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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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:

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Where to find Yuhki Yamashita:

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Where to find Lenny:

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Referenced:

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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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[zzzggg]

12:37 How can I have a career this like guy?

You have to go to Harvard. It is probably already too later for you.

[alexisfy]

New Listener here, We tried OKRs too. We are not Figma, at all, but we arrived to the same opinion. OKR's tend to push for a collective target, but motivation is personal an their individual intuition tends to be towards personal projects and it changes their progress in an individual level. Nice podcast! thanks for the content.

[PaulSyng]

Didn't know Edward Norton had a podcast. Great conversation

[henryinusa]

Maybe off-topic, but I love Lenny's pixelated artwork 😅

[mhtb]

I'm not a native speaker and I had a very hard time understanding this episode. Would be great to have subtitles (auto generated subs were not accurate).

[romiojoseph]

As a designer, I agree with the 10:29

[aidenwarnke]

back at it again with the perfect timing podcast LOL! interviewing soon for a design program manager internship and you came with the perfect guest for the week! keep at it these are awesome!

[crazyleemonster]

Such a informative, insightful and honest conversation:) I was super engaged by the whole session. Thanks Lenny and Yuhki!