In this discussion, Cristina sits down with Faria Anzum, Developer Experience Product Design Lead at Canva, to explore her approach to SaaS integrations, developer experience, as well as the impact of AI on building scalable partner ecosystems.
Faria’s Role and Canva’s Ecosystem Approach
Faria leads developer experience within Canva’s ecosystem team, focusing on optimizing the end-to-end journey for developers—from discovery and documentation to app submission and launch. Her work spans both external developers and internal teams, ensuring feedback loops that drive continuous improvement in tooling and processes.
Building for Developers: Key UX Considerations
- Faria highlights the importance of systems thinking in developer experience, noting that every design decision impacts multiple stages of the developer journey.
- Unique challenges include blending Canva’s established design system with the distinct UIs of external apps, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience for users.
- Developer tools must minimize cognitive load and context switching, so Canva strives for consistency across documentation, tooling, and theming to reduce friction for developers moving between environments.
Best Practices for Scalable Integrations
- Canva empowers partners to build at scale by providing robust building blocks: app templates, design patterns, and a comprehensive Figma UI kit. This approach streamlines development and ensures consistency in user experience.
- The team collaborates closely with partners through workshops and design reviews, fostering high-quality integrations and reducing surprises during app submission.
- Smaller partners particularly benefit from these resources, as they can rely on Canva’s design guidance without needing in-house expertise.
AI’s Transformative Role in Developer Workflows
- AI is lowering barriers to entry, democratizing software development much like Canva did for design. Tools like ChatGPT and Cursor enable even non-coders to build functional integrations using natural language prompts.
- Canva recently launched Dev MCP server, for Canva apps and integrations, leveraging documentation and starter templates to accelerate development.
- While Canva can’t always distinguish how much of an app is AI-generated, the focus remains on functionality and quality, not the origin of the code.
Looking Ahead: Trust, Transparency, and the Future of AI in Integrations
- Faria emphasizes the need for transparency in AI-driven apps—clearly communicating what AI does, how data is used, and allowing users to override AI suggestions to build trust.
- She predicts a future where AI agents handle more of the integration lifecycle, spinning up apps from natural language descriptions, while human developers refine and innovate at the edges.
- The conversation closes with a call to embrace these changes, as AI and automation free up developers to focus on more creative and high-impact work.
Key Takeaways
- Canva’s approach to developer experience centers on holistic design, strong building blocks, and close collaboration with partners.
- AI is fundamentally changing how integrations are built, making development more accessible and efficient.
- Trust, transparency, and adaptability will be crucial as AI-driven workflows become the norm in SaaS ecosystems.
For more insights on tech partnerships, integrations, and APIs, listeners are encouraged to visit Pandium’s blog and resources.
https://www.pandium.com/blog
