A Q&A with Figma’s VP of Product | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma VP of Product Yuhki Yamashita describes FigJam as a response to how customers and Figma employees adapted collaboration during the shift to remote work. He argues that design, engineering, and product roles are becoming more collaborative and less ownership-driven. FigJam supports this by providing an informal space for exploration, brainstorming, and human interaction before ideas become polished interfaces in Figma.

Why Figma Built FigJam

• Figma observed users stretching the product beyond interface design.
• During the early pandemic, customers used Figma for:
  • Brainstorming
  • Team warm-ups
  • Social events
  • Other offline activities moved online
• Figma’s own transition to remote work reinforced the value of gathering in a shared virtual space.
• FigJam emerged to support these broader collaboration needs.

Design and Product Work Is Becoming More Collaborative

• Design teams are riffing together more frequently.
• People outside design are joining earlier in the development process.
• Figma and FigJam links are increasingly shared across organizations for everything from copy edits to major product changes.
• The boundaries between engineering, design, and product management are becoming less rigid.
• Collaboration is shifting away from role-based ownership toward collective problem-solving.

The Changing Role of Product Managers

• Product managers and designers have always had overlapping responsibilities, but previously lacked shared tools for exploration.
• Design files were once treated as belonging primarily to designers, making edits from PMs feel intrusive.
• Today, product development is viewed more as a shared endeavor.
• PM and design roles are increasingly interdependent.

Designing Through “The Mess”

• Design is nonlinear and requires repeated exploration, iteration, evaluation, and revision.
• Teams may abandon ideas early or develop them significantly before seeking new perspectives.
• Effective tools should support multiple levels of engagement:
  • Zooming into detailed work
  • Stepping back to evaluate broader direction
• Figma and FigJam together create a more fluid workflow from ideation through development.

When to Use FigJam Instead of Figma

• FigJam is best for ambiguous, early-stage work.
• It supports:
  • Brainstorming
  • Mapping
  • Gathering reactions or “temperature checks”
  • Exploring ideas before they become interface designs
• Figma is more appropriate when teams begin building and refining a concrete interface.

Making Meetings More Expressive

• Yamashita values FigJam’s informal and expressive character.
• Unlike polished, linear shared documents, FigJam emphasizes collaborative problem-solving over status updates.
• Cursor chats, emojis, and stickers let people respond naturally without interrupting or formally speaking.
• Ephemeral interactions can communicate emotions such as laughter or encouragement without creating a permanent record.
• These features help make remote meetings feel more human and can change the tone of collaboration.

Future Development

• Users are applying FigJam to many workshops and collaborative exercises.
• Figma sees opportunities to improve facilitation for these activities.
• Features such as the timer are examples of efforts to make workshops easier to run.

FigJam is positioned as a flexible space for early exploration and shared participation, complementing Figma’s more structured interface-design workflow. Teams should use it to embrace uncertainty and involve broader groups before committing to polished solutions.