User Research | Techlist.io

lineMay 28, 20264 min readCurated summary

From Tokyo to Fukuoka, Finding Answers in the Field: Our CS InquiryChat Implementation Journey

MessagingHub replaced Demaecan’s third-party customer-service chat with its own InquiryChat platform. The transition eliminated annual licensing costs, improved operational flexibility, and reduced repeat customer inquiries by about 20%. The project’s success depended not only on rebuilding features, but also on observing call-center work directly, aligning distributed stakeholders, and balancing agent convenience with user privacy. ## Why Demaecan Chose an In-House Platform - Demaecan’s existing chat provider was being discontinued, prompting a choice between upgrading to another vendor solution or adopting InquiryChat. - InquiryChat was selected because it offered: - Zero licensing costs - Flexible customization for Demaecan’s processes - Direct internal technical and operational support - Secure access to customer information - Real-time analytics and reporting - The migration had to preserve service continuity while changing agents’ workflows and tools. ## Problems with the Existing Service - Agents could preview messages before users sent them, creating a transparency and privacy concern. - Chat sessions were not preserved when users left, forcing customers to repeat their inquiries. - Vendor customization and integration options were limited. - Some existing features appeared useful on paper but were not actually used in call-center operations. - Because agents were accustomed to the existing system, they needed evidence that the replacement would improve their daily work—not merely solve problems identified by headquarters. ## Understanding Real Call-Center Needs - Requirements initially arrived indirectly through multiple departments, making their operational context difficult to understand. - The team reorganized requirements into: - Standard platform features - Features requiring customization or review - Features requiring new development - PM Kim Seri visited two call centers in Fukuoka, observed peak-hour operations, and interviewed agents and managers. - Field research revealed: - A manager-support chat feature was unnecessary because agents used hand signals instead. - Audio alerts were ineffective because office environments kept sound muted. - Integration with the existing CS system was essential because agents had to summarize and record every interaction after a chat. - These observations helped the team remove unnecessary features while raising the priority of workflows that were genuinely critical. ## Managing a Distributed Migration - The project involved teams in Korea and Japan, two Fukuoka call centers, external operators, and multiple internal departments. - To create a shared operating model, the PM: - Built a Jira dashboard to visualize progress and support data-driven decisions. - Created a master specification as a single source of truth. - Led internal product and development QA to ensure the original intent was implemented correctly. - Produced detailed operational guides for launch and adoption. - These processes reduced ambiguity across the project and supported a smoother transition from development to live operations. ## Focus Group Testing and Interviews - A focus group test (FGT) brought all stakeholders together to act as customers and CS agents. - Participants followed complete scenarios, from opening an inquiry through resolution. - The FGT exposed user-experience issues before formal QA, including: - Unclear role and status indicators - Android push-notification instability - Keyboard and input-field overlap - Missing timestamps on links - Push-title wording issues - Chat logs not consistently reaching the CS system - Several issues were fixed immediately, while clearer role and status displays were scheduled for further improvement. - Follow-up focus group interviews found the system generally stable and easy to operate, though some participants initially needed time to understand operator and manager roles. ## Balancing Agent Convenience with Privacy - Agents strongly valued the old “message being typed” preview because it helped them anticipate replies and reduce average handling time (AHT). - From a platform perspective, previewing unsent or deleted text was a serious information-ownership and privacy risk. - Rather than simply removing the feature, the team introduced a typing-status indicator. - This preserved agents’ awareness of the customer’s response rhythm without exposing the customer’s actual unfinished text. The project demonstrates that successful system internalization requires more than feature parity. Direct observation, structured stakeholder coordination, realistic user testing, and privacy-conscious design enabled Demaecan to reduce costs while improving both operational efficiency and customer experience.

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User Research Android Jira Information Security+3

tossMar 6, 20263 min readCurated summary

Foreign User Research: Why

Toss investigated why many foreign users struggle to use Korea’s financial services, even after signing up. Research showed that confusing identity verification, name formatting, and address entry often prevented users from completing registration, forcing them to visit bank branches for routine tasks. By redesigning the name-entry and authentication process, Toss increased the foreign-user verification completion rate by about 15% and eliminated the gap with Korean users. ## Investigating Foreign Users’ Financial Experiences - Foreigners often perceive Korea’s banking system as complex and difficult to navigate without assistance. - Toss wanted to make its “finance for everyone” vision include foreign residents. - The team suspected that several verification steps caused users to abandon registration: - Preparing a foreigner registration card - Mismatches in telecom-provider information - One-won account verification - Difficulties entering names and personal details ## Field Research with Blue-Collar Workers - The team focused especially on blue-collar foreign workers, whose financial habits were less understood than those of students or white-collar workers. - Initial attempts to arrange factory interviews failed, so researchers visited the Siheung Industrial Complex during lunch hours. - Street interviews were difficult because formal clothing, identification badges, and consent documents made passersby cautious. - A more casual approach helped the team conduct several interviews. - Researchers later visited a multicultural center in Pocheon, where they met foreign residents from different countries and with varying lengths of stay. ## Why Foreign Users Rely on Bank Branches - Mobile banking often felt like a complicated system that users could access only after repeated trial and error. - Many users abandoned the process before reaching any financial-service features. ### Name Entry and Identity Verification - Users were unsure how to format their names: - Where to place spaces - Whether to enter family names first - Whether to match their foreigner registration card, bank account, or telecom records - A name such as “BRAD PITT” might need to be entered in an unexpected format, such as “BR AD.” - Some users repeatedly failed verification because their name format differed across institutions. - One participant had never successfully completed online identity verification under their own name in eight years. - Error messages rarely explained the actual cause of failure. - After five or more failed attempts, users could no longer continue. ### Address Entry - Entering Korean addresses was another major barrier, especially for users unfamiliar with typing Korean. - Users tried postal codes, English addresses, and lot numbers, then searched through address lists. - Search results often displayed too many options, making the correct address difficult to locate. - Repeated unsuccessful searches led some users to abandon registration and visit an offline branch instead. ## Improving the Authentication Funnel - Research identified name entry and authentication as the primary causes of foreign-user drop-off. - Toss’s product team redesigned the name-input structure and authentication flow. - The changes increased the foreign-user authentication completion rate by approximately 15%. - The completion-rate gap between Korean and foreign users was ultimately eliminated. Toss’s research demonstrates that inclusive financial services require understanding users who are often overlooked. Removing small but fundamental barriers in registration and authentication can make digital banking accessible to a much broader population.

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User Research Database Design User Experience Mobile App+4

tossNov 30, 2025Original article

In Search of the Toss Brand Symbol (opens in new tab)

Toss, a leading Korean fintech platform, embarked on a UX research journey to define its visual identity as it expanded from digital services into offline environments like Toss Pay payment stations. The study revealed that while users strongly associate the brand with seamless "usability," they lacked a single, clear mental image of a visual symbol. By analyzing user perceptions of fonts, colors, and shapes, Toss identified a specific visual formula—combining the app icon shape with a white, blue, and black palette—to ensure the brand remains instantly recognizable in the physical world. ## The Challenge of Offline Brand Recognition * The project began with the need to design "danglers" (small signage at payment counters) to signal that Toss Pay is accepted at offline merchants. * While Toss had successfully used various logo iterations online, the team realized that "Toss-ness" learned within the app might not automatically translate to unfamiliar offline environments. * Initial internal debates focused on superficial visual tweaks, such as background colors or language choices, rather than understanding the core assets that trigger brand recognition. ## Identifying Usability as the Core Brand Image * In-depth interviews were conducted with participants selected for their ability to articulate abstract brand impressions. * Research showed that users primarily associate Toss with keywords like "clean," "practical," and "convenient," rather than specific aesthetic elements. * One participant described Toss as a "program made by a genius engineer in Excel," highlighting that the brand’s value was rooted in its utility rather than a distinct visual symbol. * This presented a challenge: since the "app experience" cannot be felt through a static offline sign, the team had to find a visual surrogate for that functional reliability. ## Deconstructing the Toss Symbol: Font, Color, and Shape * **Font:** Testing revealed that the most recognizable font was the black English "toss" wordmark, primarily because users see it most often in external media and news rather than inside the app. * **Color:** Surprisingly, users did not associate Toss with a single shade of blue. Instead, they recognized the specific combination of a "blue logo on a white background." * **Logo:** When asked to draw the logo from memory, users consistently included a square border. This indicated that users perceive the brand’s "face" specifically as the smartphone app icon (the blue logo inside a rounded square) rather than the standalone logo mark. ## Implementing the "Toss Formula" in Design * The research led to a refined brand identity formula: **White background + Black bold English font + Blue app-icon-shaped logo.** * In the "10 to 100" 10th-anniversary campaign, the company shifted away from all-blue backgrounds in favor of this white-based combination to maximize recognition. * Toss Pay payment screens were updated to remove blue backgrounds, adopting the white-and-black layout to align with how users intuitively identify the service. For UX researchers and designers, this case demonstrates that brand identity is often a composite of environmental cues rather than a single graphic. When moving a digital-first brand into the physical world, it is essential to look beyond the logo and identify the specific "visual formula" that triggers the user's memory of the product experience.

User Research User Experience Fintech Brand Identity+2

figmaJan 8, 20252 min readCurated summary

When To Off-Road the Product Roadmap | Figma Blog

Product roadmaps provide direction, but they should not become rigid commitments. Figma’s experience building Dev Mode shows that rapidly changing technology and user feedback often require teams to abandon planned work, pivot, or restart entirely. The best products are shaped by these course corrections rather than harmed by them. ## Why Traditional Roadmaps Need Flexibility - AI tools, agents, and coding assistants are accelerating product development and raising user expectations. - Six-to-twelve-month plans can become outdated before execution is complete. - Prescriptive roadmaps risk keeping teams committed to assumptions that are no longer valid. - Modern product development requires more experimentation, iteration, and willingness to change direction. ## Dev Mode’s Pivot from Code Generation - Figma initially envisioned Dev Mode as a way to automate the conversion of designs into code. - User feedback revealed that many developers already had reusable code for their design systems. - Developers often needed help assembling existing components rather than generating new CSS or code. - Figma shifted its focus to **Code Connect**, which lets teams customize the code snippets shown in Dev Mode using their existing design-system code. - The change delayed launches and frustrated people who had invested months in the original plan, but it better addressed user needs. ## Course Correction as a Product Strength - Figma argues that great products are often defined by twists and pivots. - Loom and Slack are cited as examples of companies that began with very different product concepts before finding their current direction. - Figma avoids letting sunk costs dictate future decisions. - Teams may abandon or restart projects when research, internal testing, or beta feedback shows that the product is not working. ## Learning Through Real-World Feedback - After Dev Mode’s 2023 beta, user feedback became more important than following the original roadmap. - Figma released more than 200 fixes and new features in a single month. - Rapid iteration can be frustrating, but it helps teams move toward outcomes that genuinely work for users. - Valuable information can come from user research, internal dogfooding, rapid prototypes, and beta programs. Teams should treat roadmaps as adaptable guides rather than fixed contracts. When evidence challenges the plan, experiment quickly, revisit assumptions, and be willing to go “off-road” to build the product users actually need.

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User Research Figma AI Design Systems+4

figmaNov 25, 20243 min readCurated summary

Pablo Sánchez’s 7 Rules for Designing the Unexpected | Figma Blog

Pablo Sánchez argues that memorable digital products come from personal conviction, unexpected sources of inspiration, and a willingness to imagine alternatives to the present. His work on Ableton Note demonstrates this approach: instead of reproducing conventional music-production tools, the app emphasizes tactile, immediate experimentation through features like “Capture,” which loops phrases after they are played. ## Design for Yourself - Strong design begins with personal conviction rather than detached objectivity. - Designers should create something that inspires them, since personal enthusiasm can make the final product feel authentic. - For Ableton Note, Sánchez replaced an expected MIDI editor with directly playable instruments suited to mobile interaction. - User testing later validated the direction, and the app launched without a MIDI editor. - Note lets users tap rhythms on a 16-pad grid, play melodies and chords, and develop variations in Session View. ## Brainstorm Without References - Starting with existing design references can lock a team into familiar solutions. - Brainstorming without references encourages ideas drawn from personal experience and absorbed cultural influences. - Sánchez describes this process as creating an “assemblage” from the collective ideas designers carry with them. - Although Note’s influences were not copied directly, apps such as Samplr and Borderlands Granular contributed to its creative foundation. ## Look Beyond Design - Inspiration can come from literature, dance, nature, science, emotions, and personal memories—not only other interfaces. - Sánchez wanted Note to feel as immediate as picking up a guitar and experimenting. - He also drew from Brutalist architecture, particularly its emphasis on materiality, simplicity, and the removal of unnecessary ornament. - This led to a minimal interface that reduces the complexity of music production and lets users interact directly with sound. - Note includes features such as a microphone-based sampler and a visual sound interface. ## Design for Tomorrow - Sánchez distinguishes between: - **Affirmative design**, which solves existing problems and reinforces the current world. - **Critical design**, which questions current conditions and explores how the world could be different. - Unexpected design combines both approaches by imagining new possibilities while encouraging people to investigate them. - Designers are encouraged to speculate beyond present assumptions rather than simply repeating familiar patterns. - The article invokes xenofeminist thinking—“If nature is unjust, change nature!”—as an example of challenging supposedly fixed conditions. The excerpt presents unexpected design as a practice of trusting personal intuition, combining diverse influences, and designing toward possibilities that do not yet exist. Ableton Note illustrates how a focused, unconventional vision can produce a more playful and distinctive experience than simply implementing expected features.

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User Research User Experience Mobile App Design Music Production+4

figmaApr 9, 20242 min readCurated summary

The Future of Design Systems is Marketing | Figma Blog

Design systems succeed only when people actively use them, so building a high-quality toolkit is not enough. The post argues that design systems teams should treat their systems like products, using marketing practices—audience research, tailored messaging, advocacy, and impact measurement—to drive adoption. This approach can turn a “nice-to-have” resource into an essential part of how an organization designs and builds products. ## Understand the Audience - Find product-market fit by learning how designers, developers, and leaders work, what frustrates them, and what they value. - Interview people across the Product Design and Engineering organization, from individual contributors to executives. - Begin with their existing processes, bottlenecks, and goals rather than immediately pitching the design system. - Use this research to shape the system’s positioning and continuously refine it. ## Tailor the Message to Each Group - Different audiences need different versions of the design system’s value proposition: - **Designers:** Emphasize creative enablement and brand consistency. - **Developers:** Focus on reusability, standardization, efficiency, and smoother design-to-code workflows. - **Decision-makers:** Demonstrate return on investment through faster delivery and reduced technical debt. - Address objections directly, including concerns about flexibility, technical constraints, and the effort required to implement the system. - A carefully adapted pitch can turn skepticism into support. ## Treat Adoption Like a Campaign - Replace one-off Slack announcements, presentations, and poorly attended training sessions with a deliberate go-to-market strategy. - Build compelling narratives around why the system matters to the organization. - Identify internal champions who can promote adoption within their teams. - Use supporting capabilities such as Code Connect, typography and gradient variables, and library analytics to make adoption easier to encourage and measure. The practical recommendation is to market a design system as actively as it is built: understand its users, communicate benefits in their language, recruit advocates, and measure whether it is delivering organizational value.

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User Research Figma Design Systems Product Design+3

figmaMar 18, 20242 min readCurated summary

23 Prototyping Resources to Bookmark Right Now | Figma Blog

Prototyping is valuable throughout product development—not just at the end—as a way to align teams, gather feedback, conduct research, and improve products through iteration. Figma’s curated collection of 23 resources supports different learning styles, from introductory videos and community files to presentation techniques and advanced prototyping features. ## Cover the Basics - An eight-minute video introduces interactive prototypes, animation, and incorporating tester feedback. - A 50-minute playlist covers: - Easing curves and transitions - Smart Animate - Scrolling - Device frames - A 63-minute “Prototyping 101” video explains basic frame-to-frame navigation and advanced features such as interactive components. - A two-part series for product professionals demonstrates how non-designers can create lightweight prototypes. - Part one covers basic prototype creation. - Part two explores transitions, Smart Animate, scrolling, and other motion techniques. - The “Accessible prototypes in Figma” community file demonstrates prototype accessibility features, including compatibility with screen readers such as VoiceOver on Mac and JAWS on Windows. ## Level Up Presentations - Prototyping can make presentations more dynamic and engaging, whether for boardrooms, classrooms, or other audiences. - A 70-minute video explains how to build interactive slide presentations in Figma. - A short tutorial shows how to embed interactive elements, such as scrollable mobile screens, inside presentation slides. - Another video demonstrates using the Figma mobile app to click through presentation slides. ## A Broader Prototyping Practice - Figma positions prototyping as a tool for: - Building shared team understanding - Testing ideas with users - Facilitating stakeholder feedback - Iterating before development - The resource list follows recent Figma prototyping enhancements, including updates that help bring designs to life across mobile, tablet, and smartwatch interfaces. - The article is organized as a learning path, with additional sections intended to cover video, motion and flow, variables, and recorded office hours. Use the resources progressively: begin with the introductory tutorials, then explore accessibility, presentation workflows, motion, variables, and community examples as your prototyping needs become more advanced.

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User Research Figma Prototyping Accessibility+3

figmaJan 29, 20242 min readCurated summary

Peter Yang: 10 Rules for Making Products that Customers Love | Figma Blog

Peter Yang argues that great product management is a craft, not an instinct or checklist. Product managers must continually develop product sense, deeply understand customers, think strategically before executing, and protect quality through difficult trade-offs. The goal is to build products customers genuinely value, even when that requires delaying milestones or abandoning a beloved project. ## Product Sense Must Be Cultivated - Product sense is the ability to create products or changes that have the intended impact on users. - It is not a permanent, intuitive skill; markets and customer needs constantly change. - PMs should continually improve through: - Empathy - Creativity - Attention to craft - Humility and ongoing learning ## Use Empathy to Diagnose the Problem - Teams often rush into solutions before clearly understanding the customer or business problem. - Peter cites empathy as a product manager’s superpower. - PMs can build empathy by: - Treating customers like members of the team - Speaking directly with them - Personally using the product as customers do, even for just an hour - Accurate problem diagnosis should come before defining a vision or solution. ## Start with Big Ideas Before Daily Execution - Once the problems are understood, teams should pause before getting absorbed in execution. - Collaboratively define: - Mission - Vision - Strategy - Brainstorm ambitious, “blue-sky” ideas and prioritize them. - Seek simple solutions—potentially a few clear steps—that best address customer needs. - New learning may require changing priorities and making trade-offs. ## Protect Quality and Know When to Change Course - Quality may require missing a launch date or short-term OKR. - In one example, Yang chose to add an important feature identified through customer conversations, even though it meant missing a quarterly deadline. - Craft means obsessing over details, trade-offs, bugs, and the extra work required to create a worthwhile experience. - Product managers must also recognize when a project should be canceled. - At Reddit, Yang worked on Reddit Talk, a well-loved live audio product, but the project was ended during an economic downturn because it did not improve the company’s most important metrics. - Good product judgment includes considering the company’s broader needs rather than becoming attached to a particular product. The practical recommendation is to keep customer understanding and product quality at the center of decision-making, while remaining flexible enough to delay, redirect, or stop work when the evidence demands it.

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User Research Product Management Brainstorming Product Strategy+3

figmaOct 24, 20232 min readCurated summary

How Figma’s data science and user research teams weave together insights that count | Figma Blog

Figma’s data science and user research teams combined quantitative and qualitative methods to understand why notifications were not driving enough collaboration. Data revealed where users dropped out of the notification funnel, while user research explored the reasons behind those behaviors. Their synthesis showed that the biggest issue was not interaction with notifications, but that many users were never receiving them, leading to new alert types and changes to notification recipients and timing. ## Building a Cross-Functional Process - Data Scientist Caitlin Hudon and Researcher Jennifer Sanders began with a teamwide FigJam brainstorm. - They reviewed notification funnel metrics, including the percentages of users who: - Were eligible for notifications - Received them - Viewed them - Interacted with them - The team identified strategic questions, potential notification types, and data gaps. - Questions were divided according to whether data science or user research was best suited to answer them. - Caitlin and Jennifer maintained close communication while conducting their separate investigations, treating quantitative and qualitative work as complementary rather than independent. ## Understanding the Notification Funnel - Figma notifications can arrive through email, Slack, mobile devices, the file browser, the system tray, or the desktop app. - Notification events include comments, replies, reactions, invitations, editing access, and @mentions. - Users must move through several stages before engaging: - All Figma users - Users eligible for notifications - Users who receive notifications - Users who view them - Users who interact with them - Quantitative analysis showed what users were doing at scale. - User research was needed to understand why users behaved that way, since people may not always accurately explain their own motivations. ## Finding the Biggest Opportunity - The activity team initially needed to determine which stage of the funnel deserved attention. - Cross-functional analysis revealed that most users were not receiving notifications at all. - This shifted the focus away from simply improving notification engagement. - The main opportunities were to create new alert types and reconsider who should receive notifications and when. ## From Insights to Impact - Figma’s activity team began running notification experiments based on the combined findings. - A new notification type was released to address major user pain points. - The broader goal is to help teams stay connected and collaborate effectively across Figma and FigJam. The case demonstrates that product teams get stronger, more actionable conclusions when behavioral data is paired with direct user research.

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User Research Figjam Slack Data Science+2

figmaSep 14, 20233 min readCurated summary

Meet the nonprofit training formerly incarcerated people for careers in UX design | Figma Blog

CROP Organization is a nonprofit helping formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives through holistic reentry support and UX design training. Its year-long Ready 4 Life program combines personal development, career preparation, employment services, and stable housing, using Figma to open pathways into tech. The organization argues that access to education, tools, mentorship, and opportunity can reduce recidivism and challenge assumptions about what formerly incarcerated people can achieve. ## CROP’s Mission and Ready 4 Life Program - Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) was founded in Oakland by people with extensive personal experience of incarceration. - The organization addresses gaps in reentry services, where housing, employment, counseling, and other support are often fragmented. - Its Ready 4 Life program provides: - Personal development - Career training - Employment services - Stable housing - The first cohort included 12 fellows living in apartments on CROP’s West Oakland residential and training campus. - Fellows also receive personal coaches and a monthly stipend. ## Founding the Organization Through Lived Experience - CROP’s founders collectively spent roughly 100 years incarcerated. - After one founder’s release exposed serious weaknesses in existing reentry services, the group designed a more integrated, “wraparound” model. - Jason Bryant describes education as transformative; during 20 years in prison, he earned a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and certification as a drug and alcohol counselor. - CROP seeks to help participants build skills and stability rather than simply return them to disconnected support systems. ## UX Design as a Career Path - CROP trains fellows in UX design using Figma. - Instructor Alexis Bustos joined after five years as a UX designer because she wanted to make a direct contribution to diversity and inclusion in technology. - She sees fellows’ storytelling, problem-solving, and ability to connect with people as valuable strengths in UX. - According to Bustos, the fellows primarily need technical training and access to tools—not a fundamentally different set of abilities. ## Reducing Recidivism Through Opportunity - The program aims to help address California’s approximately 50% recidivism rate. - California spends about $106,000 per incarcerated person annually, while only 3.4% of that spending goes toward rehabilitation. - CROP says its program costs roughly half the per-person cost of incarceration. - In 2021, the organization secured a three-year, $28.5 million partnership with California after presenting its plans to Governor Gavin Newsom. ## Challenging Social Stigma - CROP’s broader mission is to demonstrate that formerly incarcerated people can transform their lives when given meaningful opportunities and resources. - The program combines practical support with professional development so fellows can envision futures beyond the limitations imposed by criminal records. - By preparing participants for careers in technology, CROP also seeks to create new entry points into an industry where formerly incarcerated people have historically had limited access. CROP’s approach suggests that successful reentry requires more than isolated services: stable housing, coaching, education, technical skills, and employment support must work together. Programs that pair this holistic foundation with real career opportunities can benefit both participants and the communities they return to.

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User Research Figma User Experience Design Thinking+1

figmaJul 23, 20233 min readCurated summary

The anatomy of launching a Figma open beta | Figma Blog

Launching a product is only the beginning of its go-to-market process. Figma used the two weeks after Dev Mode’s open beta launch as a coordinated research period to measure adoption, understand user sentiment, identify bugs, and prioritize improvements. The central lesson is to define success metrics and responsibilities before launch so teams can quickly turn feedback into product decisions. ## Post-launch work requires cross-functional ownership - Product, marketing, and support shared responsibility for evaluating Dev Mode. - The product team tracked feature usage. - Marketing monitored public sentiment and audience reach. - Support focused on bugs, requests, and potential improvements. - Product manager Avantika Gomes synthesized information from all sources, prioritized actions, coordinated follow-up, and guided iteration. - Constant communication ensured that important social posts and recurring user issues reached the broader team. ## Dev Mode as an open-beta test - Dev Mode is a Figma workspace designed specifically for developers. - It functions similarly to a browser inspector for design files, letting developers collect measurements, specifications, assets, and other information directly from the canvas. - The open beta provided free access to all Figma users through the end of 2023. - Figma used the beta to test whether Dev Mode addressed developer needs and to discover how it could be improved. ## Define metrics before launch - Feedback from developers and designers during the closed beta helped Figma refine core workflows, collaboration features, and newly identified needs. - The team selected a north star metric: the percentage of weekly active users in developer roles who used Dev Mode. - They also established benchmarks before launch, making it easier to judge whether results were strong or weak. - Prebuilt dashboards allowed the team to compare activity before and after the open-beta release. ## Measure adoption, reach, and user reaction - Figma tracked usage of individual features, including: - The Inspect panel - Compare changes - Related links - These measurements showed which capabilities were being adopted and which were most compelling. - To evaluate reach, the team monitored: - Social media impressions - Email open rates - In-product message impressions - Social sentiment and live audience reactions during Config helped reveal which features generated enthusiasm. ## Track problems through multiple feedback channels - Figma monitored Help Center article views to identify areas where users needed clarification. - In-product feedback submissions and support tickets provided direct reports of bugs and improvement requests. - Combining behavioral metrics with qualitative feedback helped the team understand not only what users did, but also where they struggled. The practical recommendation is to treat launch as the start of an intensive learning cycle: assign clear owners, establish benchmarks and dashboards in advance, and combine product analytics, public sentiment, and support data to guide rapid improvements.

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User Research Figma Dev Mode Design Tools+3

figmaJan 19, 20222 min readCurated summary

From experiment to launch: how data shaped a new comments experience | Figma Blog

Figma used a series of data-driven experiments to redesign its comments experience and encourage collaboration among both editors and viewers. Although comments strongly predicted team retention and growth, they were underused because users struggled to discover them. Experiments confirmed that improving visibility increased comment creation, while an intuitive-looking relocation of the comments control unexpectedly reduced discoverability. ## Collaboration and Comments - Teams that collaborate during their first month are: - 1.75× more likely to be retained. - 6.5× more likely to become customers. - Figma identified comments as a potential “front door” to collaboration because both editors and viewers can use them. - Despite their value, comments were not widely used, prompting the data science team to investigate the gap between user needs and behavior. ## Testing Comment Discoverability - Users previously entered comment mode through an icon in the upper-left corner of the editor. - Research sessions suggested that comments were valuable but difficult to find. - Figma tested a prompt encouraging view-only developers to leave comments. - After two weeks in a 50/50 experiment: - Comment creation increased by 45% in the test group. - The rate of users returning to comments the following week did not change. - The result showed that simply making comments more visible could substantially increase usage. ## An Unexpected Result - Figma hypothesized that moving the comments entry point from the left side of the menu bar to the right would improve discoverability. - The reasoning was that the left side emphasized creation tools, while the right side contained collaboration and viewing features more relevant to cross-functional users. - Among new users, the change caused a 20% decrease in comment discovery within seven days of signup. - The failed experiment demonstrated that seemingly logical product changes can significantly harm user behavior. - It also reinforced the value of controlled experiments: product hypotheses are often wrong, and teams should expect testing to disprove many ideas. Figma’s experience illustrates that effective product development depends on combining user research with rigorous experimentation. Rather than relying on intuition about interface placement, teams should validate each change with real behavioral data and use unexpected results to guide subsequent iterations.

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User Research Figma Collaboration Data Science+2

figmaJul 21, 20212 min readCurated summary

How the Figma PM team builds products and processes | Figma Blog

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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User Research Figma Figjam Product Management+3

figmaJun 13, 20212 min readCurated summary

Collaborating and connecting in FigJam | Figma Blog

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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User Research Figma Figjam Remote Work+3

figmaMar 2, 20212 min readCurated summary

Inside Figma: tips from the team that builds Figma | Figma Blog

Figma’s team uses the product for far more than interface design, including brainstorming, branding, team activities, and remote research. The post presents practical methods and templates that make creative collaboration more approachable, regardless of design experience. Its central recommendation is to use Figma as an open, flexible space for exploration rather than focusing immediately on finding the “right” answer. ## Figma for More Than Product Design - Figmates across engineering, product, design, and research shared favorite workflows in a livestream. - Topics included: - Keyboard shortcuts and speed tips - Brainstorming exercises - Templates for different skill levels - Blend modes and easing curves - The team also uses Figma for team-building and remote user research. ## Brainstorming with Mind Maps Brand designer Remilla Ty recommends a “mind map sketchbook” for gathering inspiration and exploring creative directions. - **Prompt:** The project name or a statement describing the work. - **Image:** Visual references and sources of inspiration. - **Keywords:** Words connected to the images and the original prompt. - The framework helps teams identify themes and turn them into creative concepts. - Figma used this approach while developing branding directions for Figma Community. - The goal is open exploration rather than judging ideas as right or wrong. ## Lists and Mood Boards A second brainstorming method combines structured prompts with visual references. - **Prompt:** A literal description of the project. - **Beyond:** A more abstract interpretation of the project. - **Look and feel:** The emotions the finished work should create. - Teams extract recurring themes and keywords from the lists. - They then build mood boards using images and color palettes. - The resulting visual direction can be distilled into a concept statement and eventually a brand identity. - Figma used this process for its remote Maker Week branding. ## Creating a More Comfortable Research Environment Researcher Nannearl Brown describes using Figma to make participant activities feel less intimidating. - The research team prioritizes helping participants feel comfortable sharing information. - Participants may receive Figma trading cards as pre-work. - The cards encourage them to introduce themselves and prepare for the session. - Questions cover both Figma-related topics—such as favorite features and use cases—and personal information. The practical takeaway is to use Figma’s collaborative canvas not only for polished design work, but also for low-pressure ideation, visual thinking, and human-centered research.

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User Research Figma Remote Collaboration Brainstorming+2