CanvasPop
Strengthening leadership and culture inside a fully remote organization
A case study in clarity, trust, and execution without proximity.
The Context
CanvasPop is a fast-growing, globally distributed e-commerce company operating fully remotely. As the organization scaled, leadership faced a challenge common to remote-first environments: maintaining alignment, culture, and performance without the benefit of proximity or informal office communication.
The shift to a fully remote model created significant opportunity, but it also surfaced gaps in how leadership, accountability, and communication were structured across the expanding organization.
What wasn't working
The Challenge
As the company grew, several leadership and operational pressures emerged. The company was performing, but leaders recognized that without intentional structure, execution and engagement would become harder to sustain.
Meeting Fatigue: Meetings increased in frequency but were perceived as low quality and inefficient.
Deep Work Gaps: Leaders and teams struggled to protect time for focused, high-impact work.
Hiring Friction: Hiring velocity slowed, and a long time-to-hire created bottlenecks during scaling.
Inconsistent Leadership: Effectiveness varied across teams, risking a fragmented culture.
Systemic Gaps: A lack of shared systems made accountability difficult to track remotely.
Leadership Effectiveness
Baseline score
42%
Deep Work Time
Team capacity
Limited/
Fragmented
Company Culture
Employee perception
Risk of fragmentation
Why a surface solution wasn't enough
CanvasPop moved beyond ad hoc tools and one-off initiatives. They recognized the need for an integrated approach that addressed both leadership behavior and organizational design.
Consistent Decision-Making: Support distributed teams with clear frameworks.
Operational Efficiency: Reduce unnecessary meetings while increasing alignment.
Intentional Culture: Reinforce company values and culture in a remote-first environment.
Scalable Systems: Build hiring and performance models that grow with the company.
The Insight
The Approach
The work
CanvasPop partnered with Shauna Moran through an Organizational Growth Retainer focused on strengthening leadership systems and execution in a fully remote context.
01
Leadership and organizational diagnostics.
02
Executive and senior leader coaching.
03
Redesign of meeting structures and communication norms.
04
Development of scalable hiring and performance systems.
05
Alignment of personal objectives with performance through compensation design.
06
Ongoing advisory support during continued organizational scaling.
The Outcomes
What changed
The organization experienced significant improvements across leadership effectiveness, operational efficiency, and remote culture.
50%
Meetings Reduced
poor-quality sessions
2×
Deep Work Time
doubled across teams
30%
Time-to-Hire
improvement
93%
Leadership Score
up from 42%
100%
Culture Improvement
reported by employees
Predictable
Communication
clear and consistent
Scalable
Hiring Process
streamlined
Remote-First
Leadership Foundation
trust-based execution
"Shauna has proven herself to be that person who will help you outline a map on where you need to get to over the long term while keeping your employees motivated and connected... I highly recommend working with her if you want to implement a world-class culture."
Nazim
CEO, CanvasPop
The Lesson
Why this matters
Remote work does not fail because teams are distributed; it fails when leadership systems rely on proximity instead of clarity.
For CanvasPop, this work created a remote-first foundation where execution, culture, and accountability could scale together. By moving from informal communication to intentional systems, they achieved stronger performance without sacrificing the focus, connection, or trust of their people.
