Which Tool Wins: Routing a Week's Task List
Objective: Given a real 10-item weekly task list from a marketing team, apply the lesson's decision rule (developer handoff vs. self-publish, time-sensitive vs. precision-critical) to route every task to Canva or Figma and justify each call.
You're the sole marketer at Warby Parker's regional growth team. Your manager hands you next week's task list and asks which design tool each item should go through, before any work starts, so nobody wastes an hour in the wrong app.
Sort 10 tasks into Canva or Figma using the lesson's decision tree, then flag the one task that genuinely could go either way and explain the tiebreaker.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, fast, and the whole team can reference the same routing sheet going forward
The process
2 steps
Step 01 of 02
The lesson's routing flowchart asks one question first: does this task go to a developer? If yes, Figma. If no, keep asking.
Of these 10 tasks, 3 involve a developer eventually touching the file (landing page mockup, web banner set for the dev team, ad creative with dev handoff). Which tool do those 3 get routed to, and why does that question come before every other consideration?
Procedure
- List all 10 tasks in column A of a fresh Sheet
- Mark Yes/No in column B for 'Does a developer touch this file?'
- Route every Yes to Figma immediately, regardless of urgency
Task Dev involved? Route Landing page mockup, Q3 campaign Yes Figma Web banner set (dev builds it) Yes Figma Ad creative for dev handoff Yes Figma Instagram carousel, product launch No (next filter)
Healthy
Every dev-involved task routes to Figma before any other filter runs, even if it also feels urgent.
Unhealthy
Starting a landing page mockup in Canva because it 'felt faster,' then rebuilding it in Figma once the developer asks for specs, doubling the work.
What this means
Dev handoff is a hard gate, not a tiebreaker: Canva cannot export CSS values or component specs, so any file a developer will touch has to start in Figma.
So what do I do about it?
| Symptom | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| A developer keeps asking for a file that was designed in Canva | Move that task type to the 'always Figma' list on the team's task-routing sheet | 5 min |
Step 02 of 02
For the remaining 7 non-dev tasks, the lesson's second filter asks: is it time-sensitive/template-driven (Canva) or does it need brand-precision control with no developer involved (still sometimes Figma, e.g. a design system doc)?
The remaining 7 tasks include a same-day Instagram post, a pitch deck due Friday, and a 'brand guidelines living doc' with no deadline. Which of these 7 is the one edge case that could reasonably go either way?
Procedure
- For each of the 7 remaining tasks, mark 'Time-sensitive/template?' Yes/No
- Route every Yes to Canva
- For the No rows, check whether brand-precision or a living component library is the actual need
Task Time-sensitive? Route Instagram post, today Yes Canva Pitch deck, due Friday Yes Canva Brand guidelines living doc No Figma (component library) Web banner set, self-published Yes Canva OR Figma (edge case)
Healthy
The self-published web banner set is flagged explicitly as the tiebreaker task, with the reasoning written down (no dev, but brand precision matters) rather than picked by gut feel.
Unhealthy
Silently defaulting every ambiguous task to whichever tool is open, with no documented reasoning, so the next person repeats the same debate next week.
What this means
Most tasks resolve cleanly on the two-question filter; the genuine edge cases are rare and worth naming explicitly so the team doesn't re-litigate them weekly.
So what do I do about it?
| Symptom | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| The same 'which tool?' debate happens every week for the same task type | Add that task type as a named row in a permanent team routing reference, not a one-off decision | 5 min |
Final deliverable
A 10-row routing table assigning every task to Canva or Figma, with the one genuine edge case flagged and its tiebreaker reasoning written out in one sentence.
See a reference example
Duolingo growth team, week-of routing sheet (excerpt) Task Route Reason TikTok caption graphics (5x) Canva Templated, same-day, no dev Onboarding flow redesign mockup Figma Dev builds it next sprint App Store screenshot set Canva Magic Resize handles the 6 sizes Design system button audit Figma Living component library, no dev this week but precision-critical
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- All 3 dev-involved tasks correctly routed to Figma before any other filter is applied
- The genuine edge-case task is named explicitly with a one-sentence tiebreaker, not silently defaulted