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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Lessons from an Early AI Launch and QA

Dylan reflects on the first AI feature rollout, why they pulled it for QA, and the importance of rigorous evals for AI products.

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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