Keep pulling the thread on Ivan Zhao.
In 2015, Notion's co-founders moved to Kyoto to restart and rebuild the company after failing to achieve product-market fit.
Notion conducted a company-wide "restart" focused on generative AI during an offsite in Cancún in 2023.
Notion's engineering hiring strategy has shifted to a "barbell" model, focusing on hiring very junior and very senior engineers while avoiding mid-level hires.
Notion has eliminated its CMO organization, splitting the marketing function into a "storytelling" group close to product and a demand generation group serving sales.
Due to the rapid pace of technological change, Notion has no long-term product strategy plan, with planning cycles operating on a week-by-week basis.
Ivan Zhao believes companies must be willing to accept significantly worse gross margins to compete effectively in the current AI-driven market.
Brian Halligan cites a belief among AI researchers that within 15 months, they will no longer be able to make the decisions required to improve AI models.
Notion adopted the company mantra "we want to be a jazz band, not a marching band" to guide its organizational culture.
In 2019, when Notion achieved product-market fit, the company had fewer than 10 employees and was profitable.
Ivan Zhao believes it was a mistake not to have started a sales team at Notion earlier, as he tried unsuccessfully to create a new go-to-market motion from first principles.
Ivan Zhao asserts that building products with AI has broken down the traditional boundaries between roles like product manager, designer, and engineer at Notion.
Notion now requires sales candidates to build and submit something using the Notion product as part of the initial interview process, rather than focusing on their resume.