Figma’s CEO: Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups | Dylan Field

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

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Developing Taste and Curating Design Judgment

Dylan defines taste as a point of view, explains how to cultivate it through exposure and framework-building, and names designers with strong taste.

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Episode notes

Dylan Field is co-founder and CEO of Figma, a beloved tool used by every modern product team. Founded in 2012, Figma has expanded from a single design tool to a comprehensive platform including FigJam, Slides, Dev Mode, and, most recently, Figma Make. After a $20 billion acquisition by Adobe fell through due to regulatory pushback, Dylan led the company to a successful IPO in 2025.

What you’ll learn:

• How Dylan kept internal morale up after the Adobe acquisition fell through

• His approach to maintaining pace and a sense of urgency 13 years in

• How to systematically develop taste

• How Figma decides which product lines to add

• Why Dylan obsesses over “time to value”

• How AI is making design more valuable

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Brought to you by:

Stripe—Helping companies of all sizes grow revenue

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Transcript: ⁠https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-ai-makes-design-craft-and-quality-the-new-moat⁠

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My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): ⁠https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/175569466/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation⁠

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Where to find Dylan Field:

• X: https://x.com/zoink

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Dylan Field

(03:58) The Adobe deal fallout

(05:50) Maintaining team morale post-deal

(09:13) Strategies for sustaining high performance

(13:37) Maintaining Figma’s unique company culture

(16:22) Dylan’s leadership evolution

(21:03) How to improve clarity as a leader

(24:40) The controversy behind FigJam

(31:06) Lessons from expanding Figma’s core product line

(39:32) Time-to-value

(45:14) Introduction to Figma Make

(48:26) AI app prototyping and the future of Figma Make

(53:38) Lessons from Figma’s AI product launch

(57:47) The importance of craft

(59:54) Developing good taste

(01:05:35) The future of product development

(01:10:32) Why AI won’t steal your job

(01:14:37) AI corner

(01:18:32) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• Dylan Field live at Config: Intuition, simplicity, and the future of design: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/dylan-field-live-at-config

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/

• Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/vision-conviction-hype-mihika-kapoor

• Notion’s lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more | Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-notion-ivan-zhao

• $46B of hard truths from Ben Horowitz: Why founders fail and why you need to run toward fear (a16z co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/46b-of-hard-truths-from-ben-horowitz

• FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/

• Cursor chat: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403130802199-Use-cursor-chat-in-Figma-Design

• Figma Slides: https://www.figma.com/slides/

• Figma Sites: https://www.figma.com/sites/

• Figma Buzz: https://www.figma.com/buzz/

• Figma Draw: https://www.figma.com/draw/

• Figma Design: https://www.figma.com/design/

• Dev Mode: https://www.figma.com/dev-mode/

• Figma Make: https://www.figma.com/make/

• Zach Lloyd on X: https://x.com/zachlloydtweets

• Warp: https://www.warp.dev/

• Dylan’s post on X about Figma on an AI product leaderboard: https://x.com/zoink/status/1968588014935801884