Canva is reshaping a fifth of its roles to get back to small, empowered teams
Every fast growing company eventually discovers that the structure that got it to a few thousand people is not the one that will carry it further. Most find out slowly, through a creeping sense that decisions take longer than they used to. Canva has decided to deal with it all at once.
On Wednesday, co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins told staff that 1,271 roles, a little over a fifth of the workforce, would be affected by a restructure. Some of those people are losing their jobs and some are being asked to relocate, with Sydney becoming the main home for product teams. Perkins called it "the hardest moment in our 13-year history" and said growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, and that the company had come to the conclusion that small changes would not be enough.
The stated aim is to "re-found" the company, getting back to its roots of small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions, take ownership and focus on what matters most. Overlapping functions will be consolidated, and hybrid staff are expected in the office two to three days a week from January.
AI sits in the background of all of this, even though the memo did not name it. Perkins pointed to new technologies changing what customers expect. Asked directly, a Canva spokesperson said AI was shaping the products the company builds and how it delivers them, but that the changes were "not using AI to do the work of people who are leaving." The Professionals Australia union has asked for more honesty from big tech firms about AI's effect on jobs, and Atlassian and WiseTech Global both cut large numbers of roles earlier in the year with AI given as part of the reason.
The way Canva is treating the people leaving is worth noting. Everyone who loses their job gets six months' salary, keeps healthcare for 12 months and keeps their laptop, and departing staff can apply for a US$10,000 grant toward a new venture or community project. That will not take the sting out, but it signals that the company knows the people who stay are watching.
The harder work starts now. Small empowered teams are easy to announce and hard to run. They need clear decision rights, leaders who are comfortable letting go and teams that feel safe enough to say a priority is wrong. Shrinking the org chart does none of that by itself. Ways of working like Agile only help if the team is genuinely allowed to make the calls, which is the real test of whether Canva's re-founding takes.
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