Get early-adopter creators to post tutorials and templates for your new AI feature

Phil CarterI had Rachel Hepworth who was formerly the CMO of Notion on my podcast when I was first getting it started last year. And she talked about how crucial community was for Notion when it was first getting started because Notion is an unusually horizontal product experience. Unlike most consumer or prosumer tools, it didn't launch with a single point solution.

Phil CarterIt launched as essentially like a Wiki replacement for something like Atlassian. And so as a result, they really relied on influencers and early adopters who were creating content on YouTube or other online platforms to be able to educate other potential users of Notion. And then when they became an early adopter of AI with Notion AI in 2023, they went back to the same playbook and they had these early AI adopters on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Discord, just sort of talking about how they were using Notion AI, publishing templates or databases that they were using tips and tricks for how to get the most value out of it.

Phil CarterAnd that really helped to drive a lot of organic adoption of their new AI products, but it also helped to improve new user retention because it got more new users over the activation hump of understanding how to use the product and get value out of it. So they didn't just churn in the first 24 to 48 hours.

David BarnardYeah. And I've talked about this before, but it's almost a good filter when building products as well is, would this make a good TikTok video? And so if you can build a feature into the app, and you've got to be careful because this can be a trap as well. It's like a really fun TikTok video. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great product feature that delivers value and stays core to the app and everything like that, but it is a fun filter …