figmaJun 23, 2021

Figma's Series E | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma announced its Series E funding round in June 2021, led by Durable Capital Partners with participation from Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global and earlier investors. The round valued the company at roughly $10 billion. CEO Dylan Field framed the funding as support for Figma’s broader mission: making design accessible, collaborative, and relevant to everyone involved in creating products. ## Series E Funding - Durable Capital Partners led the new investment round. - New investors included Counterpoint Global, Morgan Stanley’s investment group. - Existing investors such as Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz also participated. - The announcement followed 16 months of disruption and remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. ## Figma’s Vision for Accessible Design - Figma aims to make design accessible to all, not only professional designers. - Its browser-based multiplayer model is intended to change how teams work and build products together. - The company plans to serve: - Expert designers with specialized tools - Engineers, product managers, and other product-development roles - Students and company executives - A broader community interested in creativity and visual collaboration - Field described a future with more products that help more people create and collaborate visually. ## Appreciation for the Figma Community - Field credited Figma’s employees, users, and designer community for the company’s progress. - He emphasized the team’s shared experience of working, growing, and supporting one another during the pandemic. - The company presented the funding as both an opportunity and a responsibility to continue serving its community. Figma’s Series E marked a major financial milestone, but the company positioned it primarily as fuel for expanding collaborative, design-first product development. Its recommendation to prospective employees was clear: join the company as it broadens design beyond traditional specialists.

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figmaApr 15, 2020

Look no further: New ways to search and provide context in Figma | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s 2020 updates aimed to make collaborative design work easier to discover and understand. Universal Search lets users find projects, teams, people, plugins, and files without relying only on file names. Links in the editor let designers connect pages, frames, and external documents, making files easier to navigate and providing more project context. ## Universal Search - Figma introduced workspace-wide search to address the difficulty of finding work as teams and content grow. - Users can search for: - Files - Projects - Teams - People - Private plugins - Results appear across categories as users type and can be filtered by category. - For users in the Figma Community beta, results also include community files, publishers, and plugins. - The feature builds on Figma’s shift toward organizing work around people, teams, and projects rather than only folders and file names. ## Links for Navigation and Context - Designers can add links to any page or frame within a Figma file. - Internal links can support navigation aids such as: - Clickable tables of contents - Indexes of design explorations - Pointers to the latest designs or early concepts - External links can connect designs to product requirement documents, specifications, user research, personas, and other project resources. - This allows a Figma file to serve as a central source of truth rather than an isolated design artifact. Together, Universal Search and Links make Figma workspaces easier to search and design files easier to navigate. Teams can spend less time locating assets and more time collaborating with the context needed to make informed decisions.

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figmaMay 23, 2018

How you can design end to end on a Chromebook | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Chromebooks, once considered too limited for professional design, can now support an end-to-end design workflow when paired with cloud-based tools. The author’s year of using Chrome OS professionally shows that Figma, web apps, and cloud storage can replace most desktop software, although custom fonts, internet access, and specialized audio/video work remain limitations. ## Why Switch to a Chromebook? - The author moved from a Mac at Square because Chromebooks offered: - Stronger security - Lower cost - Automatic file backup and synchronization - Using a Chromebook helped the author understand coworkers who used Chrome OS. - Because Figma already ran in the browser, the transition was easier than expected. ## Six Things Designers Should Know About Chrome OS - **Figma is essential:** It is the author’s preferred cloud-based design tool and works natively in the browser. - **Keyboard shortcuts differ:** The Control key replaces Command, while the Search key can act as a modifier. Figma’s shortcut menu displays Chrome OS-specific commands. - **Performance is sufficient:** Figma performed well across three different Chromebooks. - **Most supporting tools are web-based:** Slack, Grammarly, Funkify, and G Suite worked without major issues. - **Font installation is limited:** Chrome OS does not currently support custom typefaces, though Google Fonts provides many alternatives. - **Internet access matters:** Offline functionality exists, but cloud-based workflows are strongest when connected. Touchscreens are useful for scrolling and navigating canvases. ## Choosing Chromebook Hardware - The author tested an HP Chromebook, the touchscreen-and-stylus Samsung Pro, and eventually chose the Google Pixelbook. - The Pixelbook’s keyboard and trackpad were the deciding factors. - Although it started at $999, it cost less than one-third of the author’s previous MacBook Pro. - Cheaper devices, including the $85 Chromebit, could also support lightweight workflows. ## Cloud-Based Tools for a Complete Workflow - **Creating:** Figma, SuperHi, Google Slides, Paste, Grammarly, Google Docs, and Dropbox Paper. - **Organizing:** Asana, Google Tasks, Bonsai, Notion, and 1Password X. - **Messaging and meetings:** Signal, Telegram, Slack, and Google Meet. - **Media:** Spotify and Pocket Casts. - The author still used a Mac for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, since video and audio editing remained desktop-focused. ## The Web as a Design Platform - Cloud software eliminates much of the burden of saving and backing up files. - Files are accessible from any browser rather than being tied to a particular device. - Advancements such as WebGL demonstrate that browsers can handle sophisticated, real-time applications. - The web’s openness and accessibility make it an increasingly viable platform for professional software. Overall, designers who primarily use cloud-based tools can confidently consider a Chromebook, especially if affordability, portability, and synchronized files are priorities. Those dependent on custom fonts or advanced media-production software may still need a traditional computer.

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figmaMay 3, 2017

New faces at the Figma helm | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma is entering a new phase as demand for design and collaborative tools grows across the technology industry. To support that growth, CEO Dylan Field announces Eric Wittman as the company’s first COO and Kris Rasmussen as Vice President of Engineering. Their experience scaling collaboration-focused businesses will help Figma expand its operations, revenue, technology, and team. ## Figma’s Growth Opportunity - Companies increasingly view design as central to creating products customers value. - Large organizations such as IBM and GE are expanding their design teams, while Facebook has pursued a high designer-to-engineer ratio. - Figma argues that the tools available to designers have not kept pace with this demand. - Improving collaboration remains the company’s guiding priority. ## Eric Wittman: Operations, Strategy, and Revenue - Wittman joins after leading Atlassian’s Developer Tools business, including Bitbucket. - As COO, he will focus on: - Recruiting and finance processes - Go-to-market strategy - Revenue and business operations - Company strategy and values - His career spans: - Customer support and product management at Macromedia, where he eventually led Flash product management - CEO of music player company Songbird - General manager of Developer Tools at Atlassian - Figma highlights his unusual combination of operational expertise and strong product enthusiasm. - Before the announcement, he had already helped Figma launch its pricing model and refine its strategic direction. ## Kris Rasmussen: Engineering Leadership - Rasmussen initially joined Figma as a part-time contractor but quickly became an influential, informal leader. - He is appointed Vice President of Engineering and will oversee major engineering initiatives and technical-team development. - His background includes: - Leading engineering at Asana during its early growth - Scaling engineering at Aptana, a web-application developer-tools company - Building personal projects involving 3D graphics - Figma values his ability to resolve disagreements, identify necessary actions, and combine technical skill with leadership. - His primary mission will be building a world-class engineering organization and infrastructure for collaborative design tools. ## Continued Hiring - Figma says it is still early in its development and expects significant opportunities and challenges ahead. - The company invites engineers, designers, writers, and product managers who are passionate about design to apply for open roles. Figma’s leadership changes are intended to turn growing demand for collaborative design software into scalable business and technical execution. Wittman will strengthen operations and commercial strategy, while Rasmussen will lead the engineering organization needed for Figma’s next stage.

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