Figma

532 posts

figmaJul 18, 20232 min readCurated summary

The Shared Language of Props | Figma | Figma Blog

Design and engineering use the same component vocabulary, but often attach different meanings to terms such as “property,” “variant,” and “button.” Figma properties primarily describe visual variations, while code props may also control behavior, events, data, and rendering. Effective collaboration therefore requires translating concepts across environments rather than assuming identical names imply identical implementations. ## Components and Properties as Shared Concepts - Components are reusable elements governed by rules describing how they can look and behave. - Properties, or “props,” define the possible expressions of a component, including: - Variants - Boolean values - Instance swaps - Text values - In Figma, properties are used mainly to represent visual differences. - In code, props can also represent non-visual concerns such as event handlers and data. - A shared term can conceal different assumptions when designers and developers work in different tools and contexts. ## A Button Is Not the Same Everywhere - Designers and developers both work with buttons, but prioritize different concerns: - Designers focus on visual consistency and maintainability across design files. - Developers focus on interactivity, rendering, accessibility, and implementation. - A Figma button and a code-based button may share a name without sharing the same API or purpose. - Migrating a React and TypeScript application to a design-system-based frontend exposed conflicts between Material UI conventions and the organization’s custom design system. - The component library aimed to be intuitive and lightweight for full-stack engineers who primarily connected frontend and backend systems. ## Divergent Component Models - The design system contained two Figma components: - `Button` - `IconButton` - The codebase contained five button components. - Figma’s `Button` and `IconButton` did not use the same inheritance or primitive-component structure as the codebase. - Some properties, such as size and color variants, were duplicated in Figma because that structure better represented the design model. - Although the components shared names and broad concepts, they did not share the same purpose or complete set of properties. Teams should treat design and code components as related models rather than identical ones. Clear translation of property names, meanings, and responsibilities can preserve each environment’s strengths while reducing misunderstandings during implementation.

Figma Design Systems React TypeScript+3

figmaJul 11, 20232 min readCurated summary

Explore the value of play through a new zine | Figma Blog

Finding room for play is presented as an essential part of design, helping people stay curious, experiment, and discover unexpected solutions. To explore this idea, Figma and It’s Nice That created *The Playbook*, a printed zine combining essays, advice, visual commissions, and hands-on activities. Debuted at Config 2023, it encourages readers to treat play and iteration as practical parts of creative work. ## A Collaboration About Play - *The Playbook* was produced jointly by Figma and It’s Nice That. - It explores spontaneous thinking, curiosity, and experimentation across different design practices. - The publication reflects Figma’s belief that play supports learning and helps collaborators connect ideas. ## Essays on Iteration and Collaboration - Figma Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita discusses how to embrace endless iteration and work productively while ideas remain in flux. - Chief Technology Officer Kris Rasmussen examines collaborative engineering, arguing that engineers should work beyond strict role boundaries. - Together, the essays present iteration and cross-functional collaboration as central to modern product development. ## Creative Advice and Rules for Play - The zine features conversations with creatives about staying curious when possibilities feel unlimited. - Paula Scher contributes ten rules for play drawn from her career, including advice on sketching, influence, and creative experimentation. - The publication encourages readers to look for “what if?” moments that can unlock new directions. ## Interactive Activities and Visual Commissions - Readers can onboard themselves into the zine and take a quiz about their meeting-hosting style. - A design challenge built around “How might we?” offers a hands-on break from reading. - Shawna X visualizes a “lightbulb moment” in a risograph print. - Manshen Lo interprets Bruno Munari’s 12-step design methodology. - The publication combines essays and activities with a range of playful visual work. ## Printed Format and Config Debut - The Playbook was printed as an A5 zine and wrapped in compostable cellophane. - Two essays by Yamashita and Rasmussen appeared together in a complementary A6 zine. - Copies were distributed to Config 2023 attendees when they arrived. *The Playbook* treats play not as a distraction from serious design work, but as a method for learning, collaborating, and generating better ideas. Its combination of reflection and practical exercises encourages designers and teams to make experimentation a regular part of their process.

Figma Collaboration Product Development Design+1

figmaJun 20, 20233 min readCurated summary

Figma & Chromebook expand to K12 and Japan | Figma Blog

Figma and Google for Education are expanding their Chromebook partnership to make Figma and FigJam freely available to all K–12 districts in the US, with Japan as the first international expansion. The initiative aims to give students industry-standard design and collaboration tools while helping educators create more visual, interactive learning experiences. Figma argues that the tools can improve technical skills, classroom engagement, confidence, inclusion, and students’ ability to express ideas. ## Expanding Figma access in schools - A beta program previously gave Figma and FigJam access to students in 50 US school districts. - The program included large urban districts and smaller rural districts. - Figma is now offering free access to all K–12 districts across the US. - Students of every age can use Figma on Chromebooks, including younger learners. - Districts can receive free Figma Enterprise access, giving administrators: - Greater control over school environments - Visibility into usage - Class-management features - Support for student safety - The Chromebook partnership is expanding globally, beginning with Google schools in Japan. ## Design tools as a foundation for future skills - Figma is intended to help students develop: - Problem-solving skills - Iterative thinking - Collaboration - Empathy - Its infinite canvas lets students combine diagrams, images, mind maps, videos, and other media. - Students can demonstrate understanding visually rather than relying only on traditional written assessments. - Beta participants created projects such as nonprofit design concepts and app prototypes for improving local government services. ## Reimagining classroom collaboration - Teachers used FigJam for lesson plans, group projects, study guides, and interactive curricula. - The tools created a shared space where students and educators could build learning experiences together. - Projects included prototypes, visual explanations, and other forms of digital storytelling. - Figma describes the impact as extending beyond academic work to classroom culture and students’ sense of belonging. ## Supporting student voices and inclusion - Teachers reported that quieter students became more confident expressing ideas in digital spaces. - Features such as sticky notes, comments, reactions, and other collaborative interactions gave introverted students more ways to participate. - Digital collaboration helped some students build connections after years of remote learning. - The visual and flexible format was especially valuable for neurodiverse students who may find traditional tools difficult. - One special education teacher reported improvements among autistic students in: - Social skills - Executive functioning - Self-regulation - Collaboration ## Encouraging engagement and creative learning - Teachers said students were more excited to attend class and engage with coursework. - Some students continued working on Figma projects at home. - Figma enabled alternative forms of assessment, including: - Infographics - Storyboards - Prototypes - The platform functions as a creative sandbox where students can construct and communicate their own understanding. - In some classrooms, previously disengaged students rediscovered interest in learning through design. Figma’s recommendation is to make collaborative, visual design tools a normal part of K–12 education. By combining broad Chromebook access, administrative controls, and flexible creative workflows, the company aims to help every student participate more actively and become better prepared for a digital future.

Figma Figjam Design Thinking Digital Design+2

figmaJun 20, 20233 min readCurated summary

Config 2023 in Review: The Complete Recap | Figma Blog

Figma’s Config 2023 announcements reposition the platform as a workspace for the entire product development team, not just designers. The major launches—Dev Mode, variables, and advanced prototyping—aim to connect design more directly with code, development workflows, and real product behavior. Supporting updates to auto layout, fonts, and file discovery further improve everyday work, while Figma also signals a major investment in AI through its acquisition of Diagram. ## Dev Mode Connects Design and Development - Dev Mode is a dedicated Figma workspace designed around developers’ needs. - It helps developers: - Translate designs into code more quickly. - Connect Figma to Jira, GitHub, Storybook, and other tools through plugins. - Track designs and changes that need to reach production. - Inspect Figma files alongside code in VS Code. - Dev Mode launched in beta and was available free through 2023. ## Variables Bring Design Systems Closer to Code - Figma introduced variables to make design systems more flexible and scalable. - Variables can store reusable: - Colors - Numbers - Text values - Boolean values - They support aliasing and scoping, allowing teams to organize and contextualize values. - Variable modes enable themes such as light and dark designs. - Plugin and REST API support allows teams to manage variables programmatically. - The goal is to connect design tokens and systems more directly with the code that implements them. ## Advanced Prototyping Makes Designs More Dynamic - Variables can now be used in prototypes to represent changing application state. - Designers can use mathematical expressions and conditional logic, such as: - Increasing a number variable after each click. - Navigating to different screens depending on a variable’s value. - These capabilities let teams test realistic interactions before development begins. - In-context editing and inline preview allow designers to edit and play back prototypes in the same view. ## Quality-of-Life Improvements - Auto layout gained wrapping and minimum/maximum width and height controls. - The font picker now supports search, filtering, and previews displayed in each font. - The file browser makes it easier to locate files and projects shared by external teams. ## Figma’s Investment in AI - Figma expects AI to help people express ideas visually, speed up workflows, and create strong first drafts. - The company argues that turning a good draft into a world-class product will still require human judgment and expertise. - Figma acquired Diagram, founded by Jordan Singer, to accelerate AI development across the platform. - Diagram had previously built AI-assisted design tools on Figma’s platform. Overall, Config 2023 presents Figma as a shared environment spanning design, prototyping, development, and increasingly AI-assisted creation. Teams should consider Dev Mode and variables as the most significant changes for improving handoff, design-system management, and collaboration with engineering.

Figma Design Systems Prototyping Design Tokens+4

figmaJun 20, 20233 min readCurated summary

Introducing Figma’s New Dev Mode | Figma Blog

Dev Mode is Figma’s dedicated workspace for developers, designed to reduce friction between design and implementation. It provides familiar inspection tools, customizable code output, integrations with development workflows, and an extension for VS Code. Figma’s broader goal is to keep designers and developers working from the same, up-to-date source of truth. ## A Developer-Focused Workspace - Dev Mode works like a browser inspector for Figma files. - Developers can inspect layers and designs to find: - Measurements and implementation specs - Exportable assets - Design-system context - Connections between visual elements and code concepts - The interface is intended to feel familiar to developers who use tools such as Chrome DevTools. ## Faster, More Flexible Code Handoff - Dev Mode’s code panel includes: - A CSS box model - Modern syntax and tree views - Configurable dimension units - Customizable output for different languages and codebases - Generated code is positioned as a starting point that reduces repetitive translation from design to implementation. ## Connecting Design to the Development Toolchain - Figma’s GitHub integration links designs and components with files, issues, and pull requests. - Plugins connect Figma to tools including: - Jira, Linear, and GitHub for project tracking - Storybook for viewing coded components alongside designs - AWS Amplify Studio, Google Relay, and Anima for code generation - Teams can also build custom plugins to match their own workflows. - Design tokens and variables further improve consistency between design systems and code. ## Tracking Work Toward Production - Dev Mode is intended to support the increasingly blurred boundary between design and development. - It helps teams understand what is ready for implementation and maintain context while designs continue to evolve. - Figma emphasizes collaboration around work that remains in progress rather than waiting for designs to be fully polished. ## Bringing Dev Mode into VS Code - The Figma for VS Code extension lets developers: - Review designs - View comments and notifications - Track design changes - Inspect designs without leaving the editor - Use design-based code autocomplete - This keeps design context inside the developer’s primary coding environment. ## Availability and Pricing - Dev Mode and the VS Code extension were announced as beta features, free to all users through the end of 2023. - Beginning in 2024, Dev Mode requires a paid plan. - Dedicated Dev Mode-only access was planned at: - $25 per seat per month on Organization - $35 per seat per month on Enterprise Figma presents Dev Mode as an initial step toward tighter designer-developer collaboration. Teams should use it alongside integrations such as GitHub, Storybook, and VS Code to keep specifications, implementation context, and feedback in one continuously updated workflow.

Figma Design Systems Github CSS+4

figmaJun 19, 20232 min readCurated summary

Introducing Shortcut letter from the editor | Figma Blog

Shortcut is Figma’s redesigned blog, created to tell richer stories about the people, processes, and ideas behind new products. Its central philosophy mirrors Figma itself: collaboration, experimentation, and the way user input transforms tools over time. The new experience aims to make content more immersive, discoverable, and inspiring rather than static or one-directional. ## A Blog Built Around Collaboration and Play - Figma compares product development to games, where people create “house rules” and shortcuts to improve shared experiences. - This idea reflects Figma’s history as a web-based, multiplayer design tool. - Although collaborative editing initially seemed risky, user behavior and community feedback helped shape Figma’s evolution. - Shortcut will showcase how teams and users bring collaborative design to life through stories about process, craft, and problem-solving. ## A More Immersive Content Experience - The blog redesign replaces a static reading experience with a more dynamic and visually engaging one. - New articles cover: - Design systems - Engineering - Product design and development - Company culture - Behind-the-scenes work - Technical explorations - Examples include stories about Linear responding to a DDoS attack, font failures, and how Figma’s engineers draw inspiration from gaming. ## Improved Navigation and Visual Identity - Readers can sort content by topic and browse curated special collections. - Shortcut features new illustrations and motion work from a range of independent artists. - The redesign treats editorial design, animation, and artwork as essential parts of the storytelling experience. - Figma also invites writers, designers, and other creatives to collaborate with its editorial team. ## Inspiration Through Shared Ideas - Shortcut is built around “input for output”: one idea should lead to another, with inspiration moving in both directions. - The blog aims to encourage readers—and Figma’s own teams—to experiment, share ideas, and have more fun. - Stories range from curated series such as the Future of Design Systems to opinion essays, technical deep dives, and unexpected examples like a band using a Figma slide deck to relaunch its career. Shortcut positions Figma’s blog as an extension of its collaborative product philosophy: a place where stories, disciplines, and perspectives connect to inspire new possibilities.

Figma Design Systems Product Design Multiplayer Collaboration+2

figmaJun 18, 20232 min readCurated summary

What’s Happening at Config 2023? | Figma Blog

Config 2023 was covered as a live, informal scene report by Figma editors Herbert Lui and Jenny Xie. The post captures the excitement, humor, attendee reactions, and social-media energy surrounding the event rather than presenting a detailed recap of individual talks. Readers are directed to watch the full talks online and revisit the community conversation under #Config2023 and #confits2023. ## Live Coverage from Config 2023 - Figma’s Editorial Team reported from the event in real time. - The coverage aimed to give people who missed Config a sense of the atmosphere and ongoing activity. - The post included embedded posts from attendees and Figma community members, including jokes about different types of designers attending the conference. ## Community Reactions and Social Media - Attendees shared photos, commentary, and humorous observations on X/Twitter. - The hashtag **#confits2023** highlighted fashion and outfit-related posts from the event. - The social conversation reflected both the professional content and the playful culture surrounding Config. ## Talks and Follow-Up Content - Figma provided a YouTube playlist containing all talks from Config 2023. - Readers were encouraged to catch up on presentations after the event. - The editors closed by celebrating the event’s success, acknowledging “Config withdrawals,” and looking ahead to the following year. The practical takeaway is to use the recorded talk playlist for substantive content, while the blog and accompanying social posts provide a more casual view of Config’s community and atmosphere.

Figma User Interface Collaborative Design Design Tools+1

figmaMay 25, 20234 min readCurated summary

How a Figma Slide Deck Helped Indie Rock Duo Tanlines Launch a Comeback | Figma | Figma Blog

Tanlines’ comeback album, *The Big Mess*, grew out of Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm’s changing lives as parents, professionals, and musicians. To promote the album’s first single, “Outer Banks,” they turned a corporate presentation deck into a music video, using Figma and Google Meet to parody workplace communication while expressing the song’s emotional themes. The project shows how familiar professional tools can become creative, collaborative artistic formats. ## Returning to Tanlines - Cohen and Emm have made music together since 2008, evolving from experimental electronic work and remixes into pop music. - After the band’s second album, Cohen stepped away to raise his first child and later made a children’s record. - Emm eventually assembled songs that became the foundation for *The Big Mess*, and Cohen helped finish them during a working trip to rural Connecticut. - Cohen now views Tanlines as an ongoing life project, similar to the documentary series *7 Up*, revisiting the band as their circumstances change. ## Turning a Corporate Deck into a Music Video - Cohen’s years at YouTube Music and Nike introduced him to decks and meetings as a dominant form of professional communication. - He wanted to tell the story of “Outer Banks” using that shared workplace language. - Former coworker Hunter Ellenbarger created the presentation in Figma. - The original idea was to make a deck for every song and release them through Google Drive or a Figma folder. - Hunter’s deck was strong enough to become the centerpiece of the video, with Emm singing the lyrics as though he were reading the presentation aloud. - Presenting the Figma deck through Google Meet reinforced the joke and connected the video to remote-work culture. ## Making the Deck Feel Authentically Corporate - Cohen’s initial design leaned toward Nike’s polished, editorial presentation style. - Ellenbarger deliberately made the visuals more generic, using: - Graphs and arrows - Flow charts - Corporate phrases such as “insights,” “year over year,” and “results” - Inspirational quotes and familiar meeting-slide conventions - The overly recognizable format creates both humor and emotional resonance for viewers accustomed to workplace presentations. ## The Emotional Meaning of “Outer Banks” - The song references North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a place Cohen has visited throughout his life. - Rather than presenting the beach as a carefree party setting, the song explores memory, family, and mixed emotions. - Its upbeat sound carries a melancholy undertone, consistent with Tanlines’ recurring balance of light and darkness. - The video reframes an ordinary corporate tool as a medium for music, art, and humor, allowing professional audiences to feel recognized rather than mocked. ## Building a New Visual Identity - Longtime collaborator Teddy Blanks helped shape the album packaging, promotional poster, and merchandise. - The visual material draws on 1950s photographs taken in Greece by Emm’s wife’s grandfather while documenting folk tales and songs. - The new artwork moves away from the band’s earlier practice of featuring the musicians’ faces on album covers. - Blanks’ simple, clear design choices support the sense that *The Big Mess* represents a new era for the band. ## Embracing Change and Uncertainty - Cohen describes “aging gracefully” as adapting creative expression to new responsibilities and circumstances. - Returning to music was unexpected but allowed him to reconnect with an important part of his identity. - Unlike earlier album cycles, the band’s future is less predictable, with more uncertainty around touring, work, family, and sustaining a music career in middle age. The project suggests that creative work does not need to reject familiar professional formats; it can transform them. By combining Figma’s collaborative presentation tools, Google Meet’s remote setting, and the language of corporate decks, Tanlines made a comeback video that was both a workplace satire and a sincere reflection on adult life.

Figma Remote Collaboration Google Meet Digital Presentation+1

figmaMay 17, 20232 min readCurated summary

Four years in, here’s what Config tells us about the state of design | Figma Blog

Config 2023 submissions suggest that the design industry is emerging from pandemic-era uncertainty with renewed optimism. Figma analyzed more than 1,000 conference proposals and found increasing interest in accessibility, creativity enabled by design systems, and broader collaboration. Overall, the submissions portray designers as focused on turning recent challenges into opportunities for more scalable, inclusive, and effective product development. ## A More Optimistic Design Community - Config submissions increased from 420 in 2021 to 520 in 2022 and more than 1,000 in 2023. - Positive sentiment rose from 63% of submissions in 2021 to 72% in 2023. - Submissions increasingly emphasized possibilities and ways teams had “thrived,” rather than focusing on outdated practices or persistent problems. - References to the pandemic fell to one-sixth of their 2021 level. - Mentions of “remote” declined by roughly 20%, suggesting that teams are adapting to changed work patterns. ## Design Systems as Creative Infrastructure - The perceived divide between creative freedom and systematic processes is narrowing. - Designers increasingly view design systems as tools that reduce repetitive work and create more space for creative thinking. - Teams operating at scale are investing in design tokens and reusable systems to maintain speed and consistency. - In 2021, design-system discussions focused mainly on foundational tasks such as auditing, scaling, and establishing basic infrastructure. - By 2023, submissions connected design systems more directly with creativity and visual expression, using terms such as “art,” “transition,” “color,” and “creating.” The emerging view is that systems do not suppress creativity; they can provide the structure and efficiency needed to support it.

Figma AI Design Systems Accessibility+3

figmaApr 12, 20232 min readCurated summary

How to build ground-breaking products: A manager’s guide | Figma Blog

Great products come from clarity: teams need to understand the customer problem, the reason it matters, and what can realistically be built. Managers help create that clarity by focusing on customer value rather than internal goals, involving customers directly, filtering ideas, and keeping teams aligned. The article argues that practical, collaborative decision-making produces stronger products than pursuing organizational priorities or exciting ideas in isolation. ## Design for Customers, Not OKRs - Avoid “shipping the org chart”—building products around company hierarchy instead of customer needs. - Localized goals and narrowly defined OKRs can cause teams to solve the wrong problems. - Roadmaps and planning should make the product’s value proposition visible to the wider organization. - Prototypes help teams: - Identify whether they are addressing the right problem. - Build leadership support. - Let decision-makers explore a solution before committing to it. - Make product decisions faster and more transparently. ## Put Customers to Work - Ironclad used a customer round table of 10–15 participants to understand how customer needs changed during the pandemic. - Insights from these conversations shaped a major portion of the company’s 18-month product roadmap. - Customers contributed throughout the process by reviewing concepts and beta-testing features. - Co-creation improves product quality while also making customers more invested in the final outcome. ## Filter Ideas Through Three Questions - Collaboration can generate too many ideas to pursue effectively; Work & Co. produced nearly 50 concepts for an IBM Research platform within weeks. - Managers should evaluate ideas by asking: - Why does this product or platform need to exist? - What does it need to do? - How will we build it? - The goal is not to choose the most exciting idea, but the most valuable and shippable one. - Strong product management connects creativity with feasibility. ## Keep Teams Focused - After selecting a direction, managers must help teams remain focused on executing it. - The article introduces the Eisenhower Matrix as a strategy for prioritizing work according to urgency and importance. - This kind of prioritization helps teams concentrate on meaningful product work rather than being distracted by less consequential tasks. Managers should ground product decisions in customer value, use prototypes and customer collaboration to reduce uncertainty, and apply practical prioritization to turn promising ideas into products that can actually ship.

Figma User Experience Prototyping Figjam+4

figmaMar 27, 20233 min readCurated summary

Little Big Outtakes | Figma Blog

Figma’s “Little Big Outtakes” shares the behind-the-scenes decisions that shaped 30+ small product updates. The stories show how difficult edge cases, team feedback, and disciplined scoping often produced better outcomes than simply adding more functionality. Across search, prototyping, and previews, the teams improved features by making complexity visible, validating ideas collaboratively, and prioritizing achievable impact. ## Multi-select Search: Designing for Edge Cases - Multi-select search extended Figma’s find-and-replace feature, allowing users to select specific results with `Shift + Click` or `Cmd/Ctrl + Click`. - The team discovered a major complication: users cannot independently select a parent layer and one of its children. - Selecting multiple search results could therefore include unexpected descendants, especially in deeply nested files. - To clarify the behavior, the designers added: - A visual hierarchy in the search sidebar showing parent-child relationships. - Hover-selection previews when users hold `Command` or `Shift`. - Highlights for indirectly selected items and outlines for directly selected children. - The team concluded that edge cases were not peripheral to the feature—they fundamentally defined how multi-selection needed to work. ## Overlay Blur: Turning Ideas into a Concrete Fix - Figma’s prototyping viewer previously struggled to render background blur on overlays because overlays do not have ordinary content directly beneath them. - Engineer Brandon Lin documented his proposed approaches, potential problems, and solution before implementing the fix. - Teammates suggested passing the overlay’s position into the rendering code so it could identify the correct area to blur. - The final changes associated overlays with their respective frames and ensured that multiple overlays were drawn and layered in the correct positions. - Team feedback gave Brandon confidence that his initial reasoning was sound while helping make the implementation more precise. ## On-Canvas Previews: The Value of Scoping Down - On-canvas previews let users hover over design-panel options—such as blend modes, effects, and color blend modes—to preview changes before applying them. - The original concept considered a much broader scope, including boolean operations, component properties, and font selection. - Rather than attempting to support everything, the team audited dropdown-based editor properties and assessed each option for feasibility and performance risk. - They prioritized features that would not require major geometry changes or substantial canvas modifications. - The smaller release proved powerful enough to be useful while allowing the team to deliver and refine it more quickly. Figma’s examples suggest that strong product work often comes from embracing complexity selectively: expose confusing relationships, seek feedback early, and narrow ambitious ideas to the highest-value implementation.

Figma Prototyping Figjam User Interface+2

figmaMar 22, 20233 min readCurated summary

How the Figma design team level set on career leveling | Figma Blog

Figma revamped its product design and writing career levels after realizing its old one-page ladder no longer scaled with a growing, multi-product organization. The project began as an effort to define “craft” more clearly but expanded into a comprehensive framework for hiring, coaching, performance evaluation, and skill development. The resulting career levels emphasize concrete expectations, specialization at senior levels, and a visual, easier-to-use format in FigJam. ## Why Figma Revisited Its Career Framework - When Sara Culver joined Figma as a design manager in 2021, “craft” was widely considered essential to success, but teams disagreed on what it included. - Craft might mean: - Visual design - Prototyping - Motion or other specialized skills - Broader product design capabilities - The existing ladder had been created when Figma was smaller and covered areas such as: - Product strategy - Craft and quality - Mentorship and developing others - As the organization expanded, the document became too vague to support consistent coaching, evaluation, and hiring decisions. ## Research and Team Feedback - Culver surveyed designers about how they used the existing ladder and what they wanted from an updated version. - Designers asked for: - More detailed and concrete expectations - Clearer guidance for senior-level hiring and promotion - A stronger definition of craft at each level - The team questioned whether senior designers should be expected to excel equally in every skill or whether the framework should recognize “T-shaped” designers with broad abilities and deep expertise in one area. - Figma also reviewed career frameworks from companies including Slack, BuzzFeed, Meta, and Basecamp. - Designer Shana Hu provided extensive feedback and proposed a more visual FigJam-based format. ## Principles for the First Draft - The team created an inspiration board containing examples of career ladders and skills frameworks. - The proposed framework aimed to: - Group skills into clear areas - Replace rigid “ladder” language with “stages” or “levels” - Reflect the nonlinear nature of career growth - Use visual design to make expectations easier to scan and understand - Culver organized the framework around four core skill areas, with specific skills assigned to each area. ## Resulting Career Levels - Figma ultimately published new Product Design & Writing Career Levels alongside a Skills Widget. - The FigJam resource describes: - Expected performance at each level - Core competencies for product design and writing roles - Skills designers can develop over time - The framework is intended to help managers make better hiring and performance decisions while helping employees understand where to focus their growth. Figma’s approach suggests that career frameworks are most useful when they are specific, collaboratively developed, visually accessible, and flexible enough to recognize both broad capability and senior-level specialization.

Figma Figjam Product Design Career Leveling+2

figmaMar 14, 20232 min readCurated summary

How to get the most out of teams | Figma Blog

Effective people management is about creating conditions where teams can act with autonomy, focus, and purpose. The article recommends a few practical systems: limit goals, protect uninterrupted work, make participation equitable, encourage experimentation, and actively support career development. These practices help employees do better work while making managers accountable for the team’s success. ## Set Fewer, More Meaningful Goals - Ask team members to list their priorities at the start of a quarter or half. - Reduce an initial list of 10–15 goals to just three, forcing clear choices about what can realistically be completed. - Connect individual goals to the company’s most urgent strategic initiatives. - Make goals concrete and measurable by defining the impact they should create. - Share goals with other leaders to improve alignment and accountability. ## Make Meetings Worthwhile - Work & Co. limits teams to one daily check-in, leaving the rest of the day for focused individual work and collaboration. - Managers should distinguish between issues that require meetings and those that can be handled asynchronously in Slack or FigJam. - For unavoidable meetings, use structures that prevent outspoken participants from dominating. - Twitch adapted Amazon’s written-memo format for hybrid work: - Participants read a shared six-page document. - They spend 10–15 minutes adding questions and comments. - The group discusses the annotations afterward. - Written participation gives quieter employees a meaningful voice, especially in large meetings. ## Make Ideas More Valuable Than Turf - Ambiguous responsibilities can cause conflict, while overly rigid job descriptions can prevent innovation. - Oura Ring treats campaigns and projects as experiments built around strong hypotheses. - Teams measure results, then decide whether to scale, repeat, or abandon an idea. - Making experimentation everyone’s responsibility reduces confusion about ownership. - Employees are encouraged to pursue opportunities outside their formal roles, even when that means occasionally crossing boundaries. ## Support Nonlinear Career Conversations - Careers rarely follow a straightforward upward path. - Managers should help employees imagine multiple possible directions rather than presenting advancement as a single ladder. - This guidance is particularly important in remote work, where informal networking and spontaneous conversations happen less often. Managers can unlock their teams’ potential by replacing excessive control with clear priorities, focused collaboration, room for experimentation, and deliberate career support.

Figma Figjam Slack Product Management+2

figmaMar 6, 20233 min readCurated summary

Creators need creators | Figma Blog

Figma argues that creators need both open sharing and sustainable ways to support their work. To strengthen Figma Community, it introduces new selling tools and the Figma Creator Fund, helping creators monetize paid resources while funding free ones. The goal is a healthier ecosystem where consumers gain access to useful work and creators can keep innovating. ## Learning Through Open Sharing - Rogie King describes learning HTML, CSS, and design through other creators’ blogs and public experiments. - Figma Community extends that model by letting people explore complete, layered design files rather than isolated tips or screenshots. - Sharing work publicly helps creators learn, build an audience, and contribute to a collective creative culture. ## Expanding Figma Community - Figma Community grew from an initial collection of 49 plugins into a broader platform for design files, plugins, and resources. - Community members can use plugins and build tools tailored to their workflows. - Figma presents the platform as an open, collaborative ecosystem where creators learn and grow together. ## Problems with Creator Logistics - Making and sharing creative work often requires handling: - Websites and domains - Hosting and payment processing - Marketing and social media - Refunds, customer support, and license keys - These business responsibilities can distract creators from designing, experimenting, and building. - Exposure alone is not a sustainable source of income, especially as creators’ personal responsibilities change. ## New Selling Tools - Plugin developers will gain access to more powerful APIs, including capabilities that are typically paid. - Creators can offer: - One-time, one-click payments - Free experiences through Figma’s payment API - Direct user access without emailing files or managing license keys - Improved analytics and tracking will help creators measure reach and impact. - Consumers will benefit from clearer paid-versus-free labels, direct purchasing, and try-before-you-buy options. ## The Figma Creator Fund - The Creator Fund will provide grants to people who make free resources for Figma Community. - It is intended to balance two important goals: - Keeping resources accessible to consumers - Compensating creators for the time and effort required to produce quality work - The fund reflects Figma’s belief that creators should be able to give back without relying solely on unpaid labor or “exposure.” ## Building the Next Generation of Community Work - Figma hopes the new tools will encourage creators to develop plugins, icon sets, design systems, and other resources. - Feedback, feature requests, and bug reports remain part of the collaborative process. - The company frames these changes as an early step toward making Figma Community more sustainable and creatively ambitious. Figma’s recommendation is implicit: creators should continue sharing openly, but should also be able to charge for their work or receive support when they provide free resources. The new selling tools and Creator Fund aim to make that balance practical.

Figma Design Tools Front End Development Plugin Development+3

figmaMar 5, 20233 min readCurated summary

Meet the maker: Marcin Wichary | Figma Blog

Marcin Wichary’s book *Shift Happens* explores the 150-year evolution of keyboards, typing, and QWERTY as tools shaped by many people rather than a single inventor. His making process relies on rapid prototyping, experimentation, and frequent feedback, whether he is writing, designing, coding, or preparing print materials. The project demonstrates how play and iteration can make a complex, long-term creative effort manageable. ## The History and Meaning of Keyboards - The book examines how keyboards evolved from typewriters to teletypes, computers, and modern devices. - Although keyboards seem functional and unremarkable, their role has changed significantly: - They were once primarily used for producing documents. - Today, they are often used for chatting, texting, and online communication. - QWERTY’s history reflects collective technological development; its designer is effectively “everybody and no one.” ## A Prototyping-Based Creative Process - Wichary builds small versions of ideas, evaluates them, and shares them with others. - He began designing the book’s layout before finishing the manuscript. - Custom plugins automated the flow of text and images into the print layout. - He ordered a print-on-demand prototype as soon as the first manuscript was ready, before completing proofreading. - He tested difficult print scenarios, including: - Black pages - Vivid colors - Highly detailed photographs - Specific paper and page sizes - Iteration often made the project feel unfinished and chaotic, but embracing that uncertainty helped him improve the work. ## Using Experiments to Sustain Momentum - To avoid becoming overwhelmed by writing, research, and image licensing, Wichary created small experimental projects. - He: - Reverse-engineered vintage keyboards and connected them to modern computers. - Built unusual keyboards, including a piano-based typing keyboard. - Tested exceptionally good and bad keyboards. - Created mini-games and a typewriter simulator. - These projects were partly useful for research but also helped preserve his enjoyment of the subject. ## Reviving the Gorton Typeface - Wichary recreated Gorton, a distinctive technical typeface associated with 1980s keyboards and CNC machinery. - Because it had never been released as a TrueType font, he redrew it in Figma and refined it in Glyphs. - The work connected to his first Figma project, which involved type-design tools, and gave him an opportunity to use those tools as a practicing type designer. ## Figma as a Book and Collaboration Tool - He used Figma for: - Moodboards - Print layouts - Website and Kickstarter designs - Newsletter materials - Color systems - Reusable layouts through auto layout - Plugins helped manage complex layouts that had to be revised repeatedly. - Figma’s sharing features made it easy to solicit feedback from people unfamiliar with the tool. - Comments, voting, and canvas annotations supported collaboration with friends, designers, and remote 3D artists. ## Feedback as Part of Making - Wichary built a custom app to gather reactions to individual book chapters through a private URL. - Reviewers could respond using emojis or short comments. - The app made feedback more accessible and provided a refreshing break from writing. - Building a purpose-specific tool also made the feedback process enjoyable rather than purely evaluative. The project’s central lesson is to combine disciplined iteration with playful experimentation. Prototypes, small tools, and early feedback can expose problems sooner while keeping a demanding creative project engaging.

Figma Prototyping Typography Auto Layout+4