Ben Lang

I'm Ben Lang, Head of Community at Notion. AMA ๐Ÿ‘‡

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Back in 2018, I launched Notion Pages on Product Hunt, it was the #2 product of the week. Shortly after, I joined Notion to support the community. Our community has written books about Notion, created mascots, hosted hundreds of events, started full-time businesses around Notion, and much more. Many of the highest-ranking products on Product Hunt in the past two years have been Notion templates. Going back in time, Notion launched on Product Hunt in 2016 as one of the most upvoted products of all time. More than 20 million people use Notion today. I was user #1880 on Product Hunt and I've hunted more than 360 products. AMA!
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Sharath Kuruganty
Hey Ben! Thanks for doing this AMA. Notion has one of the best communities in tech and I'm glad I was one of the early adopters. What do you think about community-led product growth and how Notion as a company considers it?
Ben Lang
@5harath Hi Sharath, so happy to hear you use Notion :) I think community-led product growth gives us the ability to incorporate our community at every stage of the funnel. This can be tremendously impactful from top of funnel growth, all the way to signing enterprise customers. There's a great talk from Olivia, our CRO, on this, definitely recommend checking it out!
Yucel F. Sahan
Are you planning to add a built-in analytics feature? :)
Ben Lang
@yucelfaruksahan What kind of analytics did you have in mind?
Yucel F. Sahan
@benln Let's say I am building a Notion info product and sharing it publicly. I want to know about how regularly people visits my notion docs? It would be great if its possible :)
Ben Lang
@yucelfaruksahan Ah yes, that's on the roadmap! I'm very excited for it as well. I don't have a specific timeline to share, but it will come!
Joshua Dance
Hi Ben. Can you give us any solid time lines for offline mode and faster search? Nearly every week I entertain looking for a Notion alternative. I can't use Notion on the plane. I can't use it in a grocery store with bad cell coverage and no Wifi. I can't use it in a train with no Wifi. And search is honestly one of the worst search experiences out of all the products I use. Each search takes 3-5 seconds, Notion ignores standard search notation like "exact match" and -don't include. Please I am looking for an olive branch. :) Thanks!
Ben Lang
@joshdance Hi Joshua, I'm so sorry to hear that and I feel your pain. The same things happen to me, so I totally get it. I wish I could give you a solid timeline, but unfortunately I don't have one to share. Our engineering team is working hard to make Notion a better experience for everyone, hope you can stick with us ๐Ÿคž
Felix Exner
Hey Ben, I wondered what kind of tools you are using on your day-to-day basis to stay up to date and connected to your community?
Ben Lang
@exnerfelix A few of my favorites - Notion ๐Ÿ™ƒ (example - https://www.notion.so/community) - Swagup - Zapier - Slack - Commsor - Luma
Anil Meena
Managing & Growing a community is a skill, Please can share some of the key points to remember while starting a community.
Kapil Gadhire
Nice to meet you @benln ! Most of my questions are already asked by others, I would just say hi and tell you that you guys have build a wonderful product and amazing community!
Ben Lang
@kapilgadhire Thank you so much Kapil! It's great to meet you here :)
Francesco D'Alessio
I've always been curious Ben - as you created Notion Pages and a lot of the modern day Notion community - do you ever get tempted to release another of your own Notion templates/products?
Ben Lang
@francescod_ales Hi Francesco! Yes absolutely, always tempted :) I'm so inspired by what users are creating and launching with Notion every day, it feels like there's such a huge opportunity in this ecosystem. Throwing the question back at you, do you have any plans to release more Notion templates? You've been a huge inspiration to me with Notion Made Simple, your YouTube channel and everything you do!
Francesco D'Alessio
@benln 100% - Cheers Ben, I want to build a team workspace in early 2022 for the world :-) So 100% plans to.
Nikki Shum
Hey Ben. Big fan of Notion myself, even bigger fan hearing about its background within the PH community. Any tips for ongoing launches on PH? How did Notion use the community to inform optimizations to the product?
iReem
Hi Ben! Thanks for doing this AMA. One short question, when are we going to have an RTL typing option in Notion?
Anupama Panchal
@benln : How do you keep a community active, engaged, and increase the reach?