Ivan Zhao

AI should be treated as a new raw material that enables previously impossible architectural trade-offs, particularly favoring horizontal, bundled platforms.

"I always feels like AI language model feels like a new type of wood. It feels like aluminum. It's a new type of material... Mass air travel wasn't available until aluminum become cheap enough that peo..."

AI product evolution moves from simple generation (writing) to retrieval (Q&A) to autonomous assembly (agents building custom software).

"The first product was our AI writer product. Second product is AI Q&A or connectors. Please look at all the information in Notion and give your answer... the third one, which is even more fascinating...."

Betting on unproven, unstable technical foundations can force a total company reset if the technology fails to mature.

"Before React wins, there's a competing technology called Web Component from Google... we're betting on that technology. And then we realize because it's so new, it's just so unstable. It don't know wh..."

While avoiding premature optimization is good, infrastructure must be planned far enough ahead to avoid 'doomsday' scenarios when usage spikes.

"During COVID, we just couldn't scale up our infrastructure. For the longest time, Simon's really good at don't do premature optimization, so for the longest time, we Notion runs on one instance of Pos..."

Product-market fit is often a gradual ramp of increasing resonance rather than a single 'eureka' moment.

"It never hit us as a binary state. Just like, 'Oh, good. We have people who care about this thing we make now.'... It's a very gradual ramp. Maybe that's why early days when it's really the lost eras,..."

A B2C2B loop relies on a high-volume personal use case (like note-taking) to act as a Trojan horse for enterprise adoption.

"We call our internal strategy called B2C2B. All those consumers, personal user use Notion for the most simple way you can use a computer or your phone, which is note-taking or document-sharing. And th..."

High talent density and lean teams reduce the communication overhead that typically slows down larger organizations.

"The overhead is actually more from internal communication. It's really hard to get people's mind to be aligned on things, to see the world in the same way. And the part that you do need people, maybe..."

A 'small bus' culture allows for faster pivoting and higher maneuverability than a large, bureaucratic organization.

"Internally we use the metaphor that Notion's a small bus. The bus, the smaller the bus, it's easier to turn corners, easier to accelerate, easier to maneuver. The bigger the bus it is, bigger the boat..."

Defining culture through 'Crafts and Values' emphasizes the intersection of technical skill, personal taste, and world-view.

"Internally, our company philosophy called crafts and values. Craft is your skill set, your taste. Value is your personal value and how do you see the world. Craft is interesting word. It's like about..."

Product leadership is the art of choosing which valuable things to sacrifice to meet the specific needs of the market at a given time.

"There's no free lunch. You don't get something for free. You have to give up something. Then what do you give up? It's essentially you give up the right thing that market or your user wants at that gi..."

Horizontal tools must be positioned as 'solutions' (Lego boxes) for specific enterprise needs rather than just 'primitives' (Lego bricks).

"Only hardcore Lego fans care about Lego bricks. Most people care about Lego boxes. And they actually want the Lego box to be ready-made. When you unpack the box, the set is there for you, right? That'..."

Successful products often package a radical long-term vision inside a familiar, high-utility form factor that users already understand and need.

"Our realization is actually let's hide our vision, which is everybody can create their software in the form factor that people do care. So what kind of tool do people use every day? Productivity softw..."

Product vision must balance personal taste and values with market demand to avoid creating either an unusable art project or a soulless commodity.

"Building for something you want the world to have is building for your value. You have some taste. You have some aesthetic. There are different energy. You need to create a balance. Too much of yourse..."

Violating the core architectural principles of your product (e.g., modularity) to chase specific features can lead to 'organ rejection' from the user base and internal team.

"We ship non-Lego pieces into our product. We're still there. We're still cleaning up part of it. That's a realization. It's like going back to the value part, it's like if you create this thing called..."