“Wtf is a Notion Consultant? Is that a real job?!”
It’s a reaction that I get quite often when I tell people what I do.
And to be honest, I can’t blame them.
Had you told me 10 years ago that I would quit my career as a lawyer to instead help people with something that can best be explained as “lego for your systems“, I would have laughed at you.
But fast forward to today and things look a little different.
- I worked with dozens of companies and built systems for 1,000+ people
- I went from working on my own to having an awesome team
- and I have a new goal: building Europe’s Nr. 1 Notion Consultancy
And all of this… as a Notion Consultant.
So here’s a quick attempt at explaining what this actually is about.
What Notion Consulting is NOT about
If you hear about Notion Consulting for the very first time, you might think that it’s all about…
- building complex database setups
- creating giant dashboards (and taking pretty screenshots for social media)
- or always being up-to-date with the latest Notion features
And sure thing, working with Notion is of course part of the job, but that’s not really why we do this.
Helping people do their best work
Ultimately, it comes down to helping people work better.
Notion is just a tool.
And unless your job happens to be that of a Notion creator, it means that whenever you use Notion, it’s just a means to an end.
A really cool and fun means, but still… a means.
But when implemented the right way, that tool has the power to help you get better work done.
By removing all the annoying little obstacles and roadblocks that modern workplaces have in stock for us.
Like…
- Spending hours trying to find that one document
- Running from meeting to meeting to just talk about work instead of getting some done
- And my personal enemy number one: manually copy-pasting information from one tool into a new tool and calling it a report
Think of it like gardening.
You want to grow beautiful things, but somehow you spend all your time fixing broken tools, searching for supplies, and fighting weeds.
As Notion Consultants, we’re the ones who organise the shed, sharpen the tools, and clear the beds – so you can get back to actually gardening.
But… how do you actually do that?
A helpful framework for the Notion Consulting Process
Here is a simple framework for our internal process that I like to call the Consulting Quadrants:
Imagine an Eisenhower Matrix, but with one axis for Problems vs Solutions and another for Real Life vs Tech & Systems
Every task starts in the top left quadrant. A real-life problem.
As a Notion Consultant, it’s our job to listen to the client to learn about his issues.
What is getting in his way of gardening the way he wants?
Next, we’re moving from real life into the tech-enabled right half of the matrix.
With the problem of the client in mind, we need to translate this into a tech-enabled solution.
How could you leverage Notion, no-code automations or maybe just a change in systems to help with the situation?
Once that has been identified, we’re moving down to the solution half.
The bottom right part of the quadrant is the actual “Let’s build something cool in Notion” step.
(well, at least if Notion is part of the solution that we just identified)
It’s what most people would intuitively assume Notion Consulting is about – but it’s actually just one of four key elements.
With all of this done, we’re ready for the last step.
The coolest tech or system doesn’t matter if we can’t explain to the client why this actually solves his problem and how he can use it going forward.
In most projects, this is the crucial linchpin.
Not so much because you need to convince someone that this is the actual solution.
If you did a good job in step number 1 and really understood the client problem, the connection should be fairly easy.
But getting people to change a process can be tough, particularly in large organisations.
Which is why we usually spend a large amount of our time during projects on change management and making sure that everyone, not just the main champions, adopt Notion properly.
Notion Consulting in a nutshell
And that’s in a nutshell what Notion Consulting is all about.
- Listening to client problems.
- Identifying tech and system solutions.
- Building those solutions.
- Making sure those new solutions are properly used and understood.
And once done, the cycle continues 😎
(because solving one problem usually helps us uncover the next challenge)
Now, as you know, my current goal is to build Europe’s Nr. 1 Notion Consultancy – but that’s also just a means.
My mission is this:
We help good people do great work by building systems that make the complex simple.
We partner with teams that really care about their work.
We believe everyone deserves to work on things that matter – not on bullshit jobs.
But work has a sneaky way to create obstacles, inefficiencies and roadblocks.
Here’s where we come in.
We clean the way and protect everyone’s time so that the work that actually matters can get done.
So that you can go back to gardening.
How to hire a Notion Consultant
Now if any of this resonates and you’d like to get the help of a Notion consultant, here’s what you can do next:
- Learn more about our process
- Get in touch
- Is a Certified Notion Consultant the right choice for you?
- Or if you’d rather do it yourself, check out my massive library of free resources
