Kavir Kaycee explains why Figma won over the competition from the perspective of the Product Manager. He explains Figma’s success by being collaborative, community-driven, and affordable. I also like his point that Figma might become the starting point for all software development in the future.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, the host Daniel Newman is joined by Ashley Still, Senior Vice President of Digital Media/​Marketing, Strategy & Partnerships for Adobe, to take a look at Adobe’s acquisition of Figma.

Congrats to the FigJam team! It’s definitely the most fun and delightful product I’ve used in a while.

Sho Kuwamoto describes how the editor team works. Building the process around ​“What do our users want us to make better?” instead of self-centered questions is probably what makes Figma so magical.

A piece on why businesses should adopt a design-centric mindset to ensure success, with commentary by Nikolas Klein, Product Designer at Figma since 2018.

The Wall Street Journal gathered thoughts and concerns on the deal from folks in the industry, including Scott Belsky, Fons Mans, and Yuhki Yamashita.

Matt Stoller: ​“My instinct is that this merger is illegal and that it will be blocked or abandoned. But I’m not 100% sure, as there are also technical issues here that I’m still trying to wrap my head around. But even within the merging parties, there is genuine concern about whether this merger will close. Internally, Adobe executives are already telling employees not to write anything down about the merger for fear it will be found by government investigators.”

Garry Tan on 10,000 landmines that Dylan Field and Figma had to overcome on their way to success.

Index Ventures is Figma’s first and largest venture partner. In this post, Danny Rimer questions what makes Figma so special and talks about the generational significance of design thinking and Dylan’s focus on the community.

During a VC job interview in 2018, Kyle Harrison built a model with Figma becoming a $19B company in 2025. His analysis was called ​“unrealistic”. Good thread on compounding growth, and there is a deeper dive in his newsletter.

Rafa from Layout FM podcast shares his thoughts and predictions after the acquisition. Also, listen to his podcast episode on this topic.

A good summary of topics discussed at the Figma All-Hands call on September 16th.

Dann Petty hosted an open chat about Figma’s acquisition with Scott Belsky from Adobe.

Nice thread from Nathan Barry, founder of Convertkit, on Figma’s dominance.

Mike Davidson, ex-VP of Design at InVision and Twitter: ​“Figma did a lot of things right over the ten (yes, ten!) years they’ve worked on the product, but one thing they did that no one else has been able to replicate is meet and in some cases exceed native app performance inside of a web browser.“ Also: ​“Within the next several years, it’s going to be possible to go from idea in the morning, to prototype in the afternoon, to working code in the evening… and the company who can do that most thoughtfully is going to be one of the most important companies in the world.”

David Sacks on late bloomers and responsiveness of VC markets. See a more in-depth discussion in Episode 96 of the All-In Podcast.

Andrei Herasimchuk, the ex-Lead Designer at Adobe, shares a list of ​“big wins” and ​“small wins” that Figma cofounders and he wrote down in December 2013. Pretty amazing to see how almost all of it is a reality now. (“Modernizing masking & gradient UI” sounds pretty sweet though!)

Insightful interview about the role of community in Figma’s go-to-market strategy early on. ​“As Senior Director of Marketing, Claire Butler joined Figma as one of the first ten employees and the company’s first business hire. She began shaping the company’s bottoms-up growth strategy and laying the track for a vibrant community before the product was even publicly available.” The conversation is also available as a podcast.

An interview with Badrul Farooqi, the first Product Manager (and 18th employee) at Figma. He spent nearly five years at the company and worked on the two largest customer-facing products at Figma: the core design tool and Figma Community. Learn about solving problems for the most discerning customers, the benefits of being an internal transfer PM, how and where to talk to customers for maximum benefit, and more.

Hatch Design Talks podcast interviews Julia Kestner, Manager Designer Advocate at Figma. With Figma being in the hypergrowth phase and expanding in Europe, her job comes with exciting new challenges. The host spoke with Julia about the role of the Designer Advocate, the dangers of becoming too precious with one’s design system, and what we can expect now that Figma is putting more resources in Europe.