Product Vision

“I could imagine whatever five years from now, someone running a billion-dollar company with zero employees where it's like the support is handled by AI, the development is handled by AI, and you're just building and creating this thing.”

“Work backwards from an amazing future. So first thing is creatively imagine a future, and then work backwards from that, and essentially, think what will make that successful, and be paranoid about... that everything is going to go wrong.”

“RealtimeBoard was interesting. I almost didn't join because it was called RealtimeBoard. I was like, 'Am I really going to join a company called RealtimeBoard? Can this be a big company with that name?' Will they let me change the name was my criteria for joining.”

“From the perspective of the PM, it doesn't matter if you write a good spec or you have a good interview or you do this or do that. What matters is that the product works. You're not necessarily the person who comes up with every idea. You're just the keeper of the vision. That's true for CEOs too. There's somebody who's got to consolidate, get all the good ideas, prioritize them, decide which good ideas we're going to do, and then get everybody on the same page.”

“When design thinking became big, I was always really confused because I didn't know how else you could think. Design is trying to imagine the future you want to live in and then take the steps to make it real.”

“We've always been an incredibly product-led company. We always think first and foremost about the product. That was the whole genesis of Canva itself, having a product that we thought people would love to use and desperately needed to get out into the world.”

“Think of these prototypes as concept cars. The interesting thing about concept cars is they're never commercialized. They're often produced for inspiration, and to potentially take some small nuggets that you can run with. Then you start doing research with users, you answer key questions, and you uncover certain elements that resonate with people.”

“As a founder, I was like every week, 'Hey everybody, before we get started, this is the mission we're on, this is why we're doing it.' As a PM sometimes you're like, 'Well, I told people three weeks ago and it was in the top of the PRD.' I realized that same thing is true - you have to bring people along with you.”