Remote scaled to ~2,000 people without silos by making documentation the default and running an async operating model in Notion—company wiki, projects and AI Q&A for instant answers. IDC reports 491% ROI, $2.42m/year benefits, and 90% tool-cost savings from consolidating on Notion.

The challenge

Hypergrowth, global hiring, and distributed time zones make synchronous communication brittle. Without a single source of truth, teams drift into silos—duplicated work, delayed decisions, and meeting overload. Remote’s leadership set two non-negotiables: document everything and optimise for async.

The solution: Notion as the operating system

• Company wiki & docs: “Notion is where all our information lives”—the home for policies, runbooks and decisions.

• AI-powered Q&A: Remote rolled out Notion Q&A so any employee can ask a question and get an instant, permission-aware answer—cutting search time and reducing pings/meetings.

• Projects & ticketing: Remote consolidated project workflows and a lightweight ticketing system in Notion, integrating Slack/Google Workspace.

Outcomes

• 491% four-year ROI and $2.42m benefits/year (time saved, licences reduced).

• 90% reduction in spend on a previous collaboration platform.

• 1+ week extra productivity per user/year; 400+ hours reclaimed in two months by avoiding unnecessary meetings.

“We use Notion very heavily since day one.” — Marcelo Lebre, Co-founder & President, Remote.

How Remote avoided silos (replicable moves)

1. Document by default: Every decision, process and template lives in Notion; meetings become the exception.

2. Async first: Status updates, QBR packs and handovers as Notion pages; Q&A replaces “who knows?” threads.

3. Tight integrations: Slack notifications, identity-based permissions, light ticketing, and links into core systems.

Apply the playbook with Generation Digital

Where we help

• Workspace architecture: Information architecture, templates, and permission models that scale past 2,000.

• Migration & consolidation: Move wikis/docs from scattered tools; de-duplicate and tag; cut licence waste.

• AI Q&A activation: Ground Q&A on your pages and policies; set up citations and governance.

• Change & enablement: Executive playbooks, role-based training, and KPI dashboards (meetings cut, search time saved).

Typical outcomes in 90 days

• 50–70% fewer status meetings (replaced by living pages).

• Sub-minute answers to policy/how-to questions via Q&A.

• Single source of truth for onboarding and runbooks.

CTA: Book a Notion readiness workshop to map your information architecture and pilot AI Q&A with one department.

Practical steps you can start this week

• Run a “docs, not meetings” sprint: Convert weekly status calls into Notion pages with owners and due dates.

• Stand up a Decisions database: One entry per decision with context, owner, date and links.

• Pilot Q&A: Index your top 200 pages; measure time-to-answer and meeting reductions.

FAQs

Q1. What are silos in a business context?
Teams working in isolation, hoarding information and duplicating work—usually from tool sprawl and poor documentation.

Q2. How does technology (Notion) help avoid silos?
By centralising docs, projects and AI Q&A in one, permission-aware workspace—so answers and updates live where work happens.

Q3. Why is organisational structure still important?
Clear ownership + a shared wiki prevents overlap; async workflows reduce coordination tax as headcount scales.