Forrester Analyzes The ROI Of Dev Mode | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Dev Mode is presented as a way to reduce friction between designers and developers, especially during handoff and implementation. A Forrester Total Economic Impact study found that it can increase developer output by 20–30%, save more than 90 minutes per developer each week, and generate significant financial benefits over three years. The central conclusion is that a shared, inspectable source of truth helps teams ship faster without sacrificing product quality.

The Business Case for Dev Mode

• Figma commissioned Forrester two years after Dev Mode launched.
• Forrester interviewed four decision-makers and modeled a composite organization with 100–1,000 designers and developers.
• The study identified inefficient handoffs and redundant work as major sources of lost time.
• Its modeled benefits include:
  • 20–30% higher developer output
  • More than 90 minutes saved per developer each week
  • Approximately $10 million in developer-efficiency time savings over three years
  • Approximately $2 million in increased profit from faster time to market

One Shared Source of Truth

• Teams working in a shared space can collaborate continuously instead of waiting for a formal design handoff.
• One organization reportedly moved from design completion to release in six to eight months, compared with an earlier process that could take two or three years.
• A survey of 200 developers at another company found average savings of 98 minutes per week.
• Developers can inspect design files directly to find:
  • Variables and specifications
  • Exact assets
  • Documentation
  • Code snippets
• This reduces dependence on Slack messages, meetings, time-zone coordination, and manually maintained annotations.

More Autonomous Developers

• Dev Mode allows developers to resolve many implementation questions independently.
• By seeing design intent and technical details directly in Figma, developers spend less time clarifying requirements with designers.
• Reduced context switching and fewer back-and-forth conversations let developers focus more of their time on building products.
• The broader benefit is not simply faster execution, but lower mental overhead and smoother collaboration between disciplines.

The study supports adopting Dev Mode—or similar workflow improvements—when teams need to accelerate delivery while preserving design quality. Its strongest value comes from making design information immediately accessible and enabling designers and developers to collaborate before either side has finished their work.