What is Notion Projects and How Does It Work?
Notion's latest update caters to teams new to Notion, but packs some interesting new functionality.
There’s been a lot of buzz lately about Notion Projects, a brand new system for managing projects and tasks. The update (actually a template of connected databases) aims to make project management in Notion easier and more powerful.
Up until this release, teams had to manually relate projects and tasks databases, making decisions on what properties to create for each. This process – especially for teams new to Notion – can be daunting, as there’s no clear approach to managing projects in Notion.
I still think this is more of a feature than a bug, allowing teams to personalize their workspace to suit their needs, but Notion Projects is a step in the direction of offering plug-and-play templates, aimed at teams and companies just getting started with Notion.
How Does Notion Projects Work?
Notion Projects is a connected set of databases (Projects, Tasks, Sprints) for supporting individuals and teams throughout the entire project workflow, from start to finish, all in one place. This functionality has essentially always been around (w/ exception of some sprint features), as you have always been able to manage your projects inside Notion using its wide range of connected features. However, the Notion Projects template provides a model for how to manage projects in a clean, easy-to-use framework.
It’s super easy to apply the template to your workspace. At the bottom of the sidebar, clicking on Templates will bring up new templates in the Suggested section. You also have the option of installing Projects & Tasks, or Projects, Tasks, and Sprints. We’ll get into how sprints work below.
What’s Included in Notion Projects?
For teams already managing projects in Notion, there’s no surprises here.
Projects houses standard properties like Dates, Priority, Owner and Status, with fun and powerful additions like Completion Percentage (taken automatically by amount of tasks completed) and Summary (AI-generated based on page content).
The Tasks database also benefits from the AI Summary feature, though this does require you to write a description in the page body in order for the property to summarize. For engineering teams, tasks can also be automatically connected to GitHub Pull Requests. Tasks are also what get organized into Sprints, which is the template’s big feature.
The Sprints database has some unique functionality that will be exciting to see throughout Notion workspaces. When tasks are added to a current sprint, you can track your progress on the current sprint, and when all tasks are completed, you’re automatically moved to the next sprint. The Complete Sprint button leverages Notion’s new Buttons feature, but nicely embeds it into the database header bar. Again, this may provide a hint into how Notion will allow visual customization of pages and databases.
How do Sprints Work Exactly?
Sprints are time-boxed goals to complete tasks. You can set up and track sprints with Notion by combining projects, tasks, and sprint management, using Notion’s new template. Sprints help teams move seamlessly from one thing to another, saving time and the need to move between apps. Sprints have new updated templates, perfect for getting started right away, and the ability to customize pre-built setups to really create a workspace suitable for your team's specific needs.
In Notion Projects, the key view is the Sprint Board, where tasks are grouped by project. This board view acts as a home base for the current sprint, quickly marking tasks as done, or pushing tasks to the next sprint.
There’s also a brand new feature hidden in plain sight: the Complete Sprint button. Leveraging the functionality of Notion’s buttons, the Sprint Board allows you to mark a sprint as done, automatically moving to the next sprint. This type of customization – incorporating buttons into database views – is an exciting development, and will definitely lead to new ways to make databases more intelligent.
For teams that have several active projects running in parallel, sprints can be a great solution for making continual progress while minimizing friction.
However, if you’re team focuses on a small number of active projects at any given time, sprints may not provide huge benefits.
How does Notion Projects Leverage AI?
In both projects and tasks databases, Notion Projects will generate a summary and add it as a property, allowing teams to display the summary for quick reference, without having to open the project or task page. Generating a detailed summary requires teams to add notes in the page body; the more detailed the notes and/or descriptions, the better the summary.
For projects and tasks that don’t have a lot of detail in the page body, Notion AI parses the database properties to create a summary, incorporating things like assignee, due dates, or status.
Notion Projects is a great entry point for teams exploring AI, showing just one of many possible examples of using AI to increase speed and productivity.
Should You Use Notion Projects?
Because Sprints are technically still in beta, you can only benefit from the sprint functionality from the Notion Projects template. So, if your team already has projects and tasks databases up and running, there’s no clear way to incorporate sprints.
This update is a great option for teams that are new to Notion, and can benefit from a plug-and-play template, rather than creating a custom set of databases and properties. Especially for smaller teams, these resources are a great stop gap to get up and running in Notion faster, while maintaining the option to customize in the future.
If you’re already managing projects in Notion, I’d recommend waiting until Sprints is out of beta (which will allow for the added functionality using your existing databases). But if your team is still exploring Notion, downloading and using the Projects template is a great starting point for managing projects in Notion.
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