figmaJul 21, 2021

How the Figma PM team builds products and processes | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s product management team treats product development as a transparent, collaborative process rather than a sequence of isolated PM tasks. Its culture emphasizes trust, reflection, inclusion, and transparency, bringing cross-functional partners into brainstorming, prioritization, communication, and decision-making. Tools such as FigJam help turn these values into repeatable team practices. ## Collaborative Brainstorming and Idea Development - PMs use cross-functional brainstorming to gather ideas from across teams and move from ambitious concepts toward actionable solutions. - Effective brainstorming requires more than idea generation: teams need clear decisions, follow-up actions, and alignment. - FigJam supports the process from initial ideation through execution and retrospectives. ### “Buy a Feature” Prioritization - Participants receive a limited amount of fictional currency and invest it in proposed product ideas or focus areas. - The exercise connects prioritization to time and resources rather than producing only a ranked list. - It reveals how strongly people would invest in different opportunities and helps teams decide what to pursue. ### Alignment Scales - Team members place their FigJam profile stamps along scales representing opinions about product directions or beliefs. - Comments and discussion explain the reasoning behind each position. - This makes differences in conviction visible and creates a basis for productive debate. ## Communication Beyond Status Updates - Figma’s PMs use weekly stand-ups to share more than completed tasks and outstanding work. - Meetings begin with executive updates and ad hoc contributions, then each PM responds to three prompts: - What personal issue or thought has been on your mind? - What are you worried or excited about? - What hard or interesting problem have you been considering? - These prompts create space for personal context, uncertainty, and problem-solving—not just project reporting. ## Transparency and Cross-Functional Trust - Because PMs work at the center of product development, they must build fluency across functions and deliberately include partners in their processes. - Opening up discussions and decision-making helps teams understand priorities, surface disagreement, and contribute earlier. - Regular reflection and candid communication reinforce trust while keeping product work aligned. Figma’s approach suggests that strong PM processes combine structured exercises with openness and human connection. Teams can adopt similar practices by making prioritization visible, using collaborative tools for alignment, and designing recurring meetings to address both work and the people doing it.

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figmaJun 13, 2021

Collaborating and connecting in FigJam | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam evolved from a brainstorming tool into a shared workspace for meetings, research, retrospectives, and team-building during remote work. Figma teams use collaborative files to make contributions visible, preserve context, and reduce reliance on lengthy synchronous discussions. The newly added timer strengthens this approach by helping teams coordinate activities and stay focused together. ## Daily Stand-ups - Figma’s Editor Platform team uses a virtual stand-up template for quick daily check-ins. - Teammates add sticky notes about current work, recent progress, blockers, and issues requiring discussion. - Each file represents one day, creating a historical record that helps the team track progress over time. - The format emphasizes visibility and shared context without requiring lengthy meetings. ## Synthesizing Research Feedback - Figma’s research team replaced spreadsheets with FigJam for organizing and discussing user feedback. - Unlike spreadsheet comments, FigJam allows cross-functional partners to annotate research, ask questions, and identify patterns directly in the workspace. - Team members can independently review reports and add takeaways to matrices before meeting, making group discussions more focused. - Templates help organize findings around user archetypes and other research themes. ## Retrospectives and Inclusive Feedback - Teams use retrospective templates covering successes, improvement areas, shout-outs, and future ideas. - Sticky notes create a low barrier to participation, especially for people who are less comfortable speaking in meetings. - Contributions remain visible and easy to scan, helping teams recognize input across engineering, design, and product. - The timer supports structured facilitation: one team gives participants 15 minutes per topic before moving on. ## Team Culture and Social Activities - FigJam is also used for birthday cards, speed-drawing contests, board games, and informal gatherings. - During the FigJam launch, Figma’s marketing team held a remote drawing session with a cartoon artist and a live llama. - These activities demonstrate that the workspace can support connection and celebration, not just project work. The article recommends combining FigJam’s templates and shared canvas with its timer to run more engaging stand-ups, retrospectives, research sessions, architecture discussions, and social activities.

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figmaJun 7, 2021

Inside Figma: how our PM team uses FigJam | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s product management team uses FigJam throughout the product-development lifecycle, not just for early-stage brainstorming. They rely on collaborative templates to shape strategy, generate ideas, plan roadmaps, run retrospectives, and stay aligned in weekly meetings. The broader conclusion is that a flexible visual workspace can strengthen both execution and team rituals, especially for distributed teams. ## Developing a Product Vision - The team uses a product vision board to define short- and long-term priorities. - The board connects user needs, potential features, and business goals. - Visualizing these elements helps validate strategy and show how individual plans support broader objectives. - FigJam makes it easy to capture rough ideas without focusing prematurely on wording or polish. ## Brainstorming Ideas with Crazy 8s - The PM team uses the “Crazy 8s” framework to generate many ideas quickly. - Participants have eight minutes to create eight possible solutions to a problem. - The emphasis is on speed and quantity rather than detailed refinement. - Afterward, the team shares ideas and discusses which concepts are worth pursuing. ## Building and Visualizing Roadmaps - FigJam supports structured planning as well as freeform exploration. - The team uses a Gantt chart to map projects and build product roadmaps. - A visual timeline clarifies each project’s scope, reach, staffing needs, and resource requirements. - It also exposes conflicts and helps the team identify when priorities need to change. ## Running Retrospectives - Product, engineering, and design teams use recurring templates to review product execution. - Marketing, support, and product education teams apply similar retrospectives to go-to-market work. - Sessions focus on what went well and what could improve, creating visibility across teams. - The team also retrospectives its internal processes to ensure they continue working as the organization grows. ## Staying Connected in Weekly Meetings - The PM team meets weekly in a shared FigJam file to exchange updates and maintain alignment. - Prompts cover difficult problems, exciting or concerning developments, and personal updates. - Cursor chats, stickers, and emotes make remote meetings more interactive. - Figma turned this meeting structure into a reusable template for other teams. Figma presents FigJam as a workspace that can support the entire product process. Teams can start with the provided templates and adapt them for strategy, collaboration, planning, reflection, and remote communication.

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