20Product: Figma CPO on How Figma Builds Products: What Works, What Does Not | How Figma Does Testing and Product Reviews | The Future of Design, Engineering and Product with Yuhki Yamashita
Yuhki Yamashita is the Chief Product Officer at Figma, where he leads the development of one of the world's most beloved design platforms. Previously, he was Head of Product at Uber, overseeing the core rider experience used by millions globally. A master of product storytelling and team-building, Yuhki has redefined how world-class digital products are built and scaled.
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:
04:30 – "Simple is Lazy?" — Yuhki Challenges Product Dogma
07:45 – The Secret Behind Figma's New Product Ideas (Hint: Users Hack It First)
09:00 – From Hack Week to Roadmap: How New Figma Products Are Born
10:00 – Are PRDs Dead? Yuhki's Spicy Take on the Death of Specs
12:30 – The 'Screenshot Test': Can Your Product Explain Itself in 1 Frame?
14:15 – Code Layers and 'Living Designs'—This Demo Blew Everyone's Mind
15:30 – Designers vs Coders: Who Really Owns the Future of Product?
17:45 – The Most Controversial Product Decision Inside Figma
19:00 – Why Figma's Org Structure Could Kill the PM Role (For Real)
21:00 – Should Everyone Be a Designer and a Builder Now?
23:15 – Will Figma Have Fewer Engineers in 5 Years?
24:00 – Cursor, Windsurf & AI Coding Tools—What Figma Engineers Really Use
25:30 – AI's Dual Power: Lowering the Floor, Raising the Ceiling
27:00 – Figma's Biggest Product Flop? Yuhki Owns It
29:30 – The Magic of Product Storytelling—Even for Boring Compliance Tools
31:00 – Why Joy Must Be in the Product (and How Figma Bakes It In)
33:00 – Does Product Market Fit Even Mean Anything in 2025?
35:30 – Is Great Design Enough? Or Is It ALL About Distribution?
37:15 – Dylan's Secret to Early Growth: Hacking Design Twitter
39:00 – Community Mistakes Startups Keep Making
41:00 – The One Thing Yuhki Wishes He Could Change at Figma
43:00 – Should They Have Launched 4 Products at Once? Time Will Tell
45:00 – When Do You Know a New Product Is Doomed?
46:30 – Why Designers Still Don't Ship What They Design (and How to Fix It)
48:00 – From Uber to Figma: Yuhki's Playbook for Massive Product Swings
53:00 – The Adobe Deal Breakup—How Figma Rallied
56:00 – What Yuhki Needs to Improve as a Leader (His Own Feedback Review)
58:00 – The Product Leader He Admires Most—and Why
59:30 – What Figma Still Gets Wrong About Product Culture
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An inside look at how Figma builds product | Yuhki Yamashita (CPO of Figma)
Yuhki Yamashita is Chief Product Officer at Figma. Prior to Figma, he was Head of Design of Uber’s New Mobility efforts, and before that a product manager at Google and Microsoft. Adding to his impressive resume, Yuhki also taught introductory computer science at Harvard. In today's episode, we talk about operationalizing quality, the case against OKRs, and how Figma isn't just known for product-led growth, but also for building a community of empowered users. Yuhki also shares why he thinks storytelling is key to being a great product manager, owning the "why," and the potential impact of Adobe's acquisition of Figma.
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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-inside-look-at-how-figma-builds
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• Notion—One workspace. Every team: https://www.notion.com/lennyspod
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Where to find Yuhki Yamashita:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuhkiyam
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuhki/
• Website: https://www.figma.com/@yuhki
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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Referenced:
• Yuhki’s guest post on Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-figma-builds-product
• Shishir Mehrotra on Lenny’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-of/id1627920305?i=1000576021672
• Five Why’s template: https://www.figma.com/templates/5-whys-template/
• Dylan Field on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoink
• Jeff Holden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffholden
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Friends of Figma: https://friends.figma.com/
• Camille Ricketts on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-notion-leveraged-community-to-build-a-10b-business-camille-ricketts-notion-first-round-capital/
• Adobe Illustrator: https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/campaign/pricing.html
• Adobe Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/
• The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber: https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/0140442936
• Serial podcast: https://serialpodcast.org/
• The Good Nurse on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81260083
• FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/
• Asana: https://asana.com/
• Slack: https://slack.com/
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/
• Dropbox Paper: https://www.dropbox.com/paper/start
• Figma’s Alignment Scale: https://www.figma.com/community/widget/1030848035996871692
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Yuhki’s background
(09:05) What Yuhki learned from being on a design team
(10:29) Why managing designers is more difficult than managing product teams
(12:20) Why storytelling is important for product managers
(16:35) How to improve your storytelling skills
(18:51) Why PMs need to know the “why” of the product they are managing
(22:34) The importance of developing a community and strong customer relationships
(26:13) How to use different types of feedback
(28:11) Working with Dylan Field
(32:44) Testing at Figma and the branching emerging feature
(34:54) Why your entire company should be using your product
(36:50) The importance of having personal accountability
(38:48) Why Yuhki likes to stay out of the way of engineers fixing their own bugs
(40:50) Yuhki’s thoughts on OKRs and how they are used at Figma
(48:40) Figma’s interview process
(51:45) How Figma’s sales team works by creating human connections and empowering designers
(54:57) How Figma built community and created organic growth
(56:36) Advice for founders
(58:57) The potential acquisition by Adobe and the future possibilities for Figma
(1:01:42) Closing thoughts
(1:03:44) Lightning round
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