Meeting your team where they work is a powerful mechanism to drive engagement. While centralized knowledge management may occur elsewhere (Confluence, Coda, etc.), there are opportunities to extend and reinforce ways of working in Figma, providing just-in-time resources to designers in their daily workflows.
Let’s break down some components to consider building 👇
Figma File Thumbnails
As your org scales, your team will need to establish Figma file standards for wayfinding within Figma, so that collaborators (e.g. marketing) can find the right file easily. Create a standardized cover thumbnail component that displays properly in Figma’s grid view, and use component properties for the different info displayed: project name, feature team, status, etc.
Design Brief Template
While the need for this will vary by project scope, the premise is getting designers in the habit of writing out their design’s objectives (for both the user and business) ahead of time. Pushing them to have this alongside their designs in Figma does two things: 1) keeps objectives top of mind while designing, and 2) allows others to critique a design’s success in relation to well defined objectives. I prefer to keep the design brief light-touch for designers, and include a space to link out to other relevant documentation (PRD, user research, etc).
Design Principles
Remember those product design principles your team created and then put on some Confluence page that hasn’t been looked at in a year? Get them in your library and include them within / alongside a frequently used DesignOps component. I recommend the design brief above!
Presentation Templates
Not all slide decks will be in Google slides, Keynote, etc. A simple, clean, and branded Figma slide template is helpful to the #ux team - it will save time and create consistency when the team chooses to present from Figma. Build out a few key slide layouts (cover slide, text, image, etc), using variants and properties. If available, make components for industry-specific illustrations or images to pull into slides.
Critique Format Guides
As you mature the design critique process, your team will likely use various crit formats. Build small cheat-sheet card components for running each type of crit - what’s the format, what roles exist, tips for giving & receiving feedback, and so on. Designers can drag these in alongside their design as a reference for themselves and crit attendees.
Fun Stuff
Warm-up prompts & exercises, custom emojis of each person on the team, etc. Components can be brought into Figjam as well, so get creative!
Consider any task your team is doing in Figma: is there repeated work you can simplify with a DesignOps library? Is there a playbook that would gain better adoption extended alongside design work? If you haven’t built components out in Figma before, partner with a designer on your team to learn the ropes and get more familiar with the tool!
More Thoughts
