Juan Córdoba — product design leader specialising in ecosystems, apps, creative tools and AI.
I’m a product design leader focused on AI and creative tools. Most recently, I led design for ’s ecosystem platform. I’d love to bring that experience to a team building something people are excited to use.
Make complexthings simple.
That starts with understanding what people need, bringing the right people together, and giving ideas enough shape to test and learn.
Hey, connect the dots.
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I helped shape an experience that brings the context people already have in other tools into Canva AI, so they can create without starting from scratch. I coached the early vision, brought designers together, and helped turn launch feedback into decisions.
For the launch of Canva Sheets, I led design collaboration across teams, aligning designers around shared principles and a roadmap for data imports. Together, we established new patterns that made apps a natural way to bring data from people’s existing tools into Canva.
Import data into Canva SheetsBring data from tools like HubSpot into a Canva Sheet and work with it there.Import data into chartsConnect your data to a chart and make the pattern easier to see.Use data to design at scaleFill text and images with your data, then create a batch of personalised designs.
2026
API Everywhere
Making CanvaAI-ready.
I helped shape API Everywhere with product and engineering partners: a strategy to make Canva’s creative capabilities easier for other products and AI to build on.
Good foundations make it easier for more people to build on Canva.
Together, we worked out which capabilities to open up, who would own them, and how to support them over time. I helped set the direction, bring teams together and shape guidance for each stage.
In 2024, I led design for Apps SDK v2. I also worked with Growth on app bundling and helped shape the foundations for premium Canva apps, giving developers more ways to build and earn.
Before Canva, I led the team in shaping a vision for Gumtree’s transactional strategy, exploring how buyers and sellers could pay, arrange delivery and track an item.
I helped Lysn move beyond its first MVP, working with founder Jonathan King on a clearer experience for people seeking support and the practitioners helping them.
I’m Juan Córdoba, a product design leader working across ecosystems, apps and AI. I like asking “what if?”, then giving ideas enough shape that we can try them together.
At Canva, I led design for the ecosystem platform. I worked with the teams building apps and the people designing the tools those apps plugged into. My work moves between setting direction, coaching designers and getting hands-on with the details. I care about how an interaction feels and how the whole experience fits together.
One sketch led to another.
How did I get here?
I started in graphic design, making icons, and eventually found my way to Australia. Sketching, designing and building are how I think things through, whether I’m exploring an interaction or working out where a whole product could go. I like giving an idea enough shape that we can try it, question it, and find something we hadn’t considered.
Right now, I’m excited about how short the distance between an idea and a working thing has become. It brings back some of the excitement I felt about the early web: so much to learn, so many things to try.
I’m exploring what I can make with creative apps, AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectors. That means sketching, sharing references, prompting, revising and seeing how well the tools work together. Through Juan Creates, I want to share those building journeys: the decisions, the rough edges and what I learn along the way.
A few more revisions…
One prompt and you’re done?
There’s usually a lot of thinking and iteration behind a polished demo. Building something changes my understanding of what it should be. I try an idea, look closely at the result, and change direction when it teaches me something new.
Judgement, taste and good questions matter throughout that process. I bring them to the teams I coach and the tools I explore. What excites me now is being able to sketch an idea and build enough of it to see if it works.