Welcome to the Transform Awards Winner Spotlight Series, celebrating innovation and leadership in reshaping industries and workplaces globally. These awards commend individuals and companies at the forefront of transformation, setting new standards and challenging the status quo. Recognized for their people-centric and visionary approaches, our awardees are the global changemakers pioneering advancements in business, entrepreneurship, and beyond. This series shines a light on their achievements and the impactful ways they’re moving the world of work forward, like Notion, winner of People Accelerator: Learning and Development (L&D) Program of the Year.
About The Award: People Accelerator: Learning and Development (L&D) Program of the Year
Celebrates the company with the most forward-thinking approach to building an incredible employee experience to attract, retain, and grow their people.
About Our Transform Awards Winner, Notion
Notion is an AI-powered connected workspace that brings docs, notes, project management, calendars, and more into one flexible platform. Teams and individuals use Notion to collaborate, organize knowledge, and automate work—all with powerful AI features built in. With over 100 million users worldwide, Notion replaces multiple tools to help people and companies work smarter and more efficiently. Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2013, Notion is trusted by organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies for its versatility, productivity gains, and vibrant global community.
Let’s hear from Brittany Ramos, Notion’s L&D Program Manager, to see what makes them stand out!
Initiative Overview
Transform: What does this recognition mean to your team?
Notion: This recognition validates our belief that learning should be more than standardized training—it should be a celebration that reinforces our company culture while developing everyone’s craft. Winning the Transform Award affirms that our approach to L&D as a communal, creative experience resonates not just within Notion but across the industry. For our small but mighty L&D team that has grown from two to six passionate individuals, this acknowledgment energizes us to continue innovating and creating memorable learning experiences that bring our values to life. It’s particularly meaningful because Craft & Values Week embodies what makes Notion special—our commitment to being a place where people do their best and most meaningful work.
Transform: Can you tell us a bit about the initiative or program that earned you this recognition?
Your Response: Craft & Values Week is Notion’s annual internal program dedicated to reinforcing our company culture, celebrating our core values, and developing our craft. During this week-long celebration, team members participate in workshops, talks, team-building activities, and special events designed to deepen our understanding of Notion’s mission and strengthen our community.
What makes this program exceptional is its unique approach to learning. Rather than traditional corporate training, we’ve created what some describe as “a music festival for your mind” where employees can curate their own lineup of experiences that excite and inspire them. The program features keynote presentations from leadership and external thought leaders, interactive workshops focused on skill development, team-building activities that foster collaboration, and social events that strengthen community bonds.
We’ve intentionally drawn inspiration from both within and beyond the tech industry, inviting jazz musicians, renowned chefs, podcast hosts, and our own talented Notinos (Notion employees) to share their expertise. This cross-disciplinary approach sparks creativity and encourages connections between seemingly unrelated domains, embodying the sentiment of operating as “a jazz band, not a marching band.”
Transform: What inspired this idea? How did it first come to life?
Notion: The inspiration behind Craft & Values Week came from a profound realization captured in the phrase “What got you here won’t get you there.” As Notion grew rapidly, we recognized the increasing importance of continuous learning. While we had implemented standard training programs, we wanted to create something truly special that celebrates and reinforces ongoing education.
We knew that to build a generational company where people do their best and most meaningful work, we needed to invest in our team’s growth in a way that felt authentic to Notion’s culture. In 2023, we piloted the program by hosting over 30 experiences across all Notion offices.
What began as an experimental initiative has evolved into a cornerstone of our culture. As the program grew, we embraced the challenge of scaling it for our seven global offices while maintaining our ethos of shared learning and celebration. We established guiding principles to ensure all employees benefit from this immersive learning experience, regardless of role or location.
Impact & Results
Transform: How do you measure success or impact for this initiative?
Notion: We measure the success of Craft & Values Week through both quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback. After each session, participants complete a feedback form, allowing us to gauge the immediate impact and satisfaction. We track attendance and engagement across all offices and monitor the diversity of participation to ensure we’re reaching employees across all departments and levels.
Beyond metrics, we look for stories and moments that demonstrate how the program is influencing our culture. We encourage participants to share their experiences using the hashtag #LifeAtNotion on social media, which not only amplifies the impact internally but also strengthens our employer brand externally.
The true measure of success, however, is how the learnings from Craft & Values Week translate into day-to-day work at Notion. We look for evidence of cross-functional collaboration, increased innovation, and stronger alignment with our values in the months following the program. The fact that Notion employees continue to reference sessions and apply learnings long after the week concludes is perhaps the strongest indicator of the program’s lasting impact.
Transform: Can you share an example of how this initiative has positively impacted your team, culture, or business?
Notion: One powerful example of Craft & Values Week’s impact was seen during our 2024 program, where we designed an event that truly embodied what Notion is all about. The week ignited a spark of curiosity and electric energy, with buzz about the diverse programming quickly spreading throughout the company.
In one memorable session, our leadership team engaged in unconventional discussions—Erica Anderson hosted a book club where team members explored their “superpowers” (strongest character skills) and discussed strategies to avoid “burnout,” while Ivan Zhao and Randy Hunt explored design principles in an informal setting. These candid conversations humanized our leaders and reinforced our value of being “kind and direct.”
The impact extended beyond the sessions themselves. We witnessed spontaneous collaboration between departments that rarely interact, and employees who normally wouldn’t present in front of groups volunteered to share their expertise in “Notinos Teaching Notinos” sessions. This not only uncovered hidden talents within our organization but also fostered a culture where knowledge-sharing became more natural and continuous.
Perhaps most tellingly, after Craft & Values Week concluded, we saw a measurable increase in employees accessing our learning resources and initiating peer-to-peer learning opportunities. The program created momentum that carried forward, transforming learning from an occasional activity into an ongoing cultural practice at Notion.
Transform: Do you have any photos, stories, or links that show this initiative in action?
Notion:
Growth & What’s Ahead
Transform: How does this initiative align with your company’s mission or vision?
Notion: Craft & Values Week perfectly aligns with Notion’s mission to empower builders of all kinds. Just as our product provides flexible building blocks that users can shape to their life’s work, our learning program offers diverse experiences that employees can customize to their growth journey.
At Notion, we strive to be individuals who are top of our craft and know how to harmonize together to make something wonderful. Craft & Values Week embodies this philosophy by celebrating both individual excellence and collective creativity. It reinforces our core values: being drivers of our mission, being truth seekers, being kind and direct, and being pace setters.
The program also reflects our belief that the best tools feel more like play than work. Just as users describe Notion as “the Lego blocks of software,” Craft & Values Week creates a playful, exploratory environment where learning happens naturally. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, we create unexpected connections that spark innovation.
Ultimately, Craft & Values Week represents our commitment to building not just a product, but a company and culture where people can do the best and most meaningful work of their careers. This initiative ensures that as we grow, we continue to nurture the crafts and values that make Notion special.
Check out our other Transform Spotlights on the blog to learn more about our Global Ambassadors. People-First Leaders, Authors, Award Winners, and more!