Grow fast, stay productive, have fun
It’s a great time to be on Team Canva. Now used by 170 million people worldwide, the Sydney-based online star has helped create more than 20 billion designs over the past decade. Its team had to grow tenfold to keep up with the demand.
Canva’s goal through its massive growth? To maintain the fun start-up culture of its roots and keep the “Canva vibes” alive.
With the jump from 400 to 4000 staff in just 8 years, Canva needed a productivity platform that had fun built in. That’s why it turned to Slack.
“Slack has been a huge part of how Canva is building for scale and how we’ve continued to ensure our systems and processes are built for purpose,” says Lachlan Andrews, Head of Corporate Communications at Canva.
With employees scattered around the globe, Slack is the glue that keeps the team aligned, engaged and efficient.
“Slack has been a huge part of how Canva is building for scale and how we’ve continued to ensure our systems and processes are built for purpose.”
Canva turns to Slack to deliver projects quickly
Effective internal communications help maintain the “Canva vibe” for employees, wherever they’re located.
Before Canva turned to Slack, building an internal communications resource was a slow process. It involved multiple kickoff calls, as much as a week lost to setting up action items over email, and hours spent digging through email chains for feedback.
Now, the team can come together in a Slack channel and make something great in under a week.
“With Slack replacing email chains and lengthy calls with real-time feedback, we were able to build and test a bespoke internal communications resource in just four days,” says Edwina Munns, Head of Internal Communications at Canva.
“We just spin up a channel on Slack, and share the context with everybody at once, in real-time,” says Munns, who notes the won back time is better spent “embedding the new tool to drive adoption and deliver great outcomes.”
“With Slack replacing email chains and lengthy calls with real-time feedback, we were able to build and test a bespoke internal communications resource in just four days.”
Integrations speed up everyday work
Everyday work at Canva is also happening faster, thanks to Slack. Slack integrations make it easy to access the apps everyone needs in one place, meaning there’s less time-wasting context switching back and forth between apps to get work done.
Canva also uses the HR platform Workday via a Slack integration, saving time on routine office admin tasks like reviewing and approving time off requests.
“As someone managing a team, the Workday Slack integration has been an incredible time saver. From receiving reminders about direct reports who haven’t taken a break in a while to reviewing and approving time off requests, there’s not much I need to do anymore through Workday that can’t be done with the Slack interface,” Andrews says.
Slack channels make onboarding easy
Slack channels also help new hires quickly pick up knowledge and culture, keeping the ‘Canva vibe’ alive. For example, they can search a Slack channel’s conversation history to check out old leadership announcements and questions from other employees.
“Slack plays a big role in both information sharing and helping onboard new hires. It has become a virtual manifestation of our culture,” Andrews says.
With a 70-person “vibe” team, Canva takes culture seriously. It relies on Slack to “curate the Canva vibes.” With a simple /club command, employees can search through the channels for Canva’s 400 staff clubs to find their tribe. With a pasta club, a running club, a hiking club and everything in between.
According to Munns, the magic happens when staff have two things: access to the information they need to perform their roles, and consistent alignment with Canva’s culture, vision and mission.
“Slack can bring those two things together and use them very naturally. Slack can also do it at scale and in real-time, so it’s incredibly powerful,” she says. [#]
