How Figma is taking over the design world?

Software is eating the world. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, Uber, etc. are taking over the consumer world. These apps are easier to use and visually aesthetic. Enterprise users are demanding similar design experiences and enterprise software is currently catching up. Canva and Figma help enterprises with this. Here’s the timeline for Figma:

2011 – “Google docs for design” ideated by 2 Brown students

2015 – Launched invite-only for product validation

2016 – First public release 

2019 – Launched Figma community allowing designers to share and build 

2021 – Valued at $2.05B; notable customers Slack, Twitter, Github, Square

Strategy 1: Product-led growth 

Figma focused on core features initially - web-based version control, templates and collaboration. The whole design experience involves Product Designers, Product Managers, Software Engineers, Sales and early validation from friendly customers and Figma does an excellent job bringing all together.

Strategy 2: Collaboration & Community driven growth

Figma made it easy to create, test and ship better designs from start to finish in a collaborative way without friction. As sharing designs got easier, people can build new experiences based on the shared designs. Figma created the community so that designers don’t need to start from scratch. 

Strategy 3: Consumer traction; Enterprise monetization 

The line between end-users in consumer space and enterprise is blurring. Most companies these days launch free versions for consumers like you and me, validate the product and expand, make revenues from enterprise sales. For ex. Dropbox provides service for individual users and found product-market fit to enterprises. This trend is well observed with Notion, Slack, Github, Gitlab, etc.