A virtual-first reset
Nine months into the pandemic, Dropbox made a lasting decision: it would not return to the office-centric model it had operated for years. Instead, the company adopted a virtual-first approach, joining the wave of organizations rethinking how employees show up to work. While the specifics vary—some companies, like Figma, chose a hybrid path—the underlying challenge is the same: preserving a sense of togetherness and creative energy when teams are physically scattered.
Dropbox’s shift was particularly notable because its culture had been built for in-person collaboration. Twelve global offices featured Maker Rooms and collaboration spaces, and the design team routinely raided workshop toolboxes for sticky notes, markers, and figurines to fuel design sprints and impromptu brainstorms. Creative flow was as easy as stepping into a room together. Going remote required redesigning how teams come together online, and maintaining the energy that once came from shared physical space.
Doubling down on Figma
Dropbox had an advantage: the design organization had migrated from Sketch to Figma in 2018, establishing best practices for brainstorming, wireframing, prototyping, and commenting across the creation process. As design systems lead Lauren LoPrete noted, Figma simplified workflows and “up-leveled the quality and efficiency of our work across design at Dropbox.” But a fully remote reality demanded more.
Designers now lean on Figma to bridge the gaps left by distance. Instead of in-person design reviews, teams use observation mode in Figma to follow presenters as they walk through work. Pair design sessions and live brainstorms have been replaced by shared links and quick jumps into files to iterate together. Virtual design sprints now include engineers and product managers, since Figma’s online, accessible format makes it easy for non-designers to participate.
Asynchronous workflows also evolved. The Design System and Brand Studio teams streamlined handoffs by building a Figma template for icons: a brand designer places a checkmark on the page when an icon file is complete. With library releases every Monday, the Design Systems team checks the file, converts new icons into the master library, and publishes. The process eliminated unnecessary communication and is so efficient that the team plans to apply a similar approach to other collaborative libraries.
Product designer Stan Yeung summarized the shift: “Figma has become the center of our universe since the pandemic, with more communication and collaboration happening within the design files themselves.”
Opening the virtual whiteboard
As the wider organization braced for remote work, the design team became the template for virtual collaboration. Product designer Cheechee Lin ran experimental Figma workshops with cross-functional partners to teach navigation, commenting, exporting, and viewing and following. The aim was to get everyone comfortable enough to jam together again, replacing the physical whiteboard with a digital one.
“We realized that bringing counterparts into the process in Figma not only helped speed up our iteration cycles but also provided a space to visually communicate together—especially given the lack of whiteboards in a virtual-first world,” Lin said. The initial workshops were successful enough that they expanded to more than 200 attendees across marketing, research, and data science.
Today, Figma is open to the entire organization. QA teams duplicate design flows to create test plans and note test cases; design researchers present survey data alongside qualitative insights; and employees across departments co-create presentations. What started as a design tool has become a shared space for articulating ideas and staying connected as one Dropbox community.
As Stan put it, “Figma has become our new virtual whiteboard.”
