Simon Chalk

Experience

Canva

Sydney · Jul 2020 – Nov 2026

Principal Product Designer

Dec 2022 – Nov 2026

Flying Fox · AI tooling for product designers

Asking designers to learn Git just to work with AI coding tools was creating unnecessary barriers and keeping talented designers out of an emerging way of working. Defined the strategy and vision to turn an engineer-built proof of concept into a design-first workspace that handled the technical complexity behind the scenes. Within four months, reached 340 daily active users across Canva, with 140 product designers adopting it as their primary prototyping tool.

• Reimagined agentic coding around designers' workflows, replacing the need to manage code and repositories with familiar visual tools, point-and-click editing, annotations and pinned artefacts.
• Designed and shipped production features in a macOS Electron app, including editor architecture improvements, a Markdown editor, agent interactions and Git-backed sharing and publishing.
• Shaped the agent harness and collaboration model, combining a central agent, threaded work and automatic version synchronisation to enable collaboration without manual Git management. Established clear engineering handoff points within an end-to-end design and development workflow.

Glow Up · Canva editor redesign

Identified that Canva's editor had outgrown the system it was built on. Teams were struggling to find a place for new features, and design and technical debt were compounding as the product grew more complex. Initiated and pitched the editor's first major overhaul since 2016, building support for a three-year vision that became a core company goal. As Product Design Lead and Company Goal Owner, drove delivery in eight months for Canva Create 2024, coordinating approximately 100 cross-functional leads.

• Defined the editor's design direction and shared interaction patterns, giving teams a more coherent foundation for future features.
• Worked directly with Melanie Perkins (CEO) and Cameron Adams (CPO) to establish a shared vision, while remaining hands-on in detailed design alongside two senior designers.
• Modernised the editor as part of a broader release that maintained revenue performance and achieved a user satisfaction score of 4.5/5.

Magic Video · AI-powered mobile video creation

Sole product designer for a mobile-first AI product that transforms photos and video clips into shareable short-form videos. Led design from initial brief through to global rollout in four months, launching as a headline feature at Canva World Tour 2025. Reached 2.6M monthly and 70.4K daily active users.

• Shaped product strategy with the PM, designing around AI model capabilities and latency constraints to deliver an achievable launch scope.
• Restructured milestones to reduce risk and protect time for user testing and iteration ahead of launch.
• Established shared design intent early, enabling engineers to make decisions and build independently.

Video Timeline · Canva's video-first editor

Defined the vision and shipped the MVP for Canva's transition from page-based video editing to a video-first experience, establishing foundational interaction patterns for future video features.

Product Designer

Jul 2020 – Dec 2022

Canva Creators Marketplace · Two-sided template marketplace

Designed and launched Canva's first two-sided creator marketplace, partnering with product and engineering to shape the marketplace model and creator experience. Delivered creator portfolios, template publishing and internal tools for reviewing and auditing submissions.

Core editor features · Gradients and text styling

Partnered with founders, product and engineering to launch gradients, text styles and advanced text styling in an editor serving 100M+ users. Led research, interaction design, usability testing and UI refinement, contributing reusable patterns to the design system.

RVU

London · Jun 2018 – Feb 2020

Lead Product Designer · Money.co.uk

Apr 2019 – Feb 2020

Led end-to-end web design for credit card, loan, mortgage and insurance comparison products, using qualitative research and analytics to inform decisions across products serving 1M+ monthly sessions.

Senior Product Designer · Bankrate UK

Dec 2018 – Apr 2019

Partnered with SEO to design intent-driven product pages as monthly sessions grew from around 10K to 125K. Led home-loan research to inform the roadmap and established a design system across touchpoints.

Product Designer · Uswitch.com

Jun 2018 – Dec 2018

Sole product designer for a new B2B web analytics release. Used ethnographic research to simplify core workflows and established UX practices within a small engineering team.

Ørsted Watches

Founder & Designer

Feb 2018 – Mar 2020

Founded a watch brand, designing an automatic watch from concept through engineering and manufacturing with a Chinese production partner. Created the visual identity, custom type, packaging and pre-sale website.

Breville

Sydney · Mar 2011 – Dec 2017

UX/UI Manager

Oct 2016 – Dec 2017

Established Breville's global UX/UI department, recruiting and mentoring four designers and introducing agile digital design practices within a business traditionally focused on physical product development.

Senior UX Designer

Dec 2015 – Oct 2016

Designed a connected, recipe-driven product experience spanning web, iOS and embedded interfaces. Led research, prototyping, usability testing and handoff to an offshore development team.

Rapid Innovator

Jun 2015 – Dec 2015

Partnered with Nespresso to define a prototyping platform combining digital interfaces with physical buttons and dials, enabling high-fidelity user testing before development. Led interface design for the Breville Creatista, recognised with a Red Dot: Best of the Best award.

Industrial Designer

Mar 2011 – Jan 2015

Designed toasters, kettles and coffee machines from early concepts through to production, spanning user research, physical prototyping, engineering and design for manufacture.