Column B Thinking
by Melanie Perkins • CEO & Co-founder at Canva
Melanie Perkins is the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and visual communication platform valued at over $40 billion. She led the company from a small yearbook business in Australia to a global tech giant with over 170 million monthly active users, consistently maintaining profitability.
🎙️ Episode Context
Melanie Perkins shares the unconventional strategies behind Canva's rise from 100 investor rejections to a $40B+ juggernaut. She details her unique "Column B" thinking for visionary planning, how Canva operationalizes "Crazy Big Goals," and the internal "Chaos to Clarity" framework used to ship products. The conversation also covers her two-step plan for global impact and how she integrates AI and community feedback into product development.
Problem It Solves
Prevents incrementalism and getting stuck within current constraints when planning the future of a product or company.
Framework Overview
Most planning looks at available bricks and asks 'how high can I build?' (Column A). Column B thinking starts with the ideal, perfect vision of the future—regardless of feasibility—and works backward to determine the necessary steps to bridge the gap between today and that reality.
🧠 Framework Structure
Envision the Ideal: Define exactly wh...
Ignore Current Constraints: Do not le...
Build the Ladder: Create a roadmap of...
Start Micro: Take the first tiny step...
When to Use
When setting long-term company strategy, defining a new product category, or when the team feels limited by technical debt.
Common Mistakes
Confusing 'Column B' with just having a dream but failing to build the 'ladder' of actionable steps to get there.
Real World Example
Melanie envisioned a future where design was online and simple (Column B), even though she was a student with no technical skills. She started with a micro-niche (school yearbooks) as the first rung on the ladder to eventually building Canva.
The thing that I love about a crazy big goal is that you feel completely inadequate before it. You want to work really hard to will it into existence.
— Melanie Perkins