Why Figma Wins

And Figma is not alone. More and more apps in all categories understand that collaboration should and must be built in as a first party if they want to best serve their customers. Notion, Airtable, etc all understand this. The feedback loops of collaboration get so short that they become part of the productivity loop.

By working within the browser, Figma introduced an astounding level of efficiency into the design process and drove organization-wide adoption, which resulted in large ACV enterprise opportunities. This required a period of complex product development prior to monetization — so being product-obsessed and patient were a big part of the company’s cul

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In the design industry, I genuinely believe we need more communities, not tools. There are so many tools for designers but so few communities. Tools make our job easier. Communities make us better designers. And with the recent AI drama over Figma’s Config, this realization only becomes clearer.

InVision has fostered a strong community, not just aro... See more

AdobeXD, Figma, InVision and Sketch are now the three main platforms in the design category. The four players are all going in the same direction: (i) more collaboration between designers and with other functions in the company, (ii) easing the handover between designers and developers, (iii) building an open ecosystem of plugins to augment the exp... See more

If you look at every technological shift or platform shift so far, it’s resulted in more things to design. You got the printing press, and then you have to figure out what you put on a page. More recently, mobile. You would think, “Okay. Less pixels, less designers.” But no, that’s when we saw the biggest explosion of designers.

—Dylan Field, Figma

The first piece of the puzzle is democratizing creation itself. The best tools broaden the scope of who can be a creator: Figma and Canva for design; Kapwing and Veed for video; Descript and Splice for audio; Unity and Unreal Engine for gaming. Elegant, design-first tools unlock new levels of self-expression. They make being a creator more accessib... See more