"A Design Program Manager is the right hand to a design leader. We bring their vision to life through collaboration, influence, and operational excellence. With a design ops background, I’m equipped to make design teams more effective and innovative."

Designing the Future of Cloud-Based Document Editing

Building cloud-based document editing software is notoriously complex. Our team kicked off the project by focusing on the desktop application, led by two exceptional principal designers. Our first priority was identifying key features and areas to target for the initial internal launch.

Tackling integration challenges: Quip Meets Slack

As we advanced, we encountered challenges with integrating Quip into Slack’s infrastructure. Slack’s product philosophy, "prototyping the path," requires a dynamic, collaborative process—engineers, designers, and product managers build, test, and iterate together. On the other hand, Quip’s process was more linear, finalizing designs before development began. This difference in approach created friction and slowed progress.

To resolve this, the Technical Program Manager (TPM) and I facilitated a team workshop after the first month of development to gather feedback and align both teams. Together, we established team operating agreements to streamline workflows and bridge the gap between Quip’s and Slack’s methodologies.

Building momentum: creating synergy between teams

During this time, I led our twice-weekly design meetings, ensuring seamless communication across teams. I managed feedback loops, identified risks, and facilitated discussions that brought engineers, designers, and product managers onto the same page. To further improve collaboration, I organized workshops to introduce engineers to the Slack design system and provided Slack-specific product development training for product managers. These efforts significantly improved the product design handoff to engineers, smoothing day-to-day operations.

Addressing bottlenecks: advocating for team growth

Midway through the project, it became clear that the team’s velocity wasn’t enough to hit our launch goals. I conducted an analysis and found that the ratio of designers to engineers and product managers was off:

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• Engineering-to-design ratio: A healthy 5:3–7:3; we had 10:3.
• Designer-to-PM ratio: Typically 0.8; we had 0.5.

With this data, I built a proposal and presented it to the VP of Design Foundations, making the case for additional resources. As a result, we secured two senior designers from other teams, bypassing the lengthy hiring process and saving us 3-6 months of onboarding time. The two experienced designers quickly integrated and took ownership of critical product areas, allowing us to accelerate progress.

Navigating tradeoffs & staying true to the vision

As the project moved forward, our focus shifted to preparing for the Canvas announcement at Dreamforce. While design was advancing, we encountered technical challenges that required us to make tough tradeoffs. My role was crucial in ensuring these design tradeoffs were clearly communicated to leadership and that engineering teams adhered to the agreed-upon priorities. In product development, things rarely go as planned—it’s about finding solutions that remain aligned with the core values of the product and the company.

A Milestone at Dreamforce and Beyond

"When can we start using Slack Canvas?" In September 2022, Slack's Chief Product Officer, Tamar Yehoshua, introduced Canvas at Dreamforce. This was a pivotal moment for the entire team, giving us the opportunity to showcase the product to the press, our users, and our internal teams. Canvas quickly became a standout feature, generating excitement and curiosity among our audience.

After the Dreamforce reveal, we continued refining Canvas, preparing for the pilot launch. In December 2022, we released the pilot to select enterprise customers, allowing us to gather valuable feedback, test critical features, and further improve the product ahead of its general availability.

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