Figma’s own team shares its workflow secrets

In a recent livestream, ten Figmates across engineering, product, design, and research demonstrated how they use Figma day to day. Their tips span far beyond standard product design, covering brainstorming frameworks, research exercises, and even slide deck creation.

The common thread, according to Aaron Tesfai, an engineer on the prototyping team, is that Figma works for a variety of skillsets. Whether you are new to design or a seasoned professional, these workflows are meant to lower the barrier to getting started.

Brainstorming frameworks for creative direction

Brand designer Remilla Ty walked through two methods the Figma brand team uses to collect inspiration and align on creative concepts: the mind map sketchbook and lists with mood boards.

Mind map sketchbook

This diagramming exercise helps visually organize information into three sections:

  • Prompt: name of the project or a statement about the work
  • Image: space for visuals that inspire
  • Keywords: words or phrases tied to the images and mapped back to the prompt

The goal is to surface recurring themes that lead to concrete concepts. Ty notes there is no right or wrong answer here — it is about pulling inspiration and being open to new directions. The Figma brand team used this approach when exploring directions for the Figma Community branding.

Lists and mood boards

For a more structured exercise, the lists and mood boards method separates thinking into three prompts:

  • Prompt: what you are literally working on
  • Beyond: an abstract summary of the project
  • Look and feel: how you want others to experience the work

After completing the prompts, the team collected themes and keywords into a mood board with images and color palettes to see how elements fit together. A concept statement follows, ultimately steering the brand identity. The team recently applied this to explore a new creative direction for Maker Week.

Ty highlights that the exercise is less about verifying you are on the right track and more about entering a state of flow. As a bonus, it gives everyone insight into how their teammates are approaching the project. The brand team’s template is available in the Figma Community.

Research exercises that feel less formal

Researcher Nannearl Brown shared how her team uses Figma exercises to help research participants feel comfortable before and during sessions.

Trading cards as pre-work

Before research begins, participants receive trading cards to complete as pre-work. The fields mix professional and personal questions about Figma — such as favorite features and use cases — with more casual topics about themselves. Beyond giving the research team useful background, the exercise sets a less formal tone.

Mad libs during sessions

During a session, mad libs serve as a structured yet flexible exercise for understanding how frequently participants use Figma, how, and how they feel about it:

Participants fill in blanks with their own words while the research team observes them using Figma live, including features such as auto layout. This provides insight into participants’ familiarity and comfort level with the product. Since many teams are still remote, Brown notes that both trading cards and mad libs also work well as team-building activities.

Presenting work without leaving Figma

For Emily Lin, a product manager who works cross-functionally, synthesis and sharing are core parts of the job. Her approach: build presentations entirely in Figma rather than moving to dedicated presentation software.

Using frames as slide decks

Slide decks rely on Figma’s prototyping features. Each frame serves as a slide, and Figma reads information from left to right, top to bottom:

This sequencing makes it easy to check for consistency across colors, spacing, and typography while seeing how the entire flow comes together. As Lin puts it, the method helps with load-balancing content and checking visual alignment across the presentation.

A quick trick for circular avatars

When she wants to credit teammates in a slide, Lin creates circular avatars from their photos. Instead of calculating the correct corner radius, she simply types the value 999999 to snap the image into a perfect circle.

Lin describes herself as a very hacky Figma worker. For her, the goal is not pixel-perfect design but a reliable framework for sharing progress with her team. Additional tips for project managers, including a bonus slide template, live in this shared file. A full recording of the session is available in the original Figma livestream.