Figma product manager Mihika Kapoor recalls a fundamental product strategy principle taught by former Meta VP of Product Design Julie Zhuo.
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Kapoor: Figma prototypes before greenlighting projects rather than relying on TAM
“We lean heavily into designing and prototyping even before a project gets a green light. So I think that's something that's really unique about Figma is normally you will like talk about like the market space or the opportunity or the sizing and then decide to…”
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Kapoor: AI products fail users by optimizing for demos over interactive control
“In my mind, one of the biggest shortcomings of AI, the way that a lot of people are building it today is that it's like optimized for the demo. Or optimized for the tweet, right? And it's basically this situation where, like, I think about it as, like, in my m…”
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Kapoor: Exposing early products before they seem ready accelerates learning
“I think what you find is that if you push your product to get visibility, maybe even beyond what like the current stage of product development merits, is that you have really incredible learnings. Because the more that you can put your product in front of peop…”
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Kapoor: Product managers should lean into their individual spikes and strengths
“And so I think that, you know, based on how you fell into it, you might have different spikes and different strengths and leaning into those is really important. For the other things, it's also, of course, important to have like a sort of growth mindset and to…”
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Kapoor: Anchoring teams on a singular vision makes pivots feel like progress
“It is really important to create a vision that you believe in, that your team believes in, and that your company believes in. Because the reality of the product development cycle is that it's so messy. It's so chaotic. You're going to have, you know, extreme h…”
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Kapoor: Describing product ideas in words is less compelling than visual proof points
“You know, you kind of find that, or I've found, that words will only get you so far. So when I put together a vision with my team at Figma, it's all about, like, not just your traditional, like, okay, here are pain points, and then here are solutions, and then…”