January 9, 2025

It’s time we expand our definition of design

Kaitie ChambersAdvocate, Figma

A joyful group illustration featuring animals and people dancing in a circle, holding hands. The group surrounds smiling flowers. Figures include a fox, an owl with a bowtie, a bear, a person, and a robot.

More people than ever are using design in their daily work. By making our tools and processes more inclusive, we can empower everyone to practice design with confidence—regardless of their title.

Hero illustration by Zoey Kim

There are places you know you belong: your desk, your home, the team meeting where you know what small talk to expect and who will ask the most questions (in my experience, it’s usually me). Then there are the spaces where you know you don’t belong. For me, those are fine-dining restaurants, my partner’s dojo, and Eng Crits where they start talking about Codemods and JS modularization. Finally, there are the places where you hope to belong, but sometimes feel like an imposter. (This can come up for me in team meetings where I’m the only Advocate without years of design or development experience.)

While meetings and other “social spaces” are the cornerstone to developing a sense of belonging at work, we shouldn’t overlook the potential for tools to bring us together, too. Figma started as a product built intentionally for designers—and that commitment to design craft isn’t going away. (One attendee in our Release Notes livestream put it well after seeing the new text underline styles: “The attention to detail shows that Figma is a tool built by designers for designers.”) But the true magic of Figma happens when that expert circle expands, and designers start bringing their collaborators and teammates into the fold. An invite doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll feel like you belong when you arrive, but the first step is showing up.

For someone who is not a professional designer, being added to a Figma file can feel a little like accepting an invite to a friend’s gallery opening. You spend way too long obsessing over what to wear. You can look, but please don’t touch anything. If you’re not an artist or collector, it’s best if you keep your thoughts to yourself, and you will be asked to leave if you talk too loudly.

Despite this discomfort, I inevitably find myself drifting over to Figma to do miscellaneous design tasks that need more horsepower, whether it’s creating thumbnails for how-to videos or invites to a team offsite. In fact, in every single marketing, product, and sales job I’ve had, I’ve worked around the bottleneck of design requests by creating assets myself. So why does it feel like I’m not using design tools in the “right” way? And God forbid a real designer asks to see the file I used.

There’s a disconnect between what non-designers do, and what they feel well equipped and truly empowered to do. We’re making strides to change that dynamic with FigJam, Dev Mode, and Figma Slides, so that marketers, developers, and other collaborators can work more confidently. Like a skilled meeting facilitator, great design tools can make everyone feel welcome—to a point. The additional step is a mindset shift. From both an individual and organizational standpoint, we need to recognize that regardless of official titles, we’re all involved in design.

From both an individual and organizational standpoint, we need to recognize that regardless of official titles, we’re all involved in design.

As the design landscape changes, this will only become more true. The pace of work is getting faster, demanding more collaborative touchpoints even as our attention gets divided into different workstreams. To meet the moment, those of us in marketing and product roles should see that our work is design, and that we have a lot to contribute to the quality and craft of the work we ship. Everyday designers use skill and creativity to create one-pagers, flyers, intro cards, and other materials that communicate visually, connect and engage our audience, and bolster collaboration. I encourage more people to wear that hat proudly.

Looking outward, how can our teams and toolkits become more inclusive and welcoming? How can we give everyday designers the confidence and agency to create? It may require designers to create templates as a starting point for their teammates. It might mean simplifying tools to make them more accessible to more users. It may entail building solutions for common everyday designer pain points like staying on brand, finding the right assets, riffing on copy, or requesting approvals. Along the way, we should educate, validate, and celebrate the everyday designers who want to up-level their skills.

I’m excited for the ways we’re bringing this to life in Figma in 2025 and beyond. And if you’re a marketer, product manager, operator, executive assistant, or anyone else who needs to get creative in Figma, please reach out to me. I’m excited to say: You belong here.

A colorful illustration of a person with pigtails sitting at a green table, holding a pencil and writing on paper, surrounded by a playful scene. A white cat with one paw raised and a black cat lying down are on the table. To the left, there’s an image of a glowing light bulb, and to the right, an illustration of a robot with sparkling eyes. The background features vibrant shapes, including orange flowers and pastel-colored circles, creating a cheerful and creative atmosphere.

We turned six big ideas percolating around the Figma office—written from the perspective of devs, designers, analysts, writers, PMs, card-carrying generalists—and put them on record. Here’s a look at what’s on our minds for 2025.