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.