Notion is a canvas you build a system on. Willie is the PM who runs one.
Notion is the most flexible workspace there is: docs, wikis, databases, and now agents that can act on all of it. Firms build beautiful project systems in it. Then someone has to keep the system true, and that someone is usually you. Groundskeeper doesn't ask you to design a project system. Willie already knows how a client engagement runs: she reads your SOW and transcripts, builds the plan, tracks decisions and scope, and answers your clients in a portal.
If you love building your own tools, Notion is a joy. If you'd rather hand the project management to someone who already knows the job, that's Willie.
Architecting a workspace vs. briefing a project manager.
Notion starts empty and lets you build anything: a task database, a decision log, a client hub, an agent that files the meeting notes. That freedom is the product. It also means your firm is now the tool's architect and its maintainer. Every property, view, and automation is a decision you made and a thing you keep working. The agents act on whatever structure you gave them.
Groundskeeper is opinionated on purpose. It already has the shape of a client engagement: scope, milestones, decisions, risks, a client portal. Willie fills it from the documents you already produce, keeps it current after every call, and briefs you on what changed. You review and approve. You never open a database schema.
It comes down to who does the work.
Not "who has more features." Both tools can hold your project. The question is who keeps it current, who notices what changed, and who your client talks to. Here's how that splits.
NotionWhen Notion is the better call.
Plenty of firms run happily on Notion, and some of the best-organized consultants we know built their whole practice in it. Here's when it's the right call, split into what we chose to do differently and what we honestly don't do.
These are things Notion does that we chose not to. Not gaps — different opinions about how the work should happen.
- Build-your-own-system. You want to design your own databases, views, and workflows, and you enjoy maintaining them. Notion rewards that. We took the opposite bet: the engagement shape is already built.
- Bring-your-own-agent. Notion's agents will do real work, on the structure you built, with the instructions you wrote. That's powerful. It is also yours to define, test, and supervise. Willie comes knowing the job.
- Docs and knowledge first. If the wiki is the center of your firm and project tracking is secondary, Notion's docs are better than anything we'll build.
If any of these is a real requirement for you right now, Notion (or a tool like it) is the honest answer — not us. We'd rather tell you than oversell.
- You're solo and the free plan covers you. One person, a task board, and a few client pages. Notion plus a calendar is enough, and we'd be overkill.
- Your firm's knowledge base is the product. Playbooks, templates, internal wikis, onboarding. Notion is a company brain. We're an engagement manager.
- You need enterprise controls today. SAML, SCIM, audit logs, enterprise search across Slack and Drive. Notion has them. We're in early access.