Why Trust Keeps Coming Up at Config Europe
At Figma’s first virtual user conference, Config Europe, roughly 10,000 attendees from 100 countries gathered for twenty-two breakout sessions. While the agenda was submitted and shaped by the community, a single theme tied the talks together: trust.
The conference’s north star aligns with Figma’s broader mission of making design more open and inclusive. But that approach only works when teams have a genuine culture of trust—between colleagues, with clients, and within the wider design community.
Start With Human Connections
Olga Mishyna, Lead Product Designer at Adyen, argues that trust begins with understanding teammates on a human level—not just those on your immediate team, but everyone involved in product development. “To understand what other people think, want, do—or expect you to do—we need to talk to each other,” she says.
At Adyen, that translates into simple habits: brief catch-ups before meetings, or hopping on a quick call instead of problem-solving over email. Once that foundation is set, feedback gets easier. Designers feel safer in crits when they know feedback “comes from a place of care and support.” The key, Mishyna says, is building a culture where teammates assume positive intent. If people doubt the intent behind feedback, they get defensive. The Adyen team can be honest and direct precisely because they’ve invested time in understanding each other’s working styles. “Empathy is a very powerful tool,” she notes.
Set Clear Rules for Shared Work
For Daan Hekking, Digital Product Designer at The Techno Creatives, trust with clients is built through communication. “If you improve your communication skills, you can improve your trust with clients,” he says.
Working with clients in Figma changes the dynamic: once a client has file access, they can watch designs evolve in real time. That transparency keeps everyone aligned, but it also means early explorations are exposed to feedback that might not be timely or useful. Hekking’s advice is to “treat it delicately and set rules.” Designers should be explicit about where they are in the process—using status annotations, for example—and whether input is welcome. If it is, they should specify the altitude of feedback they need to move forward.
Because design is iterative, Hekking emphasizes that your working doc should always reflect the current project state. Establishing these operating rules early helps both internal teams and external clients stay on the same page.
Make Room for Dissent
Shirley Lai, Product Designer at Rakuten Viki, wants teams to go beyond day-to-day project concerns. She designed The Designated Dissenter card game, a tool that empowers everyone regardless of role or seniority to speak up about design ethics and the role of technology.
The game splits into “stakeholders,” “values,” and “discussion” segments, and assigns a “dissenter” whose role is to object to what others propose. “It’s a way to get to know your team better and foster an open feedback culture,” Lai says. More importantly, it pushes teams to consider the “larger consequences” of their work on a foundational level.
Trust isn’t built overnight, but the recurring advice from Config Europe is consistent: invest time in getting to know your teammates, define clear processes for collaboration, and keep the door open for honest conversation.
