup, build progressive in-product prompts like: “You just created your third page – want to connect them?” or “You’re managing tasks – here’s how databases can help.” Contextual learning, not static tutorials.

3. Power Map Dashboard

• A “You’re using ~20% of Notion” indicator that shows checkboxes on a list of potentially helpful features for each user’s project including Pages, Databases, Relations, and Automations. Gamify discovery.

How I’d Approach This

• Map discovery journey and first-value moment
• Identify drop-off points and activation funnel
• Prototype guided onboarding
• Test with generalists and founders, find user cohorts
• Measure activation lift

Tools

• Figma
• Analytics
• Usability Testing

I welcome the opportunity to discuss these findings further with your team.