Figma CEO on Design, Product, Engineering: Blurring the Lines in the AI Era | Dylan Field | E276

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Dylan Field, Co-founder and CEO of Figma, the collaborative design platform powering the product development process at companies like Microsoft, Google, and Airbnb. Since launching in 2012, Figma has grown from a browser-based design tool into a multi-product ecosystem spanning design, whiteboarding, presentations, and AI workflows.

Dylan shares the product and org strategy behind Figma’s evolution—from a single design surface to a platform that now includes Figma Make, Slides, Dev Mode, Sites, Draw, and more. He explains how Figma is building toward a world where anyone—not just designers—can move from idea to execution faster, and why “good enough is no longer enough” when it comes to design in the AI era.

In this conversation, Dylan goes deep on building communities around products, the value of product leaders embracing design as a strategic differentiator, and how Figma is thinking beyond prompts to redefine human-AI interaction. He also shares lessons from product expansion, building for non-designer users, and how he still carves out time to jailbreak LLMs and test prototypes hands-on.

What you’ll learn:
- How Dylan shaped Figma into a multi-product platform that merges code, design, and collaboration.
- Why FigJam's “fun” factor was a deliberate strategic decision—and how it saved the product.
- How Figma is integrating with ChatGPT and third-party data tools to redefine surface area and workflow.
- The case for design-led thinking across every function of a modern product team.

Key Takeaways 👇
- Design as Strategy: Why Dylan believes design is at the top of the software value stack—and how product leaders can use it to differentiate and win.
- From Prompt to Platform: Figma’s vision for bridging AI-native workflows, intuitive UX, and agent-powered collaboration.
- Org Design for Multi-Product Teams: Lessons in org structure, adoption measurement, and how to know when a feature becomes a standalone product.

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Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Dylan Field

Chapters

• 0:00 The New Era of AI-Driven Product Surfaces
• 1:50 The Power of Community and Feedback at Figma
• 5:10 How Dylan Balances Building and Leading
• 7:42 Pushing AI Models to Their Limits
• 11:02 Why “Good Enough” Is No Longer Enough in Design
• 17:00 Expanding Figma Beyond Its Platform
• 38:28 The Future of Design: Beyond Prompts and Toward Intuitive AI