Reimagining Canva's First Experience

---

Project at a glance

What we thought the problem was

Initially, we believed user churn was a simple onboarding optimization problem.

What users told us

User research revealed a fragmented first experience across 22 teams creating choice paralysis and irrelevant recommendations

How we solved it

Our solution unified the experience through a progressive personalization system that doubled data collection while improving retention by 2.02%

---

The Challenge

A paradox sat at the heart of Canva's growth story.

Despite reaching 200 million monthly active users, new user churn was increasing. Three previous attempts to solve this challenge had failed, not due to technical complexity, but because of competing stakeholder priorities.

Key Problems Identified

Through extensive stakeholder interviews and data analysis, I uncovered critical systemic issues:

The first experience landscape had fragmented across 22 teams, each operating in silos with distinct metrics. This created a disjointed user experience where new users encountered irrelevant features and faced overwhelming choice paralysis.

Our strategic pivot toward enterprise sales added another layer of complexity.

While sales teams needed better lead qualification, stakeholders strongly resisted adding friction to the onboarding flow. This tension, combined with four years of neutral or negative experiment results, had created a risk-averse environment.

Success Metrics:

• Reduce new user churn (currently 60-70%)
• Increase sales lead qualification
• Improve first-week retention
• Maintain time to value

Discovery Process

Phase 1: Research Synthesis

I began by aggregating years of experiment data and research studies across all 22 teams. This comprehensive analysis revealed three critical insights:

1. Front-loaded Experience Our existing onboarding concentrated all education into the first 10 minutes. Users became fatigued, routinely skipping through dialogs and coach-marks.

2. Relevance Gap The default Canva experience rarely aligned with user needs. Templates, design types, and elements felt generic and untargeted.

3. Feature Overwhelm Users consistently reported feeling overwhelmed by Canva's breadth of capabilities, leading to early abandonment.

Phase 2: Solution Exploration

I developed three distinct prototypes to test our core hypotheses:

1. Minimalist Approach
   • High focus on user questions
   • Praised for simplicity
   • Lacked transparency in value delivery
2. Immersive Experience
   • Live-updating homepage
   • Demonstrated immediate value
   • Higher technical complexity
3. Hybrid Solution
   • Balanced approach incorporating learnings
   • Progressive personalization
   • Scalable pattern for future innovation

Through moderated testing with 12 users, the hybrid solution emerged as the clear winner. Users particularly valued its streamlined approach when evaluating multiple design tools, describing it as "simple and elegant" while still feeling guided. This validation was crucial given our enterprise users' limited evaluation time.

Phase 3: defining the MVP & concept testing

Analysis of existing team workflows revealed a critical insight: preserving Canva's two-column layout would significantly reduce migration friction. We developed a flexible container system within this structure, allowing teams to enhance their sections while maintaining familiar interaction patterns. This architectural decision proved crucial for stakeholder buy-in, transforming a potentially disruptive redesign into a natural evolution of Canva's interface.

Building Alignment

Earning the nickname "dream merchant," I implemented a strategic approach to stakeholder alignment:

1. Listening Tours: Conducted comprehensive stakeholder interviews to understand constraints and priorities.
2. Vision Storytelling: Created compelling wireframes and prototypes that demonstrated the unified experience.
3. Strategic Timing: Aligned proposals with planning season to secure team resources.
4. Continuous Visibility: Maintained presence in Show & Tells and sharebacks to keep momentum.

The Solution

Our MVP introduced a progressive personalization system that balanced competing needs:

Smart Friction Points

• Strategically placed user information gathering
• Dynamic homepage updates based on inputs
• Qualified sales leads without disrupting experience

Scalable Architecture

• Created reusable patterns for team innovations
• Creating artefacts for
• Enabled continuous optimization
• Supported future feature integration

Results and Impact

The September 2024 launch delivered compelling evidence for our approach:

Quantitative Improvements

• Question completion rates doubled (0.37 to 0.76)
• First-week retention improved by 2.02%
• Projected ARR increase of $222k
• Pro trial conversion increased by 8.40%

Strategic Wins

• Proved that thoughtful "smart friction" enhances user retention
• Established foundation for continuous innovation
• Created scalable patterns for future optimization

Key Learnings

This project demonstrated how to scale visionary thinking in an enterprise environment through:

1. Problem-Centric Alignment Organizing teams around user problems rather than surface areas encouraged solution-agnostic thinking and healthier collaboration.
2. Evidence-Based Resolution Using experimentation to resolve stakeholder disagreements reduced political friction and built trust.
3. Strategic Communication Success required more than good design – it demanded clear storytelling, cross-functional alignment, and data-driven validation.

By focusing on scalable patterns and progressive personalization, we didn't just solve immediate challenges – we created a foundation for continuous innovation in user onboarding, enabling Canva to evolve and adapt as it continues to grow.