Deploying for design at scale (with Figma or anything else)

How do you roll out new design environments, for instance in Figma, in a way that guarantees enthusiastic adoption. Here are some principles that I think work, based on experience:

1.    Start with the end in mind

If you’re creating a premier new restaurant experience, how do imagine it being when you launch? Fancy white tablecloths and erudite waiters? Or perhaps an amazing menu but community tables for diners so the experience is about co-discovery and collaborative ordering? Either could be great, but knowing your vision is key to making your vision come true.

For design environments, it’s just as important to imagine your end state. Is it happy designers working with templates and building-block elements to design amazing things quickly? Developers handshaking and jamming with their designers collaboratively? Product team members working together collaboratively regardless of role?  Some common things are: Having a design system in place in the new environment, and ideally aligned to your native and web component frameworks; basic overviews and training of the tool (including a lot of pointers to stellar resources on YouTube and other places); organization-specific training and resources, since probably 60%+ of what’s important is specific to your world.

2.    Clear the sidewalk of obstacles

Once you know where you want to be, imagine all the things that could get in the way -- and work to eliminate them. For instance, if you realize you need a more coherent design system to be able to tell the simple story of “use this, it will work with the code and everyone will be happy,” then creating that deployment in your design environment should be a top priority.

3.    Network outside to collect best practices

In preparing for a large deployment of Figma, one of the smartest things I did (in retrospect) was to reach out proactively to other large organizations who had already been through the process of company-wide deployment. They gave us a lot of tips on things that worked (training and playbooks in Figma, cover pages), and things that didn’t (organizing all their projects by platform, for instance)

4.    Do a “soft opening”

All of the above requires some experimentation, so rather than opening your new design “restaurant” to your broad population all at once, consider enlisting some early adopters – you’ll learn a lot and have a much better ongoing enterprise deployment.

5.    Over-communicate and over-listen

I tell friends that sometimes it seems like I’m communicating 10x the amount you’d expect to get full adoption Figma, but it’s still worth it. The complementary side of the coin is listening. By listening a lot, we’ve been able to create great internal instructional videos, great FAQs, and great internal Figma environments that help new designers and everyone else get started quickly.

6. Learn continuously

Cloud-based products like Figma are continually improving and adding new features. That means you'll want to to keep abreast of their announcements and virtual conferences, experiment with the new stuff (including sometimes abandoning new features if they don't for your situations). And, I highly staying connected with colleagues in other companies so you can understand how they're evolving use of the software in their environments. And, the support learning within your organization, I always recommend setting up learning resources and office hours so team members can help each other.

What additional tips do you have?

Don't be shy.

About Martin: I help bigger companies get the most from Figma at scale, whether it's migrating and deploying for the first time or tuning their existing architectures to make the most of best practices and new features. I've been working in the world of design systems for 30 years.