Principles Note Taker (Notion Template)

$120

Principles Note Taker (Notion Template)

Create your own "Pinterest of Principles", where you can write, reflect on, and share your observed inspirations. All directly in the Notion note-taking app.

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Create your own database of design or innovation principles

Imagine if you could have a sort of Pinterest but for Service Design principles. This is what you can build with this notion template!

I share here the same workflow I used to publish three books with 300 principles

Over the years I've captured stories of moments that I found interesting for my work. For me, those are interactions with a product or service that make the customer experience better.

By taking the time to write a few notes about each observation I was able to turn them into what I call "Service Design Principles". Simple and practical tips and tricks to make your customers go from a "fuck you!" reaction to an "I love you reaction!" when they interact with your products or services.

I believe this way of taking notes of observations you made is not something that is limited to service designers, but I think it's something that any business owner, innovation professional, designer or curious person can benefit from.

The notion template I share here is a consolidated version of the setup I have developed over the years. I hope it will help you!

Why should you capture the principles you observe?

Become smarter

By capturing observation and taking notes about what you see it forces you to ask yourself: "Why is this something that I find inspiring?". This reflection pushes you to go beyond the simple reaction of "Oh that looks great" but makes you realize what are the elements that produced this emotion.

Improve your work

Observation is a great way to learn how others fixed challenges that you'll certainly also experience in the future. So when you are faced with a new challenge, you'll often already have a catalogue of solutions in your principles database.

Remember better

Writing about something is one of the simplest way to remember it. Plus if you still don't remember it, you know you have it stored somewhere in a format that you know will be useful. No more endless search through slack messages, notes your photos. You have one place to remember all your inspiring observations

“Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators. ”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

With all what you need if you are a beginner

The template comes with guides and examples to help you get started without the white sheet syndrome.

Comes with examples to get started

It can be hard to start, so I've added a few examples so that your database has already a bit of inspiration in it.

With 14 videos to learn how to write your own principles

I share tips from my own experience of turning observations I made into books read by thousands of people around the world.

Watch an example video

Just follow the guide to discover the principle behind an observation

If you notice something interesting but don't know how to find the principle that is behind it, I have you covered too. I've created a step by step guide that you can follow to find the principle behind something that you found inspiring.

See the video guide

A view for every need

With the power of Notion you can see all the principles you collected or observed in different ways that fit different goals.

Remember better with a visual summary

The moodboard view shows you a visual summary of all your principles.

Keep track of your writing tasks

The writing dashboard shows you which principles are just raw observations, which one have already a first draft, and which one are ready to be shared with the world.

See the video guide

Get motivated with the total number of principles

The counting table gives you the total number of principles you already have in your principles database. It's always motivating to see how much you already observed in a consistent way!

Advanced features for the nerds

For those who already know Notion pretty well I've created a set of more advanced features to bring your principles database to the next level.

Capture inspiration in seconds

The quick capture pre-fills key information like the date and the writing status, so that you can just jot down a few words, add an image and voilà you are done.

See the video guide

Make your principles visual with built in illustrations

The template comes with 80+ illustrations you can use to make your principles more visual without having to draw yourself.

See the video guide

Resurface old principles automatically

The Principle Resurfacer shows you a selection of old principles to help you remember them and be inspired by past learnings.

See the video guide

Manage references like a Harvard nerd

The Reference Manager let's you add all key information of the inspiration that sparked a principle and automatically formats it in the Harvard citation style.

See the video guide

What you get

Welcome!

The template

Get the template

How to use the notion template

Introduction

If you are a total beginner with notion start here

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Tour guide of the template

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How to use the quick capture

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How to use the writing guide template

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How to use the writing dashboard

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How to write your principles

Introduction

Take a picture of what you experienced

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Write down the source for later

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Zoom out, just a tiny bit

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Start your principle with a verb

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Write as if it was a user advice

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Add something to make it memorable

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Pro tips for the notion template

Introduction

Add always the same emoji for better search

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Use the resurfacer

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Use the abstract illustrations library

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Use the reference manager

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End notes

Thank you note

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Licence

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Meet the creator

I'm Daniele an Innovation Coach and Service Designer from Switzerland.

I worked with clients from all over the world to help them find innovative solutions to their problem. I've been blessed to be able to learn a lot.
Today I want to share these learnings back with the community. That's why I've built the Swiss Innovation Academy.