Jira | Techlist.io

figmaFeb 13, 20242 min readCurated summary

5 Things Designers Need to Know for a Smooth Handoff | Figma Blog

Design handoff should be treated as an ongoing process of communication and collaboration, not a single event at the end of design. The article argues that clear annotations, shared terminology, and organized files help ensure that “Ready for dev” genuinely means developers have the context they need. These practices reduce ambiguity while preserving conversations between designers and developers. ## Streamline and Clarify Callouts - Use annotations to explain design intent and highlight details that might otherwise be missed. - Focus callouts on information developers actually need, such as: - New components - Specific interactions not obvious from a prototype - Platform-specific differences - Specs, measurements, and behavior - Avoid duplicating information already captured through variables or styles. - Figma’s annotations in Dev Mode can pin measurements, properties, and notes directly to designs. - Annotations are intended to improve—not replace—designer-developer discussions. ## Adopt a Shared Language - Design and development may use different terms for similar concepts, so teams should align on naming early. - Clarify terms such as “toggle” or “switch” to avoid misunderstandings. - Coordinate variable, style, and component names with conventions already used in code. - Use variables and styles for foundational properties such as: - Fonts - Colors - Spacing - Shared names like `bg-primary-active` are more reliable than manually communicating hex codes or font specifications. - A color wheel within the design system can help teams consistently reference shades and tints. ## Organize Files with Labels - Infinite canvases can become difficult for developers to navigate, especially when they contain unfinished explorations. - Clean up and structure files before inviting developers to build. - Use sections to group related designs and reduce navigation overhead. - Mark completed sections or frames with a “Ready for dev” status so developers know where to focus. - Standardized team templates can reduce context switching and create a more predictable handoff process. A smooth handoff depends on shared context, precise communication, and intentional file organization. Designers should tailor annotations and terminology to their development partners, then clearly separate exploratory work from implementation-ready designs.

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Jira Figma Design Systems Design Tokens+3

figmaFeb 6, 20242 min readCurated summary

Power up your designer-developer handoff with Figma and Jira | Figma Blog

Product teams achieve higher velocity not through speed alone, but through tools, processes, and rituals that keep design and development aligned. Figma argues that reducing communication gaps—especially in hybrid and growing organizations—helps teams preserve “flow” and ship better products faster. High-fidelity prototypes, work-in-progress sharing, and connected workflows such as Figma for Jira are presented as practical ways to support that alignment. ## Building a Shared Understanding with Prototypes - As companies grow, teams tend to become siloed and processes slow down. - Designers and developers may interpret the same requirements differently, making continuous communication essential. - High-fidelity, interactive prototypes provide a shared visual and functional reference: - Developers can understand user flows, pop-ups, dropdowns, and interactive states. - Teams avoid the ambiguity of static mockups or fragmented prototypes spread across many linked pages. - At One.com, designers in Denmark meet regularly with developers in India to review requirements, blockers, and potential problems around a working Figma prototype. - The prototype also preserves meeting context for remote and asynchronous collaborators, allowing people to continue working effectively after the meeting ends. ## Protecting Maker Time and Team Flow - Paul Graham’s “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” is used to illustrate why uninterrupted time matters to designers and developers. - Product teams rarely work in ideal conditions: calendars are crowded, requirements change, and hybrid work introduces additional coordination challenges. - Maintaining velocity therefore requires deliberate foundations: - Clear communication - Shared artifacts - Regular alignment rituals - Processes that reduce interruptions and uncertainty - Daily standups, such as those used by Condé Nast’s product development team, help teams discuss progress, priorities, and possible roadblocks. ## Connecting Design and Development Workflows - Figma positions its Jira integration as a way to keep design context connected to implementation work. - Embedding design information in development workflows helps developers understand not only what to build, but how the intended experience should behave. - The broader goal is to reduce handoff friction and keep different teams working from compatible sources of information. Teams can improve designer-developer handoff by treating prototypes and collaboration processes as part of the product infrastructure—not as final-stage documentation. Use interactive prototypes, share work early, maintain regular alignment, and connect design artifacts directly to development tools such as Jira.

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Jira Figma Prototyping Product Development+2

figmaMay 10, 20222 min readCurated summary

Config 2022: Thinking big and acting with urgency | Figma Blog

Figma’s Config 2022 centered on the idea that designers and builders can influence major global and local challenges by thinking bigger and acting urgently. The 24-hour event brought together 100 speakers for 68 talks, while Figma introduced a broad set of product updates aimed at improving responsive design, collaboration, prototyping, and workflow integration. ## Config’s Broader Mission - Config connected a global design community spanning nearly every country. - Dylan Field argued that creatives are not powerless in the face of issues such as economic inequality and climate change. - The event encouraged attendees to use design and technology to create meaningful change, locally and globally. ## Expanded Design and Prototyping Capabilities - **Dark mode** became available on Figma’s desktop and web applications. - **Redesigned auto layout** added more intuitive responsive-design controls, including absolute positioning and negative spacing. - **Variable font support** enabled more expressive and optimized typography. - **Spring animations** allowed designers to create more natural transitions in prototypes. - **Individual strokes** made it possible to customize borders on specific sides of four-sided shapes. - **Updated outlines** exposed hidden objects and bounding boxes across the canvas. ## More Flexible Design Systems - **Component properties** reduced the need for excessive variants. - The feature also improved alignment between design systems and implementation code, supporting smoother developer handoff. - **Review states** enabled teams to approve changes, request revisions, and provide contextual feedback through branching. ## Collaboration and Workflow Integrations - **Spotlight** allowed participants in multiplayer sessions to direct everyone’s attention to a specific collaborator. - New **FigJam widgets** connected collaborative ideas with execution tools: - Jira - Asana - GitHub - Additional FigJam widgets included greeting cards and voice memos for team celebrations. - **International keyboard shortcuts**, initially in beta, improved shortcut support for German, Japanese, and French keyboards. ## Sharing and File Management - **Password protection** gave file owners more control over who could access shared files. - **Favoriting files** made frequently used documents easier to find and access. Figma positioned these updates as tools for making design work more responsive, collaborative, inclusive, and connected to broader product-development workflows. Teams can benefit most by adopting the features that strengthen their design systems, review processes, and collaboration practices.

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Jira Figma Design Systems Prototyping+4

figmaJul 6, 20213 min readCurated summary

How News UK developed a multi-brand design system | Figma Blog

News UK needed a unified design system for brands spanning print, digital, radio, and television, but its independently operated teams and fragmented tools made scaling difficult. By migrating to Figma, simplifying library management, and investing in education and advocacy, the company created a flexible system that supported brand differences while encouraging collaboration. The transition improved adoption substantially, including a 23-point increase in internal NPS during the first quarter. ## Fragmented Tools and Independent Brands - News UK’s brands, including *The Times* and *The Sun*, historically had separate design organizations, product teams, and workflows. - The team attempted to combine Sketch, Abstract, Zeplin, and InVision, but the result was difficult to maintain. - Design-system updates could take days or weeks, and accommodating brand variations created thousands of styles. - Existing theming features became rigid and overly complex as product requirements expanded. - The launch of *The Times* radio station exposed how much support the design-systems team needed to provide, making the approach unsustainable. - News UK chose Figma to consolidate tools, centralize library management, and increase participation. ## Building Adoption Through Education - The team recognized that successful adoption required cultural change, not just a new tool or library. - Design-system specialists personally configured designers’ Figma workspaces and provided onboarding. - Workshops and documentation covered: - Migrating files from Sketch - Structuring and managing files - Using components - Commenting and inspecting designs - Integrating tools such as Jira - Designers were encouraged to contribute component specifications and reusable patterns. - The team created Figma guidance tools to recommend components for common scenarios, such as onboarding users to a new product. - Designer advocates promoted best practices within product areas and acted as contacts between their teams and the design-systems group. ## Supporting Multiple Brands at Scale - News UK completed its migration to Figma in a few weeks. - Designers shifted from viewing the design system as a burden to seeing it as a productivity aid. - Shared components could be given different brand themes, allowing one system to support distinct visual identities. - A custom Themer plugin helped teams experiment with and build components that worked across multiple brands. - Earlier collaboration and feedback reduced duplicated work and discouraged teams from reinventing existing solutions. - The system was rolled out across all product and design teams. ## Measurable Results - Internal product teams increasingly adopted and contributed to the system. - News UK recorded a 23-point increase in its design-system NPS in the first quarter after introducing Figma. - Teams reported practical benefits while recognizing that the system would continue to evolve. News UK’s experience shows that a scalable multi-brand design system depends on both flexible technology and sustained organizational engagement. Consolidating tools, supporting brand-specific themes, educating users, and appointing internal advocates can turn a centralized system into a shared platform rather than a constraint.

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Jira Figma Design Systems Sketch+4

figmaJul 6, 20202 min readCurated summary

How BT continues to push the telecommunication industry forward | Figma Blog

BT, a telecommunications company founded in 1846, modernized its product development by reorganizing teams into cross-functional product squads. These squads adopted Figma to replace fragmented design tools and improve collaboration among designers, engineers, product owners, content designers, and stakeholders. The shift reduced costs, increased design visibility and consistency, accelerated delivery, and helped BT maintain collaboration during the move to remote work. ## The Evolution to Product Squads - BT created smaller teams responsible for end-to-end product delivery. - Designers began working directly with product owners, engineers, content designers, and other specialists. - The new structure encouraged collaboration but exposed workflow problems: - Too many disconnected tools, including Docs, Sketch, InVision, and Jira. - Time-consuming file transfers and handoffs. - Multiple feedback channels and communication barriers. - Difficulty maintaining cohesive design across product lines. ## Migrating to Figma - BT’s design operations team piloted Figma with one product squad for two months. - The pilot produced quick benefits: - Real-time collaboration became easier. - Design handoffs were simplified. - Teams could design, prototype, and present in one place. - Engineers and product owners gained earlier visibility into design work and could contribute before decisions were finalized. - Following the pilot, BT rolled Figma out across all product squads. - Stakeholders could review and comment on work through a link from any device. ## Business and Organizational Benefits - **50% lower design-tool costs:** Figma replaced Sketch and InVision. - **Greater influence for design:** Better visibility brought design into more business decisions and investment discussions. - **Improved consistency:** Figma created a foundation for a future centralized design system spanning BT’s brand, products, and business units. - **Business continuity:** During COVID-19, Figma provided a shared online workspace for remote teams to communicate and solve problems. - **Faster decision-making:** Teams began conducting live experience walkthroughs with executives instead of preparing polished presentation decks. - **Higher transparency and efficiency:** Cross-functional teams developed a shared understanding of work and goals. BT’s experience shows that adopting a collaborative design platform can support more than design efficiency. Combined with cross-functional product squads, it can reshape organizational workflows, reduce costs, strengthen stakeholder involvement, and help a large company continue innovating.

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Jira Figma Design Systems Prototyping+3

figmaMay 18, 20202 min readCurated summary

Bringing live Figma embeds to your team’s favorite tools | Figma Blog

Figma introduced live embeds for private design files, allowing teams to view current designs directly inside tools such as Notion, Dropbox Paper, Jira, Trello, Coda, and internal documentation sites. The feature addresses the friction caused by designers and developers working across separate tools, replacing outdated screenshots with embeds that update automatically. Figma’s broader goal is to keep designs available in context throughout product planning, development, and documentation. ## Private Embeds Improve Cross-Functional Collaboration - Previously, Figma embeds supported public files, but many teams needed to keep designs private. - Private embeds let authorized teammates view organizational files without leaving their existing workflows. - Embedded files provide context during handoff and reduce the effort of locating and maintaining the latest design version. - Unlike screenshots, live embeds automatically reflect design changes. ## Product Specs and Requirements - Teams can embed designs, prototypes, user journeys, and idea boards alongside product briefs and roadmaps. - Developers can review requirements and the corresponding designs in tools such as Coda, Notion, and Dropbox Paper. - Figma highlighted reusable Coda templates for product requirements and roadmaps. - Keeping designs inside specifications helps ensure that concepts and prototypes remain current. ## Project and Task Management - Embedding designs in Jira issues and Trello cards keeps design and development work connected. - Product teams can reference current designs while planning work, managing sprints, triaging requests, and tracking tasks. - Figma provides integrations through the Figma for Jira app and Figma for Trello power-up. ## Documentation and Internal References - Teams can include private Figma files in documentation systems such as Storybook and internal knowledge sites. - The Figma Live Embed Kit enables organizations to add private embeds to custom documentation platforms. - Embedded designs serve as an up-to-date reference and help establish a single source of truth for UI standards and product behavior. - Prototype embeds also respect settings that hide the Figma toolbar and footer, which is useful for user-testing tools such as Maze. Figma recommends trying private embeds in existing workflows and encourages users to request support for additional tools. The practical takeaway is to embed live Figma files wherever design context is needed, rather than relying on manually maintained screenshots.

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Jira Figma Storybook Notion+4