Just got my debrief call last week after going through Notion's EM interview loop in April/May 2026. I'm a first-time manager, 2 years in, coming from a Series B fintech. Thought I'd write this up because there's very little out there for the EM track specifically.
The process had 5 rounds total plus the recruiter screen:
Recruiter screen (30 min): Standard. They asked why Notion, what org size I've managed, and whether I've done hiring before. No trick questions here.
Hiring manager screen (60 min): This is the one that trips people. It's split roughly 30/30 between your leadership philosophy and a technical discussion. They want to know how you think about technical tradeoffs, not just people stuff. I was asked to walk through a time I had to push back on a technical direction from my team and what happened. Be ready for this.
Technical depth interview (60 min): Don't sleep on this one as an EM. They went into real depth on system design. I got a distributed systems question about how you'd design a collaborative editing backend (surprise surprise, very Notion-relevant). You're not expected to code, but you need to articulate the tradeoffs and guide the architecture. Having a strong opinion matters more than having the perfect answer.
People/leadership panel (90 min, two interviewers): Behavioral questions, STAR-method all the way. Expect questions about managing underperformers, navigating ambiguity when product direction changes, and how you build trust with engineers who know more than you do. They asked about a time I had to restructure work mid-sprint due to shifting priorities. The second interviewer focused almost entirely on how I do 1:1s and career development conversations.
Cross-functional interview (45 min): Got paired with someone from the product side. They're testing whether you can partner across functions without being territorial. I was asked how I've handled situations where eng and PM had fundamentally different views of what to build.
Bar raiser / culture (45 min): Someone senior from another org. This one felt the loosest but also had the highest stakes. They asked about what I value in a company's engineering culture and what I'd want to change about how eng teams work at most places.
Total time: about 6-7 weeks from first screen to offer.
Leveling: for the EM track they seem to care a lot about scope. If you're only managing 4-5 people on a single team you'll likely come in lower than if you've had multi-team or cross-functional scope. I had managed 7 eng across 2 squads and that seemed to land in the right zone.
Comp: I got an offer but I'll post separately in the comp thread. Roughly in line with what I'd seen for Series C/D companies at this level.