How Figma Builds Better Products That Users Love

...There's still a strong disconnect between what people design and what ends up in users' hands...

• Use AI to streamline design to implementation.
• Automate routine tasks to focus on creativity.
• Enhance collaboration with AI tools.

...Play shows the human behind the product... There's a moment when someone decided to care so deeply... they were excited to think about the reaction that someone would have when they discover that little thing...

• Add details that delight users.
• Include personal touches in the product.
• These details boost user satisfaction.

...I've never resonated with the CEO type of language... The best product managers are able to create that kind of clarity.

• PMs are facilitators providing clarity.
• Roles may shift but remain critical.
• Value collaboration over authority.

...it's easy to imagine that they might collapse... into a generalist product building role with a few specialists... People have to push on these things... advocate for the business, the user, technical feasibility...

• Prepare for more integrated roles.
• Encourage diverse skills with specializations.
• Facilitate holistic thinking and collaboration.

...You can build the most beautiful thing and it's not discovered... Dylan... took Design Twitter, visualized it... figured out which designers are followed the most, and then went to those designers to get feedback on Figma... And it worked...

• Identify influencers to champion your product.
• Leverage communities for feedback and promotion.
• Distribution is as crucial as development.

...Maker Week helps, but I think it's a core capability that we all need to learn... Teams have their own hack week sometimes... My favorite is actually Quality Week...

• Implement hackathons to encourage creativity.
• Let teams focus on passion projects.
• Use rituals to foster innovation and engagement.

...having that duality and giving people different lenses into the same surface has been one way for us to preserve simplicity for one side, but the need for power on the other.

• Offer different modes for varying expertise.
• Keep default experience simple.
• Design flexible interfaces accommodating all users.

...if they can't make it sound interesting... then I am dubious of their abilities to rally a team... a PM is really great at motivating something incredibly boring as existential...

• Use narratives to motivate teams around projects.
• A PM's vision influences team engagement.
• Cultivate storytelling to advocate for initiatives.

...people were using Figma design as a space to hang out... that motivated us to think about building a space for them, which is FigJam... And slides too, before our Slides product, 3.5 million decks were being made in Figma Design...

• Identify organic user behaviors indicating demand for new products.
• Develop solutions that enhance these uses.
• Align development with actual user workflows.

...it's important to observe how people hack your product... use that as inspiration because that's real signal... They're going out of their way to demonstrate they have a need, even though you're not delivering on it.

• Watch how users modify your product to uncover hidden demands.
• Prioritize features aligning with these needs.
• This approach led Figma to create FigJam and Figma Slides.