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The Long and Short of It: Issue no.10 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

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“Skill share,” Figma’s April 2025 issue, gathers practical lessons for designers, developers, and product builders ahead of Config 2025. Its central argument is that strong products depend not only on speed or technical execution, but also on craft, communication, storytelling, experimentation, and long-term thinking. The issue encourages readers to keep learning across disciplines and apply these skills collaboratively.

Craft as a Competitive Advantage

  • Linear CEO Karri Saarinen shares ten principles for creating products that stand out.
  • The advice reflects a shift away from “move fast and break things” toward deliberate quality and attention to detail.
  • Craft is presented as an organizational value that should influence every level of product development.

Better Designer–Developer Handoff

  • Successful handoff depends on collaboration rather than simply transferring designs to engineering.
  • Figma’s guide focuses on three principles:
    • Encourage curiosity between designers and developers.
    • Keep communication open throughout the build process.
    • Establish a shared understanding of what “good” means.
  • The goal is to reduce friction, clarify expectations, and preserve design intent during implementation.

Writing and Storytelling for Product Builders

  • Clear writing helps teams explain technical architecture, new features, product roadmaps, and broader visions.
  • Storytelling is not limited to writers or marketers; people in every product role benefit from articulating ideas effectively.
  • Strong communication can make complex concepts easier to understand and build support for new directions.

Building for the Long Term

  • In a period of rapidly advancing AI tools, product teams must focus on making things work well—not merely making them work.
  • Dylan Field and Garry Tan discuss experimentation, play, and exploring an “idea maze” as essential parts of product development.
  • They also address vibe coding, AI-assisted creation, and the importance of preserving human craft even as AI models become more capable.
  • Founders are encouraged to remain deeply focused on quality and to develop products with lasting value.

Broader Exploration

  • The issue also includes a “Rabbit hole” section featuring additional visual and editorial explorations.
  • Together, the featured topics present skill development as an ongoing process spanning design, engineering, communication, and strategy.

The practical takeaway is to treat craft and collaboration as core product skills. Teams can improve their work by communicating clearly, aligning early, experimenting freely, and maintaining high standards even when new tools make development faster.