Field: Designers fiercely rejected Figma's 2016 multiplayer launch
Dylan Field · Figma's Dylan Field: Exploring the idea maze, vibe coding, and the power of “locking in” · Y Combinator · Mar 13, 2025 · at 24:38
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, describes the initial hostile reception Figma received from agency designers when introducing real-time multiplayer design.
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“I remember when we finally launched the GA in October of 2016, I mean, the comments we got were like, if this is the future of design, I'm changing careers. You know, that person commented about it and said, a camel is a horse designed by committee. So it's like very much this reaction from the design community of, I'm like the designer that's going to be in the corner, I'm going to do this amazing work and I'll do the grand reveal, which is kind of the agency mindset. Versus the product team approach of we're all in together, we're gonna, like, work through this and figure it out.”
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