Keep Figma Design Reviews User-Centric

Company Context

Figma is a leading collaborative design platform used by product designers, developers, and cross-functional teams worldwide. Its core product is strong, but leadership has noticed that many design reviews focus heavily on internal opinions and aesthetics rather than validated user needs.

Problem

Figma wants to improve how product teams make design decisions so that shipped experiences are more consistently user-centric. Internal review data shows that only 35% of major design proposals include direct user evidence (research findings, usability results, or behavioral data), and post-launch feedback indicates that 22% of recently launched workflow changes created confusion for end users. Product leadership believes the issue is not a lack of design talent, but an inconsistent process for grounding decisions in user needs.

You are the PM responsible for a new workflow inside Figma that helps teams ensure designs are user-centric throughout discovery, design, and review.

Deliverables

1. Define what “user-centric” should mean in this context and identify the most important user segments to optimize for.
2. Diagnose the root causes of why current design decisions drift away from user needs.
3. Propose an MVP product or workflow improvement inside Figma that would make design reviews more user-centric.
4. Prioritize the core features or interventions you would launch first, and explain the trade-offs.
5. Define how you would measure whether the solution improves both team behavior and end-user outcomes.

Constraints

• MVP must be designed for launch within 1 quarter.
• Only one product squad is available: 1 PM, 1 designer, 4 engineers, and shared data support.
• The solution should work for both mid-market and enterprise customers without requiring a large services or training team.
• You cannot assume customers will adopt a completely new standalone workflow outside the core Figma product.