Latest news with #Notion
Entrepreneur
a day ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
The One Real Problem You Must Solve to Make Your Startup Succeed
Some of the most successful startups didn't start with a business plan. They started with a problem. More specifically — a personal pain point. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Dropbox was born because Drew Houston was sick of emailing himself files. ConvertKit came from a blogger who was tired of clunky email automations. Notion grew out of the chaos of managing scattered notes and documents. These weren't random startup ideas pulled from a pitch deck. They were solutions to personal problems. And that's what made them powerful. When you build what you need, you shortcut months of guesswork. You skip the focus groups, the theoretical personas and the assumptions. You already understand the problem deeply because you live it. Related: Got a Startup Idea? Here's What It Really Takes to Make It Work Start with friction, not vision The first step to building a meaningful product isn't to identify a trendy niche or chase a hot market. It's to pay attention to the moments in your day that feel harder than they should. The tasks you procrastinate. The tools you silently curse. That friction is your opportunity. Forget disruption. Forget scale. The best early-stage products come from irritation, not inspiration. What's broken in your workflow? What are you duct-taping together every week just to get by? Start there. That's where urgency and empathy already live. Talk to people like you Once you spot a problem, skip the massive surveys. Talk to a handful of people who share your situation. If you're a freelancer, speak with freelancers. If you're a working parent with a side hustle, speak with others juggling the same chaos. The more overlap between you and your early users, the faster you'll know if this is a real pain or just a minor inconvenience. What you're looking for is emotional signal — frustration, not politeness. You want someone to say, "I'd pay for that today." Build the painkiller, not the platform You don't need to launch a polished product. In fact, polish is usually a waste early on. Your first version can be a spreadsheet, a Notion template, a Zapier automation — whatever works. The goal is to prove the fix, not win design awards. Don't aim for elegance. Aim for utility. If it works, users won't care that it's scrappy. Test willingness to pay as soon as possible This is where most people hesitate. But if your product solves a real problem, people will pay — even if it's ugly. Even if it's early. Real payment is the difference between "interesting idea" and "actual business." And it doesn't have to be much. Charge a small onboarding fee or ask for a credit card to reserve early access. You're not trying to trick anyone. You're testing commitment. Too many founders wait until everything is perfect before asking for money. By then, they've burned time, budget and momentum. Pricing is feedback. So get it early. Narrate the build, don't just build While you're creating your product, share the journey. Post what you're building, what you're stuck on and what you're learning. Whether it's Twitter, LinkedIn or a Substack, showing your process builds trust. You're not selling — you're storytelling. And that attracts the right people: others who feel the same pain you're solving. Make your first users successful Don't rush to scale. If you're still explaining what your product does, you're not ready to grow. Focus instead on helping your early users get results. Support them. Follow up. Ask who else they know who needs this. Word-of-mouth isn't a viral fluke — it's the byproduct of usefulness. Related: The One Simple Task That Will Help Your Startup Succeed Build from conviction, not theory When you build for yourself, you don't need to fake insight. You don't have to invent personas. You already understand the stakes. That shows up in the product, the copy and the customer experience. And most importantly, it builds trust. You're not a startup guessing at what might matter—you're a person solving something that already does. Drew Houston didn't plan on building a billion-dollar company. He just wanted a faster way to move his files. That pain became Dropbox — and millions of others felt it too. You don't need permission. You don't need a grand strategy. You need to notice the problem that keeps nagging at you — and build the thing you wish already existed. That's where real businesses begin. Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.
Time Business News
a day ago
- Business
- Time Business News
Best Knowledge Base Tools vs. Enterprise Wiki Software: Which Is Right for Your Team
In today's information-rich work environment, the ability to manage and retrieve internal knowledge efficiently can be a game-changer for productivity. Whether you're onboarding new employees, supporting customer service reps, or empowering technical teams, choosing between a structured knowledge base or an open-ended enterprise wiki can significantly affect how your team collaborates and scales. While both tools aim to centralize information, they serve different purposes and cater to different types of teams. Understanding their strengths, limitations, and best-fit scenarios can help your organization make a confident decision. Best knowledge base tools are designed with structure, usability, and scalability in mind. These platforms typically feature built-in search functionality, approval workflows, role-based permissions, analytics, and integrations with common support and CRM tools. They are particularly well-suited for customer-facing teams, IT support desks, HR departments, and operations teams who rely on up-to-date, verified documentation. Tools like Helpjuice, Document360, and Guru focus on turning static information into curated, accessible content with minimal noise. Their core advantage lies in delivering verified answers quickly—especially important when time-sensitive, accurate responses are a must. Unlike wikis, knowledge base software enforces a clear hierarchy and allows admins to manage document lifecycles. This ensures users are always looking at the most recent and relevant information. For teams that deal with compliance, security policies, or standardized processes, this control is essential. Additionally, the integration features often allow support teams to embed knowledge base articles directly into chat widgets or ticketing platforms, streamlining internal operations and improving customer satisfaction. Enterprise wiki software, by contrast, leans toward open collaboration and flexible documentation. Wikis such as Confluence, Notion, and Slab excel in creative and dynamic environments where knowledge is co-authored, evolving, and cross-functional. These platforms make it easy for anyone in the company to contribute, comment, and iterate on content. This democratized approach works well for product development teams, design groups, and project managers who need to collaborate across departments and track the evolution of shared workspaces. Wikis often allow for a looser information architecture. Instead of fixed categories or article templates, users can create pages organically, linking related concepts and resources via tags or backlinks. While this flexibility is great for ideation, it can become unwieldy if not managed with discipline. As a result, companies that scale rapidly may find it challenging to maintain consistency and discoverability without a dedicated knowledge management strategy layered on top. So how should you choose between these two categories? If your team prioritizes reliability, accuracy, and customer-facing documentation—choose a knowledge base. If your organization values open collaboration, flexible documentation, and idea-sharing—an enterprise wiki might be your best bet. In some cases, hybrid adoption is the answer: using a knowledge base for formal documentation and a wiki for brainstorming, internal project planning, or meeting notes. Ultimately, the decision depends on how your team works. Consider how information flows in your organization: Is it tightly regulated and used in high-stakes situations, or is it dynamic, fluid, and collaborative? Evaluate your team's pain points when accessing information today. Are they searching too long, relying on outdated files, or duplicating work? By mapping these challenges against the strengths of each tool type, you can select a solution that boosts productivity, strengthens communication, and scales with your company's growth. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Android Authority
a day ago
- Android Authority
5 apps you should use instead of Obsidian
Nathan Drescher / Android Authority Obsidian is far more than just a simple note-taking app. If you're willing to put in some effort, you can transform it into a highly versatile personal knowledge management (PKM) system, capable of everything from a detailed to-do list and a budget tracker to various sophisticated databases. However, despite its power, Obsidian isn't suitable for everyone. Some users might be deterred by its steep learning curve or its particular aesthetic. If you're ready to explore other options for whatever reason, here are five alternatives you should consider, along with their key strengths and why they might be a good fit for you. Which of the following is the best Obsidian alternative in your opinion. 0 votes Notion NaN % Google Keep NaN % Evernote NaN % Anytype NaN % Capacities NaN % Other (tell us in the comments) NaN % Notion Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority This is the Obsidian alternative I personally use, and the two are quite similar in many ways. Both Notion and Obsidian offer an incredible degree of flexibility, allowing you to create a customized knowledge base or streamline your workflow. The possibilities for organization and content creation are truly vast on both services. One of the major distinctions between them, however, is their foundational approach: Obsidian is primarily local-first, meaning your data is stored on your device, while Notion is cloud-based. I personally prefer cloud-based software for its ease of access across multiple devices. That said, for those who prioritize maximum privacy and local data control, Obsidian remains the stronger choice. It's important to note that Notion also comes with a significant learning curve, comparable to Obsidian's. So, if you're looking for something simpler, you might want to consider the next two entries on this list. But if the learning curve isn't an issue, Notion has a wealth of features to offer, including a vast library of free templates for nearly any purpose, an excellent design, extensive customization options, and a genuine sense of accomplishment once you've successfully set up your personalized workflow. Google Keep Joe Maring / Android Authority It truly doesn't get any simpler than Google Keep. I've used this app for years and am very familiar with its capabilities. While it suited my workflow perfectly for a long time, I eventually transitioned to Notion when my needs demanded more advanced features. Google Keep is a straightforward note-taking app. However, everyone has unique requirements. If all you're looking for is a straightforward note-taking app that's incredibly easy to learn and use, Google Keep is a fantastic option. It's entirely cloud-based, ensuring all your notes seamlessly sync across all your devices. Plus, it's completely free, without any ads or premium subscription plans to worry about. The main limitations are its basic text formatting and note organization features, which might be a drawback for some users. If you're seeking something less feature-packed than Obsidian but offering more robust capabilities than Keep, the next service on this list might be ideal. Evernote Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Evernote is the app I initially switched to from Google Keep before eventually moving on to Notion. It's very simple to use, so there's no steep learning curve like with Obsidian. It's almost as user-friendly as Keep but provides more features, such as better note management, improved text formatting, and a lot more. It worked much better for my workflow at the time, and it's also cloud-based, syncing across all connected devices (within the plan's limits). I particularly liked its web clipper, which is a browser extension that allows you to quickly save articles directly into a notebook of choice. However, there are some notable downsides. You'll frequently encounter nudges to sign up for a premium plan. The free plan also has limitations on the number of notes you can create and the devices you can connect to your account. Evernote has significantly restricted its free offering over the years, which is a shame, but it can still be a worthwhile service for certain users. Anytype Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Unlike Google Keep and Evernote, Anytype is more of a direct competitor to Obsidian. This means it offers a similar suite of powerful tools and features, and it can be just as challenging to learn at first. It also embraces an 'offline-first' approach, which is excellent for those who are highly privacy-focused. Anytype combines the best elements of Notion and Obsidian. My colleague Dhruv is a big fan of Anytype, saying that he believes the software takes the best elements of Notion and Obsidian and then adds its own unique flavor to it. Setting it up is similar to how you would configure Notion, although Anytype provides even more ways to organize your data. And, like Obsidian, it offers a top-down, interconnected view of all your objects and how they link to each other. If you appreciate both Obsidian and Notion but find that neither fully meets your needs, you should definitely give Anytype a try, as it truly offers a compelling blend of both. Capacities Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Just like Anytype, Capacities is another tool that shares many similarities with both Notion and Obsidian. It can take a while to get the hang of, but once everything is set up, it can significantly boost your productivity. My colleague Dhruv is currently using it, though he found it's not necessarily 'better' than Obsidian. What he does believe, however, is that it can effectively complement tools like Obsidian and Notion, as its structure is just different enough to suit his specific workflow. You can read more about his experience with it here, but it's important to remember that not everyone will find themselves in the same camp as him. Some users may still prefer to use Capacities as their sole productivity tool, as it's powerful enough to stand on its own. Whether you want to use it as a simple note-taking app or to set up a complex workflow with intricate databases, Capacities has you covered. These are five excellent Obsidian alternatives to explore, though there are certainly plenty of other great options out there. Head to the comments section and let me know which ones you recommend and why. Follow
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Become a Tech Product Manager with ISB Online's GenAI-powered 28-week Certification Programme
As AI reshapes every industry, product management has evolved into a high-impact, cross-functional role, blending technology, design thinking, and market insight. With organisations racing to build user-first, scalable products, skilled product managers are in high demand to lead innovation and drive growth. To thrive in AI-led, tech-first organisations, product leaders need a strong blend of business insight, customer focus, and technical skills. The ISB Online Professional Certificate in Product Management Programme is designed to build these capabilities, offering deep training in Tech Product Management, with modules on AI and GenAI, agile roadmapping, data-led decisions, and product lifecycle strategy. With live masterclasses, hands-on tools, and real-world projects, learners gain the expertise to build, launch, and scale products in today's fast-moving digital economy. Programme Highlights The 28-week online (4 to 6 hours/week) programme enables professionals to steer organisations on the right path, direct the decision-making process and adapt to consumer needs. It offers a structured approach to managing the complete product lifecycle. The programme will teach participants competition analysis, product roadmapping, prototyping, A/B testing, and more, while building strong Tech Product Management skills required to lead in today's digital-first companies. They will understand how to ideate, test, and launch products that meet the requirements of the consumers, guided by ISB's globally renowned faculty. Participants will dive into AI and Generative AI's impact on product management, boosting decisions, speeding up development, and refining user experiences via a live masterclass with an industry expert. They will explore various GenAI models and applications in market research, roadmaps, user experience, ethical considerations and more. Participants will also learn from product managers from Meta, Microsoft, Flipkart, Swiggy and Paytm through 5 hands-on projects, 14 masterclasses, and 12 essential tools in product management tools like Asana, Notion, Figma, Miro, SQL, Mix panel, Balsamiq, Google Analytics, JIRA, VWO, Survey Monkey and Google Forms. There will be 4 live masterclasses on application of AI and GenAI in product management , new product development, product marketing, GTM, and market research. Their learning trajectory will also be supplemented by 30 assignments and quizzes, 40+ case studies , discussion boards and self-study activities , 11 live doubt-solving sessions with programme leaders. Key outcomes that will elevate your product career: Adopt a product mindset to identify market gaps and build high-impact, user-first solutions. Measure what matters by tracking product performance and conducting competition analysis using real-world frameworks. Think like a tech product leader—design and execute go-to-market plans with creativity and data-driven decision making. Master product workflows including roadmapping, prototyping, and feature prioritisation using modern product management techniques. Build scalable, competitive products by applying strategic product development frameworks used by top tech firms. Why ISB Online? Accredited by three global accreditation bodies - EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA, ISB is ranked as the #1 business school in India, #5 in Asia, #27 Globally, according to the Financial Times Global Ranking 2025, ISB Online brings unparalleled expertise to the digital transformation domain. Upon successfully completing the programme with a minimum 70% score, learners will be awarded a certificate from ISB Online and gain the prestigious ISB Online Alumni Status, which includes networking opportunities, online and offline events and more. Being a product manager is a rewarding experience that gives professionals opportunities for growth and innovation, leading to a visible impact in the corporate world. Pursuing product management from a reputed institute like ISB Online will equip students with a blend of creativity, strategic thinking and leadership that will empower them to accelerate their careers towards newer destinations. Here is what you need to know before enrolling in the programme ● Eligibility: Any graduate/ Diploma holder ● Fee: INR 2,59,900 + GST ● Duration: 28 weeks online (4-6 hours/week) To know more about this programme, click here .
The Hill
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
ChatGPT promised to forget user conversations. A federal court ended that.
When people use ChatGPT, they assume their words are fleeting — part of a private conversation with a machine that forgets. Millions now trust ChatGPT with their most sensitive questions about health, relationships and money. And indeed, under OpenAI's policy, most chats would be deleted after 30 days and not used to train the model. Now, however, a federal court has overruled that policy. In an ongoing copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times, a federal judge last month ordered OpenAI to preserve all ChatGPT user logs, including 'temporary chats' and API requests, even if users opted out of training and data sharing. The court did not allow oral argument before issuing this decision. Users may choose to delete chat logs that contain their sensitive information from their accounts, but all chats must now be retained to comply with the court order. And for business users connecting to OpenAI's models, the stakes may be even higher. Their logs could contain their companies' most confidential data, including trade secrets and privileged information. To lawyers, this is unremarkable. Courts issue preservation orders all the time just to ensure that evidence isn't lost during litigation. But to anyone who has been paying attention to the slow erosion of digital privacy, this is a seismic event. We now know that privacy policies are not self-enforcing. In many cases, they are evidently not even binding. A privacy promise — such as 'we don't store your chats' — can be overwritten by a judge, a shareholder vote, an acquisition or a quiet update to the terms of service. In this case, it was overwritten by the demands of legal discovery. The court didn't ask whether the data should exist. It asked only whether, once it did, it could be preserved. We have built a digital world on an illusion of control. Companies offer toggles, checkboxes, encryption and promises of deletion. But none of these are rights with legal force. They more closely resemble marketing copy: easily changed, largely unenforceable and meaningless when challenged by law or capital. Google, Zoom, Slack and Adobe have each changed data practices in ways that retroactively altered users' privacy expectations. And when companies get acquired, the results can be worse. Skiff was a private alternative to Gmail and Google Docs — an email and document suite built on end-to-end encryption. By design, the company behind it couldn't access user data. But then Notion, a rising Silicon Valley productivity company, acquired it. Skiff users were given a short window to export their data and transfer to Notion. But the encryption didn't survive, and the product's privacy protections disappeared. This is the reality we live in: Our privacy depends not on what we're told, but on whether the company telling us survives long enough to honor it — and isn't bought, sued or restructured along the way. Which brings us back to the courtroom. The issue isn't whether OpenAI is complying with the order, or that it might have limited the fallout by isolating the relevant logs earlier in the litigation. It is that no one — not the company, not its users and not its privacy policy — has the power to resist the fallout. Our legal system was designed for physical documents and corporate servers. It has not yet reckoned with persistent data collection, behavioral advertising or AI tools that blend personal and public inputs. And in the absence of clear statutory limits, courts will default to over-preservation. If OpenAI must preserve all user logs because of a copyright claim, what happens when law enforcement demands access to text messages in a domestic violence case? Or when a state attorney general issues a subpoena for location data from a reproductive health app? The preservation burden is contagious. The legal precedent being set here is that if data could be useful in a dispute, it should be saved — even if that undermines the privacy of millions of uninvolved users. All this is a reminder that privacy, if not backed by law or hardened by design, is contingent. The court didn't just preserve evidence. It reshaped the architecture of trust around one of the most popular AI tools in the world. If we want privacy, we need laws that require data minimization; legal firewalls that stop courts from turning temporary messages into permanent evidence; and tools that are designed from the start not to remember. Because unless something changes, your private chats aren't really private. They're just waiting to be subpoenaed. Darío Maestro is the senior legal fellow at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, where he focuses on complex litigation and public policy involving technology, privacy, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and other issues related to emerging technologies.
