• Don’t be afraid to zig when others zag. Canva made contrarian but conviction-driven decisions like staying private longer, avoiding outside leadership hires, and building a Swiss Army Knife product when conventional wisdom favored single-purpose tools. Staying true to your vision can be a key advantage.

• Canva employees have coaches, rather than managers. Coaches are people working in your specialty (e.g. other product managers, engineers) who are constantly thinking about your personal growth. They check in, do one-on-ones, and might even help on projects like strategy documents.

• Remove every possible barrier in onboarding. Canva’s onboarding originally dropped new users into a dauntingly blank canvas. Granular testing revealed that breaking the ice with tiny, playful tasks like searching for a monkey photo rapidly boosted users’ confidence and engagement.

• “Give away your Legos.” You need to scale with your company and continually take on new responsibilities. But you can’t spend time at the next level in your journey if you don’t leave the previous one behind and help someone else to take it over. Find opportunities to pass on experience, coach your team, and help others do their best work.