20Product: Figma CPO on How Figma Builds Products: What Works, What Does Not | How Figma Does Testing and Product Reviews | The Future of Design, Engineering and Product with Yuhki Yamashita

Unknown Source May 16, 2025 62 min

artificial-intelligence startup generative-ai ai-infrastructure meta microsoft

🎧 Listen to Original

67 Companies

118 Key Quotes

4 Topics

5 Insights

🎯 Summary

Summary of 20 Product Episode with Yuki Yamashita (CPO, Figma)

This episode of “20 Product” features an in-depth conversation with Yuki Yamashita, Chief Product Officer at Figma, focusing on product philosophy, team building, the evolution of design, and the impact of emerging technologies like AI on product development.

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1. Main Narrative Arc and Key Discussion Points

The discussion begins with Yuki’s background, linking his nomadic childhood to a foundational product skill: questioning all assumptions and building user empathy. This leads into a core tension in product development: balancing simplicity (“simple is always better”) against feature creep necessary for power users. The conversation then pivots to Figma’s strategy for catering to diverse user needs through “different modalities” (e.g., Design Mode vs. standard editor in Figma Buzz/Slides). A significant portion is dedicated to product ideation and prioritization, emphasizing the importance of observing user “hacks” (like using Figma Design for slides) as signals for new product categories. Finally, the episode explores the changing nature of product documentation (PRDs), the power of product storytelling, and the convergence of roles (design, product, engineering) driven by abstraction and AI.

2. Major Topics, Themes, and Subject Areas Covered

• Product Philosophy: Questioning assumptions, user empathy, simplicity vs. power.
• Figma Product Strategy: Expanding into new categories (Figma Buzz, Slides) based on user behavior, and implementing layered experiences (Design Mode).
• Ideation & Validation: Using user “hacks” as primary inspiration, the role of internal “Maker Weeks” for tangible prototyping, and the necessity of a “magic moment” in pitches.
• Product Documentation & Goal Setting: The obsolescence of dense, traditional PRDs, and the continued need for a “North Star” document, often structured using KPI trees (a concept learned at Uber).
• Product Storytelling: The ideal story is self-evident (requiring no tutorial), exemplified by upfront pricing at Uber or the functionality of Code Layers at Figma.
• Future of Product Teams: The blurring lines between design, PM, and engineering due to higher levels of abstraction and AI, and the necessary tension between different advocates (user, business, technical).

3. Technical Concepts, Methodologies, or Frameworks Discussed

• Design Modalities/Lenses: Offering users different ways to interact with the same artifact (e.g., Design Mode vs. standard editor).
• KPI Trees: A goal-setting framework (from Uber) where metrics are mapped upward, sometimes via mathematical links and sometimes via underlying assumptions (e.g., satisfaction leading to engagement).
• Maker Week: Figma’s internal hack week equivalent used for building tangible proof-of-concepts to validate new product ideas.
• Code Layers/Living Designs: A feature where static designs can transform into code, allowing augmentation via prompts—a controversial shift where code becomes a source of truth alongside the visual design.
• AI-Assisted Tools: Mention of engineering teams exploring tools like Cursor for AI-assisted coding.

4. Business Implications and Strategic Insights

• Demand-Driven Expansion: Figma prioritizes new product development where user demand is already proven through organic “hacking” (e.g., 3.5 million decks made in Figma Design motivated the creation of Figma Slides).
• The Value of Tangibility: Building a working prototype (even via Maker Week) is far more convincing in the pitch process than abstract ideas.
• Design Definition Expansion: The definition of “design” is expanding beyond visual manipulation to include iteration via prompting (AI) and writing code, as these are now faster methods for achieving the user’s goal.

5. Key Personalities, Experts, or Thought Leaders Mentioned

• Yuki Yamashita: CPO at Figma, former Head of Product at Uber.
• Shiva Rajamaran: Yuki’s product mentor (from YouTube), known for emphasizing observing user hacks for inspiration.
• Dylan (unspecified): Mentioned as someone who advocates for “simple is better.”

6. Predictions, Trends, or Future-Looking Statements

• Team Structure Evolution: In five years, product teams might see a slight reduction in engineers relative to PMs/Designers as leverage shifts toward defining what to build (UX/problem definition) rather than just how to build it.
• Generalist Product Building Roles: The boundaries between disciplines will continue to blur, potentially leading to more generalist roles, though specialized craft remains valuable for pushing extremes.
• Mandatory Prototyping: A realistic prototype (some form of building) will become essential for everyone on the team, not just engineers, to validate ideas.

7. Practical Applications and Real-World Examples

• Catering to Extremes: Figma uses Design Mode within products like Figma Buzz to offer power features to experts while maintaining simplicity for novices within the same interface.
• Self-Evident Storytelling: The redesign of the Uber rider app that prominently featured upfront pricing was successful because the value proposition was immediately clear from the home screen.

8. Controversies, Challenges, or Problems Highlighted

• Simplicity vs. Power: The constant struggle to avoid feature creep while satisfying power users.
• PRD Death: The traditional, dense 20-page PRD spec is outdated, but the need for

🏢 Companies Mentioned

Joling ✅ tech

Windsurf ✅ tech

Thropic ✅ tech

Travis Kalanick ✅ unknown

Uber Prices ✅ unknown

Uber Black ✅ unknown

New Year ✅ unknown

Does AI ✅ unknown

If I ✅ unknown

Little Big Updates ✅ unknown

Quality Week ✅ unknown

At Figma ✅ unknown

And Figma ✅ unknown

That PMs ✅ unknown

Are PMs ✅ unknown

💬 Key Insights

"Travis Kalanick, at the time, was just like, 'Yeah, this is about principles, and he was very insistent that part of the magic is the transparency, and we're going to go change the industry, and everyone else is going to follow, so we might as well be the first ones to do it and learn from it.'"

Impact Score: 10

"And that's not something that you can rely on an AI to figure out by itself. You need human guidance to push it to think about the experience more deeply or think about something really unique."

Impact Score: 10

"It's really about what is going to help differentiate one product from the next? And we deeply believe it's great design, great craft."

Impact Score: 10

"The supply side of new product creation is infinite in many ways, and discovery becomes more of a problem."

Impact Score: 10

"Before we prematurely say that everything has to be very deeply connected... we're trying out new use cases, and we need to learn from that. And before we prematurely make everything work together, let's learn what's working, what's not, in each of those products great."

Impact Score: 10

"Making them connect better requires systems thinking, seeing the whole picture, that just throwing more people at that isn't going to necessarily solve."

Impact Score: 10

📊 Topics

#artificialintelligence 97 #startup 6 #aiinfrastructure 1 #generativeai 1

🧠 Key Takeaways

💡 always be questioning everything

💡 create this product

💡 allow you to design in any medium, any input method at any point in the product development process, it starts to make sense that we have to introduce those capabilities into a platform