Canva builds a smarter workforce with Slack
Since 2013, Canva has transformed design and visual communication for 190 million monthly users across 190 countries, empowering them to design anything and publish anywhere.
Canva first joined Slack in 2016 to streamline its communications. But as both companies grew, so did their partnership. Today, Slack has evolved into an essential work management system at Canva — helping its teams collaborate easily across time zones, manage projects, and problem solve in real time.
Ben Ryrie, Technology Experience Lead at Canva, has seen first-hand how this transformation has reshaped the team’s approach to work. By taking a customer-first approach to IT, Ryrie’s team has created a culture of self-driven productivity at Canva — with Slack at its core.
“An empowered user is going to get work done faster and is less likely to come to us with requests that shouldn’t be requests,” says Ryrie. “The better we get at using Slack, the more we’re going to get out of it, and the more productive we’re going to be.”
Creating an all-in-one workspace on Slack
Slack might have started as Canva’s communications platform, but as the company scaled, the team began to explore its broader capabilities as a work management tool.
“For us, Slack has shifted from purely sending notifications to becoming a full work management system,” says Ryrie.
Thanks to Slack’s integration of tools like Google Calendar, Workday for leave approvals, and the Canva app itself, teams can now manage their entire workflow on one platform. This removes the hassle of constantly switching between systems, making work more streamlined and efficient.
“Everything I need is integrated into Slack. It’s meeting me where I am, so I don’t need to log into different systems or jump between screens,” says Ryrie.
The result? A more organised workspace where teams can respond to tasks and updates directly within the flow of work, reducing overwhelm and boosting productivity.
“Everything I need is integrated into Slack. It’s meeting me where I am, so I don’t need to log into different systems or jump between screens.”
Slack Lists streamline task management
Self-directed work has always been a core value at Canva, and Slack is helping bring that value to life by empowering teams to manage their workload more independently.
Before Slack, task management was scattered across tools like Jira, Trello, or even pen and paper. With the introduction of Slack Lists, Canva has consolidated personal task management into one place, making it easier for teams to stay on top of their work.
Now, teams can organise tasks, set priorities, and customise their workflow — all without leaving Slack.
“Previously, we were missing a personal task management tool. With Slack Lists, my team has seen a massive boost in productivity and efficiency. They no longer get overwhelmed by unread messages — everything goes into their list, and they manage it all from there,” says Ben Nolen, Productivity Systems Manager at Canva.
“With Slack Lists, my team has seen a massive boost in productivity and efficiency.”
Solving problems faster across timezones with Slack huddles
Slack supports the team at Canva to work in the ways that best suit them, offering flexibility across different time zones and removing the rigidity of traditional meetings.
In Ryrie’s team alone, he works with individuals across Australia, the Philippines, Austria, the United Kingdom,
China, New Zealand, and the United States.
Slack huddles offer a quicker, more dynamic way to connect. Rather than spending time on lengthy written exchanges or calls, team members huddle to resolve issues quickly.
“Meetings can take 30 minutes for a conversation that might only take five. With huddles, you jump in, have a quick catch-up — and five minutes later, you’re out. It avoids the formalities and time spent creating a Zoom and sending out invites,” says Nolen.
Ryrie agrees. “Slack allows us to cut down on meeting bloat — which is an absolute crippler to productivity.”
Redefining IT support with Slack
At Canva, Slack has become the central platform for all IT support needs. Teams can drop questions into a dedicated ‘Help IT’ channel for areas including HR, finance, and legal.
Routine processes like ticket creation, knowledge base queries, and incident management are now fully automated in Slack, while more complex issues are routed to human support.
For example, if a team member’s laptop is stolen, all they need to do is submit a ticket in Slack to trigger an automated incident response. A responder is immediately paged, the device is remotely bricked, and all communications are managed through Slack.
“When an incident occurs, Slack is the only recourse for us,” says Ryrie. “How can someone get in touch with us when their laptop has been stolen? Well, they’ve got Slack on their mobile. The app’s intuitive. All you need is to go to the Help channel, and we take it from there.”
This reflects Ryrie’s broader vision for IT at Canva, moving beyond simple problem-solving to company-wide enablement.
“I don’t want us to be this monolithic IT department of old, where you submit a ticket and you hear from us in seven to 10 business days. With Slack, we’re creating a culture where teams are empowered to find answers to their problems and stay productive,” says Ryrie.
