Lenny's Podcast - Figma’s CEO: Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups | Dylan Field
发布时间:2025-10-16 11:00:58
原节目
以下是将上述内容翻译成中文:
Figma 联合创始人 Dylan Field 讨论了 Figma 从初创公司到上市公司的历程,为创始人及产品构建者提供了洞见和经验教训。他回顾了克服 Adobe 收购失败的挑战、保持创业速度、培养独特的企业文化以及应对产品扩张的经验。
Field 强调了沟通在 Adobe 收购交易失败后,保持专注和动力方面的重要性。他重点介绍了提供离职补偿方案的 “Detach” 项目,作为让团队成员重新评估其投入程度的一种方式。为了保持创业速度,他建议专注于选择能激发动力的问题,理解时间线假设,保持扁平化组织结构,意识到路径依赖性,并积极解决技术债务。
他强调,文化是由公司内部的人员及其行为(正式和非正式)塑造的。Figma 通过吸引对构建和创造充满热情的人才来培养一种创造者文化。他们通过诸如 “Make a Week”(创作周)之类的活动来庆祝这一点。Field 提倡即使在竞争激烈的环境中也要保持良好的体育精神,强调竞争并不排除对其他创新者的尊重和欣赏。
Field 描述了他的领导风格是如何演变的,强调清晰度,并通过挑战假设来充分理解问题。他强调领导者不应回避棘手的问题。他重视聘用可以指导他的人,强调指导是双向的。
Field 分享了一个反直觉的决定,即把 FigJam 做得有趣,以此作为差异化竞争优势。尽管最初存在阻力,但事实证明这是一个成功的举措,表明乐趣可以鼓励人们畅所欲言、分享想法,并使人们在分享想法的空间中感到富有创造力。
为了将产品扩展到单一产品之外,Field 强调 “跟随工作流程”,观察用户如何使用 Figma,从而识别出可以增强其流程的独立产品。他认为创始人不应该仅仅被总潜在市场 (TAM) 所驱动。就 Figma 而言,设计日益重要为设计师创造了一个巨大的市场。这种对价值向上堆叠的直觉比总是痴迷于下一个最大的 TAM 更为重要。
Field 强调 “价值实现时间 (Time to Value)” 是一个关键的关注点,旨在快速提供引人注目的体验,并向新用户展示产品的真正价值。解决阻止用户采用产品并从中发现价值的障碍至关重要。他们甚至成立了一个 “障碍” 团队来解决阻碍价值实现的障碍。
在讨论 Figma MAKE 时,Field 解释说它允许用户通过提示生成原型和工作应用程序。它使非设计师能够探索想法,并改变产品开发流程。产品团队创建的原型可以被分享并用于帮助其他人产生想法并向前推进。现在的重点是如何让它在原型用例中变得更加出色。该应用程序使产品经理和设计团队更容易快速探索所有可能的选项。
Field 强调了差异化的设计的重要性,强调公司的目标是帮助公司和产品进入卓越的境界。他说,这是 Figma 一直努力的方向。
Field 将 “品味” 定义为拥有观点,并通过不断接触不同的体验和媒介来发展它。他鼓励质疑偏好并理解艺术背后的背景。他指出,围绕品味建立一个清晰框架的能力至关重要。他认为人工智能使得每个人都需要成为更加通才。
展望未来,Field 预计产品开发中的角色将趋于融合,个人将承担跨越不同职能的职责。他认为人工智能正在加速这一趋势,模糊了设计师、工程师和产品经理之间的界限。
Field 强调了反馈的重要性以及对持续改进的承诺。
Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma, discusses Figma's journey from startup to public company, providing insights and lessons for founders and product builders. He reflects on overcoming the challenges of the failed Adobe acquisition, maintaining a startup pace, fostering a unique culture, and navigating product expansion.
Field emphasizes the importance of communication in maintaining focus and motivation during the Adobe deal fallout. He highlights the program "Detach," offering severance packages, as a means of allowing team members to reassess their commitment. To maintain a startup pace, he advises focusing on selecting motivating problems, understanding timeline assumptions, keeping a flat organization, being aware of path dependency, and proactively addressing tech debt.
He stresses that culture is shaped by the people within a company and their behaviors, both formal and informal. Figma fosters a culture of makers by attracting individuals with a passion for building and creating. They celebrate this through events like "Make a Week." Field advocates for good sportsmanship even in a competitive environment, emphasizing that competition doesn't preclude respect and appreciation for other innovators.
Field describes how his leadership style has evolved, emphasizing clarity, and challenging assumptions to fully understand problems. He underscores that leaders should not shy away from hard questions. He values hiring people who can mentor him, emphasizing that mentorship is a two-way street.
Field shares the counterintuitive decision of making FigJam fun as a differentiator. Despite initial resistance, it was a success that showed that fun can get people to speak up and to share their thoughts and make people feel creative in a space where they are sharing ideas.
To expand beyond one product, Field emphasizes "following the workflow," observing how users are already using Figma to identify areas where a separate product could enhance their process. He argues that founders should not be solely driven by total addressable market (TAM). In Figma's case, the increasing importance of design created a massive market for designers. This intuition of value moving up the stack is more important than always obsessing over the next biggest TAM.
Field highlights "time to value" as a critical focus, aiming to quickly deliver a compelling experience and demonstrate the true value of the product to new users. Addressing blockers that prevent users from adopting and finding value in the product is essential. They even created a "blocker" team to tackle obstacles that made it hard to reach value.
Discussing Figma MAKE, Field explains that it enables users to generate prototypes and working applications from prompts. It empowers non-designers to explore ideas and changes the product development process. Prototypes created by those in the product team can be shared and used to help others generate ideas and move forward. The focus is now on how it can be made even more awesome for the prototyping use case. The app makes it much easier for PM's and design teams to rapidly explore all possible options.
Field emphasizes the importance of differentiated design, highlighting that the goal of the company is to help move the company and products into the realm of greatness. This, he says, is something that Figma is always working towards.
Field defines "taste" as having a point of view and developing it through constant exposure to different experiences and mediums. He encourages questioning preferences and understanding the context behind art. He notes that the capacity to create a well-articulated framework around taste is essential. He believes that AI makes everyone need to be more of a generalist.
Looking ahead, Field anticipates a convergence of roles in product development, with individuals taking on responsibilities across different functions. He believes AI is accelerating this trend, blurring the lines between designers, engineers, and product managers.
Field stresses the importance of feedback and a commitment to continuous improvement.