↵

AMA: Figma 2.0

6 years ago from Dylan Field, CEO at Figma

  • Mitch Malone, 6 years ago

    Hi Dylan!

    I'd like to ask you about the new developer hand off feature you guys released recently. I'm surprised to see that kind of product to be honest. It challenges two assumptions I have about a strong design environment: inclusivity and iterative cycles.

    A hand off implies that the design work happens just with the designers and in a more "waterfall" development cycle. If everyone works together (inclusively) handoffs don't really happen. And if the design is handed off, it implies there are discrete phases or segments that the work passes through. Based in my experience, the industry is seeing less of this style of work.

    So I wanted to ask you if you're seeing a shift back to this style of work and do you think it's how products should be made?

    Thanks!

    3 points
    • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 6 years ago

      Hey Mitch, thanks for the thoughtful question.

      Figma is designed to work for various workflows and teams. While some engineers are comfortable going into design files and interacting with the full Figma UI, others fear they are going to mess something up. Sometimes designers want to make sure their files are not changed. For these reasons, we wanted to make sure our view only mode worked for engineers. Our existing view only mode did not have any way to get information out of the file, which is what prompted the creation of our dev handoff features.

      I don't think we are going back to "waterfall" development and the term "developer handoff" is not meant to imply a way of working. I agree with your assessment that the industry is moving away from siloed work patterns and towards more collaborative, inclusive cylces.

      So in conclusion: agree with your assumptions. This is the next step for the Figma product because it solves a real problem that a lot of users have and I don't think the feature is in conflict with your assumptions.

      2 points