Background

Notion has become synonymous with transparent, community-driven product development. By mid-2024, their “Build in Public” initiative had spawned thousands of tweets, GitHub repos, and walkthrough videos—yet few of those told a cohesive narrative. Notion turned to ClipCut to distill that raw energy into a single, scroll-stopping film.

Challenge

The core problem was signal versus noise. Community contributions spanned code snippets, design sketches, and candid “oops” moments. How could we craft a concise story that felt authentic without overwhelming the viewer? Our brief: hook in under five seconds, convey the ethos of “building out loud,” and drive sign-ups for Notion’s early-access program.

Approach

1. Deep Interviews: We sat down (virtually) with Notion’s founders and top contributors, capturing unscripted anecdotes about midnight sprints, happy accidents, and community “aha” moments.

2. Script & Storyboard: From dozens of hours of footage, our writers distilled a 60-second narrative that opens with real-time code appearing on a dark screen—a visceral four-second visual hook—then transitions into split-screen sketches vs. live coding.

3. Cinematic Editing: Motion-graphic overlays called out key features in sync with an original ambient score that rises to a pulse-quickening crescendo at 45 seconds. We produced two platform-specific cuts: a tight 45-second LinkedIn version and a full 60-second YouTube pre-roll.

4. Iterative Optimization: Post-launch, we monitored watch-through rates by frame, ran thumbnail A/B tests, and tweaked cut lengths to maximize engagement.

Results

• 120 K organic views in week one

• 25 % lift in free-trial sign-ups

• 18 % higher watch-through rate on the LinkedIn edit

Conclusion

By weaving unfiltered founder moments into a polished film, ClipCut transformed Notion’s scattered “build in public” content into a unified narrative. The result was not just metrics; it was a cultural moment that reinforced Notion’s commitment to radical transparency.