Redesigning Dropbox’s ways of working | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Dropbox’s shift to a virtual-first model required more than moving meetings online; it meant redesigning how teams collaborate and maintain creative energy. Having already adopted Figma, the design team expanded its use from design production to brainstorming, reviews, handoffs, and cross-functional communication. Figma ultimately became a shared visual workspace for teams across Dropbox, helping recreate some of the spontaneity and connection of the physical office.

The Challenge of Virtual-First Work

• Dropbox’s culture and workspaces had been designed around in-person collaboration across twelve global offices.
• Design teams relied on physical workshops, post-its, whiteboards, and informal interactions to generate ideas.
• Remote work made creative flow and team connection less automatic, requiring more intentional collaboration practices.

Redesigning Collaboration with Figma

• Dropbox’s design organization had migrated from Sketch to Figma in 2018 and already used it for:
  • Brainstorming
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Commenting
• During the pandemic, designers increased their reliance on Figma to reduce communication gaps.
• Observation mode replaced some in-person design reviews, allowing participants to follow a presenter’s work directly.
• Designers shared files for rapid iteration instead of pairing at a desk or brainstorming in a physical room.
• Design sprints brought engineers and product managers directly into Figma, making participation easier for non-designers.
• Teams also created asynchronous workflows, such as using checkmarks in an icon template to signal that assets were ready for inclusion in the master library.
• These file-based processes reduced unnecessary communication and improved the efficiency of recurring library releases.

Expanding Figma Across Dropbox

• The design team became an example of how remote collaboration could work for the broader organization.
• Cheechee Lin led workshops teaching cross-functional teams how to navigate Figma and use features such as commenting, exporting, viewing, and following.
• More than 200 people from marketing, research, data science, and other teams attended the workshops.
• Figma provided a shared visual space that compensated for the lack of physical whiteboards.
• Teams beyond design began using Figma for test plans, research presentations, survey data, qualitative insights, and collaborative presentations.

Dropbox’s experience suggests that successful virtual-first work depends on deliberately rebuilding collaborative habits, not simply adopting video calls. Making a shared, accessible workspace central to communication can help distributed teams preserve creativity, speed, and cross-functional involvement.