Allow Yourself to Plan, Document and Build Product Easier with 6-blocks Notion Template

Are you looking for a Notion template that can help you with product development? Look no further! This 6-block Notion template is just what your startup needs to create a product efficiently and maintain it successfully. With the help of this template, you can start, document, and build a superior product in 6 steps with the help of checklists. And the best part? It makes product development smooth, easier to control and faster than ever before. So, what are you waiting for? Start, build, and maintain your product using checklists with this Notion template now!

00 pre-words

This article introduces the sense of a prepared template and its structure. In the next series, you`d explore usage examples where I reveal an appropriate flow of how this template serves from noting the fresh idea to decomposing modules and product delivery

This template is designed on a structure, that works for users with Free account plan. As Notion updated pricing recently — upgrading limits for free accounts, you can work up to 10 Guests (free of charge, but they can only access individual pages they are invited to) This quite enough, for small and mid size teams!

If you have paid plan, you might need to adjust this template appropriately in your environment into teamspaces, and set proper permissions for members. In short, the difference between Members and Guests, is that they can’t reach or create new pages outside of the ones they have access to. Learn more about Guests vs Members here.

For Who?

• Startups
• CEO
• Product Owners
• Project Managers

For What is it?

• Build products efficiently using templates and checklists, which don’t let you miss out on important details!
• Define the project vision, write non-functional and functional documentation, collect ideas, build a knowledge base, plan your project, and much more!

For What is not?

• Creating and assigning tasks for developers is easy with this template.
• All the micro-management is done in your preferred tool, such as Jira, Asana, ActiveCollab, etc.
• This template is where your concept is born and grows over time, along with its related knowledge, plans, and attributes. Other tools help manage implementation.

Use Cases

• I want to control myself and my product.
• I want to start a new, thriving business.
• I want to manage information in a precise structure.
• I want to write coherent and clear documentation
• I want to plan a project.
• I want to have Agile templates & checklist

Good to Have Skills

• Understand the basic concepts of interaction with Interface and databases in Notion
• Understand the basics of Agile and Scrum Framework
• What is User Story and what it is used for

01 monitor how it goes

Use the waterfall view (a.k.a product timeline) to plan and monitor the chronological sequence of Sprints, Modules, Epics, or all of them together, thanks to filtration and view options. Note that elements here are displayed automatically as you set the period for each specific document at step 05. I used to work on specifying the context of the project and documenting it, first. Once it’s done, it’s ready to set a time period to make a plan!

02 collect your ideas

Did an idea come to your head? Note it! Click the “+New” button to add it and set a category. You can either relocate it to a Knowledge Base or select a date property and it will be displayed in the calendar.

Actions

• note idea
• define its properties: tags, priorities, status
• if you want to appear the idea on the calendar (Step 04), set the date or period property
• as note has a value for your product, relocate it to Knowledge Base by drag&drop

There are available priorities:

• LOW PRIO
• HIGH PRIO

There are such status options:

• Not Started
• In Progress
• Done

There are available tags:

• Meeting
• Strategy
• Idea
• Integration

Feel free to add your own! But on my experience, most ideas are laying within these predefined tags.

03 build your knowledge base

Each project is implemented with a vast amount of information in mind. How can you remember everything and manage your knowledge? Store it! Click the “+New” button below, set tags, and attach files.

Actions

• as the note has a value for your product, relocate it from Idea to Knowledge Base by drag&drop
• set its properties: topics, priorities
• use different views, filtered by predefined topics

There are available topics:

• Instructions & Guideline — detailed information about how something should be done or operated
• Project Procedures — a highly detailed series of specific steps that are to be taken over the course of the project
• Research — interpretation of that data/information
• Business & Concept Related — information that strictly relates to Business itself and the product concept. Usually, as research is done & confirmed, the info goes here
• Technologies & Tools — the knowledge associated to tech
• Resources & Assets — documents where all the necessary assets attached

Feel free to add another topic! But in my experience, product builds within these predefined tags.

There are predefined notes to kick off the project:

• Project Processes by SCRUM — consists of 4 visuals that represent the core rule & process of managing projects by SCRUM framework.
  (Scrum Flow, Scrum Phases & Processes, Scrum 101 (Principles, Role, Artifacts, Meetings) , Users’ Story decomposition and flow methods)
• Terms & Conditions — document to note all the product`s terms
• Competitors — consists of a prepared table to make a list of competitors and note related information
• List of Services and Partners — consists of a prepared table to make a list of Services and Partners and note related information
• Team — consists a prepared table to make a list of Team members and note related information, as well as setting role and absent periods for each of them
• Analysis — a document for your overall research plan & notation
• Customer Segments — a document for segmenting customers

04 plan your month

Fill the calendar with miscellaneous events or ideas and note them! Use Status Board to review the progress status and mark it as done — it will then disappear from the list.

05 build your project

Build your project documentation using predefined templates, that are powered with checklists! The process based on Agile ideology, which helps to create superior products 🚀

Actions

1. Create documents and set their properties: Timebox, status, type, and relation. Follow the basic lifecycle of the project:
2. First, specify your project in Project Vision Statement.
3. Then create a System Module and define key functional and non-functional requirements.
4. Having that, decompose that module on separate user stories for a particular functionality, using Scope Item/Epic
5. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until your specification isn`t finished
6. Finally, set the range of work for your Sprint Plan and examine it each 2 weeks

There are predefined templates:

To use the template, choose in offered template list as you create document

Document Made in Modules DB

Project Vision Statement — description or declaration of what an organization/project team wants to obtain or accomplish upon the completion of a project. You`ll find a template with prepared checklist which do not allow you to lose edge-things that matters.

PVS, generated by the template

System Module — a document that literally perceived as a parent box.

System Module, generated by the template

• It defines and describes overall functional & non-functional requirements within 3 key layers (UI, BA, DAL).
• It used to define expectations for User Interface, system sitemap and features or data architecture.
• Each defined item becomes an isolated unit (smaller box) named Scope Item/Epic,
• System Model holds Epics together and navigates the reader accordingly.

Scope Item/Epic — is a smaller box, that is dedicated to hold information for a specific use case.

Scope Item / Epic , generated by the template

In its architecture, it offers a checklist to:

• Define in 1–2 sentences “What is about”
• Define Personas for this Story and their role definition
• Compose User Stories for each role appropriately

Sprint Plan — define what can be delivered in the sprint and how that work will be achieved.

Sprint Plan, generated by the template

There is a template with a prepared checklist that helps to:

• Set the plan
• Priority for the Sprint — Numbered List by priority
• Expectations to achieve at the end of the month — use 1 or 2 sentence max
• List out the epics to work on and categorize them appropriately

06 organize your team

List out all the patrons in your team, set roles and job types or manage absence for holidays.

Before you go

• Clap if you enjoyed this article. This will tell me to write more like them!
• Connect with me on LinkedIn if you need help in decomposing the work process using Notion, especially with the current template. I specialize in Business Analysis and Project Management, so reach out to me if you need assistance.