Key Takeaways
- Embrace Cross-Functional Collaboration: Break down silos by encouraging overlapping roles between PMs, designers, and engineers. Shared ownership fosters innovation and leads to better products.
- Master Storytelling: Craft compelling narratives that clarify the “why” behind your product. Storytelling aligns teams, inspires stakeholders, and ensures your vision resonates across audiences.
- Adopt Strategic Frameworks: Simplify complexity by creating user-centric frameworks that unify teams around shared goals and provide clear direction.
- Leverage AI Thoughtfully: Use AI as an enabler, not a shortcut. Prioritize quality, simplicity, and user experience when integrating AI into your products.
- Stay Close to Customers: Go beyond surface-level feedback with methods like iterative questioning and co-creation. Deeply understand user needs to deliver meaningful solutions.
- Own the “Why”: PMs must stay deeply connected to the purpose and vision of their products. This ensures every decision aligns with solving real user problems.
- Adapt and Learn Rapidly: Embrace iteration and maintain high standards. Deliver “minimally awesome products” (MAPs) that evolve based on user feedback and insights.
- Champion Simplicity and Experimentation: Balance ambition with simplicity. Foster a culture of innovation by challenging assumptions and experimenting to find what truly delights users.
Product management is evolving rapidly, driven by emerging trends, shifting user needs, and technological breakthroughs. And if there’s one company that embodies these shifts and sets the benchmark for others, it’s Figma.
Explore this blog where we unravel the genius behind Figma's leadership, combining key insights from Lenny's Podcast at Config 2024 with Yuhki Yamashita's thoughtful reflections to illuminate strategies that drive stellar product development and management.
Known for revolutionizing design and collaboration, Figma doesn’t just build tools—it redefines how product teams operate and innovate. This deep dive explores key lessons from Figma’s leadership on what the future of product management holds and how teams can adapt and thrive in this new landscape.
1. Embrace Cross-Functional Collaboration
The traditional lines between roles like product managers, designers, and engineers are fading. This blurring of roles reflects a broader industry trend, where cross-disciplinary collaboration drives innovation. At Figma, leaders see this as a powerful shift. Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma, shared on Config 2024: Lenny's Podcast:
“It’s always hard to actually create those clear lines. And I think in many organizations, they’re blurry... A PM and designer need to have some technical expertise... A designer and engineer should have a sense of business objectives... An engineer and product manager should have taste and craft.”
This fluidity fosters collaboration, making teams more effective. One notable example Dylan mentioned was how Figma’s engineering team often works closely with designers to refine user-facing elements without waiting for formal handoffs. This organic collaboration ensures faster iterations and a tighter feedback loop.
As Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita puts it:
“Some designers do PMs’ jobs, and some PMs do designers’ jobs, and that’s okay.”
Yuhki expanded on this philosophy by referencing Figma’s Dev Mode—a tool that was developed with input from both designers and engineers who stepped outside their traditional roles to ensure it was tailored to developer needs. This approach allowed the team to challenge assumptions and deliver a feature that was highly intuitive for its audience.
For teams, this means embracing cross-functional skills and breaking silos. The takeaway? Collaboration and shared ownership lead to better products, and a willingness to step beyond traditional boundaries can unlock unexpected innovation.
2. Product Managers as Storytellers
Storytelling is an essential skill for product managers, helping align teams, inspire stakeholders, and clarify the “why” behind a product. Yuhki Yamashita, Figma’s Chief Product Officer, highlights its importance:
"Your core job is to motivate everyone to focus on the right thing or solve a particular problem."
At Figma, storytelling played a key role in launches like FigJam, where the product narrative centered around inclusive brainstorming for remote teams. Similarly, during the development of “Dev Mode,” PMs framed it as a solution to the disconnect between design and development, ensuring adoption through relatable user pain points.
Key Practices:
- Anchor in the Why: Articulate the problem and user value.
- Simplify the Message: Craft clear, memorable narratives.
- Unify Teams: Use stories to align stakeholders on shared goals.
For PMs, storytelling is a superpower—one that transforms products into solutions that resonate with users and teams alike.
3. Adopt Strategic Frameworks
Great product managers go beyond task management to lead strategically. Dylan Field highlighted that great PMs craft frameworks that unify teams around shared goals:
“Good process can help support good outcomes, but you can’t lose sight of the problems you’re solving. You have to go talk to users, have a strategy, and if you’re really good, you’ll have a point of view.”
Exceptional PMs simplify complexity through thoughtful frameworks while fostering alignment and collaboration. Field stressed:
“The more you add, the harder it is to create something coherent. Simplicity is extremely hard but crucial.”
4. Leverage AI Thoughtfully
AI is transforming product management, offering unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Figma’s journey with AI highlights both its potential and the diligence required to unlock it.
A prominent example is FigJam’s AI-powered summarization feature, which condenses user input, such as sticky notes, into bullet points. While promising, the initial iterations revealed a key challenge: AI quality isn’t automatic. As Yuhki Yamashita emphasized:
“With AI, PMs need to own quality. It’s easy to see AI as a black box, but you have to hold the bar high.”
To ensure FigJam AI met Figma’s standards, the team iterated relentlessly, refining outputs to delight users while retaining the intended nuances. This process exemplified the importance of high-quality, user-centric AI integration.
Beyond quality control, AI is reshaping traditional product paradigms. Tools like ChatGPT demonstrate how AI can simplify complex functionalities through intuitive interfaces, bypassing traditional navigation models. Yamashita reflected on this shift:
“AI bypasses a lot of navigation and complexity, and so we might see a different set of incentives emerging.”
For Figma, this insight translated into leveraging AI to reduce friction and streamline workflows. For example, their summarization feature not only organizes information but also minimizes cognitive load, making tools more accessible without overwhelming users.
Key Lessons for Product Teams:
- Quality Control: Regularly evaluate and refine AI processes to meet and exceed user expectations.
- Simplified Navigation: Leverage AI to eliminate unnecessary complexity while enhancing user experience.
- User-Centric Evolution: Use AI to solve real user pain points while prioritizing usability and simplicity.
- Avoid the “Black Box” Trap: Maintain transparency in how AI is applied, ensuring users feel in control of the outputs.
5. Stay Close to Customers
As customer-centricity becomes a cornerstone of successful product strategies, Figma's practices offer a roadmap for meaningful engagement. One such approach is the “five whys” method, as Yuhki Yamashita explains:
“Keep going deeper and deeper... That’s when you get to the real truth.”
This iterative questioning enables teams to move beyond surface-level feedback to uncover root causes. For example, when users request a feature, the team doesn’t stop at delivering it. Instead, they investigate why the feature is needed and what broader problem it addresses, ensuring the solution is meaningful and impactful.
Figma also employs tools like in-product feedback prompts and community forums, where users share detailed suggestions. These inputs are prioritized and mapped against the company’s vision to maintain alignment.
Another effective strategy has been direct engagement with users, such as hosting workshops and beta testing sessions. During the development of FigJam, Figma invited early adopters to co-create, gathering insights that refined the tool’s direction and usability.
For product teams, the takeaway is clear: don’t just listen to customers—engage with them meaningfully. Leverage methods like iterative questioning, maintain open feedback channels, and involve users directly in the product development process to create solutions that resonate and delight.
6. Own the “Why”
Great product managers deeply understand the "why" behind their products. Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, emphasizes that PMs must immerse themselves in the problems they’re solving to deliver true value to users.
During Figma’s early days, Dylan approached influential designers not with a sales pitch but with genuine curiosity. By asking thoughtful questions and engaging deeply, he uncovered pain points that helped refine Figma into a product that met real needs. He summarized his approach succinctly:
“Reaching out to your heroes sometimes works.”
This mindset of learning from users, rather than simply delivering features, creates authentic feedback loops that transform into pathways for innovation.
7. Adapt and Learn Rapidly
Adaptability is critical in today’s fast-paced environment. Dylan Field introduced the concept of a “minimally awesome product” (MAP), which emphasizes delivering a compelling user experience with lean features:
“Software allows for iterative improvements post-launch. Focus on quality and learn from each release.”
A prime example of this adaptability was Figma’s approach to refining their multiplayer design experience. Initially, the real-time collaboration feature faced performance challenges with large teams. Instead of delaying the release, the team launched with a clear roadmap to address these issues. Through rapid iteration and user feedback, they optimized performance while continuously enhancing the user experience.
Another instance was the development of FigJam. Early versions were intentionally simple to test the core idea of visual collaboration. Feedback from beta users revealed critical areas for improvement, leading to the addition of templates and integrations that elevated the product without losing its ease of use.
Figma’s ability to pivot and learn from challenges underscores a key takeaway for product teams: embrace rapid iteration and prioritize quality without fear of launching imperfect solutions. Continuous learning isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s about evolving with your users and delivering lasting value.
8. Champion Simplicity and Experimentation
Simplicity and ambition form the cornerstone of great product management, and Figma’s leaders champion this through the concept of taste, simplicity and experimentation. Dylan Field, Figma’s co-founder, underscores the importance of developing a refined sense of what resonates with users:
“We’re so early on this journey... and we’ll build incredible technology. But holding the line for quality is crucial.”
Figma’s approach to experimentation offers valuable insights. For example, during the development of Dev Mode, the team initially assumed their hallmark infinite canvas would be ideal for developers. Internal debates and feedback challenged this assumption, leading to a tailored solution better suited to their needs. This willingness to challenge core principles allowed Figma to deliver an innovation that aligned with user workflows without compromising on simplicity.
Another example is how Figma fosters creativity through intentional experimentation. Early in its journey, the team prioritized testing unconventional ideas to identify what truly delighted users. Features like multiplayer collaboration were fine-tuned through rigorous iteration and feedback loops, ultimately becoming a defining aspect of Figma’s identity.
As product management continues to evolve, Figma’s approach offers a template for success. By embracing collaboration, storytelling, and a relentless focus on user needs, teams can navigate the future with confidence. How will your team rise to the challenge?
