flâneur

10 things I learned from 10 years at Figma

clairebutler.substack.com · 2,668 words · saved by 1 readers

“If this is the future of design, I’m changing careers.” That was the top comment when we launched Figma. Ten years, 1400 employees, and millions of users later I just ended my time at the company that defined my career. I remember when I met Figma’s CEO Dylan in April 2015.1 He whipped out his laptop to show me the product he was working on and he just was so… excited. But I wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t a designer. I secretly didn’t even care much about design. The company had no revenue, no users, not even a website—just nine people coding quietly in a small office attached to the rental Dylan shared with his co-founder Evan. But the idea made sense: why were all our other tools collaborative and online while design remained stuck in file versions and email attachments? That leap of faith turned into a decade of growth and building something I’m deeply proud of. I started as the first marketer and business hire doing mostly product marketing then grew our community, events, social, adv

“If this is the future of design, I’m changing careers.” That was the top comment when we launched Figma. Ten years, 1400 employees, and millions of users later I just ended my time at the company that defined my career. I remember when I met Figma’s CEO Dylan in April 2015.1 He whipped out his laptop to show me the product he was working on and he just was so… excited. But I wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t a designer. I secretly didn’t even care much about design. The company had no revenue, no users, not even a website—just nine people coding quietly in a small office attached to the rental…

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