<aside> 📌 Client: Canva Project: Creative Direction, Design Operations & Production Role: Project Management & Operational Strategy

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Canva’s Photos team identified an issue in the content library. Despite having a global talent pool, the content lent itself to a Western perception of what global content would look like, rather than a truly local point of view.**

What implications does bias have? Aside from lack of user representation, Photographers from non-Western locales found it difficult to execute creative briefs in their locales, due to a difference in the talent and location they have access to, in comparison to their Western peers (i.e., a classroom with diverse students look different in Spain vs. Mexico).

A classroom with diverse students look different in Spain vs. Mexico.

This led to a decline in activity and content submissions from truly local Photographers. However, this did not mean they are not valuable or worth the effort and required the Photos team to reposition its approach to creative brief building.

How was this resolved? The first steps to meeting this challenge were as follows:

1. Seek opportunities for content creation based on user data that will drive Publishes and budget spend on the highest value elements ✅
2. Identify locales that have content gaps, serviceable by existing Photographer resources ✅
3. Develop a unique creative brief template (see here) that will foster collaboration between local Photographers ✅
4. Test the collaborative brief building initiative for a season, with the intention of defining the ‘sweet spot’ to breaking down creative bias whilst driving usability
5. Conduct a retro and seek opportunities for optimisation

This is a continued work in progress.