Figma · Strategy · Senior · 60 to 90 minutes

Figma's AI boundary: make, monetize, or own the record

Figma is a collaborative product design platform where teams design interfaces, build design systems, prototype experiences, create sites, and hand off work to engineering. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Strategic judgment
User segmentation
Monetisation
Roadmapping
Executive communication

The situation

The Chief Product Officer has asked you for a recommendation ahead of annual planning. Figma already offers AI assisted creation and generation through features such as First Draft and Figma Make, plus Sites and AI features in Dev Mode, but the market is moving fast. Teams are increasingly using prompt based tools to generate app screens and front end code before anyone opens a design file. Some leaders inside Figma argue the company should push harder on end to end generation and price it as a premium creation surface. Others think the bigger opportunity is to make Figma the place where generated UI, whether created in Figma or elsewhere, is edited, approved, turned into a design system, and handed to engineering. Why now: enterprise customers are asking how Figma fits into AI workflows, and smaller teams may skip paid editor seats if prompt tools get good enough. Assume the following numbers are illustrative: 18 percent of new startup teams trialed an external UI generator this quarter, and 12 percent of active Figma or FigJam users tried Figma Make in the last 90 days. You need to recommend how far Figma should push existing AI creation features, how to monetize them, and where Figma must remain the system of record.

What to produce

A 1 to 2 page strategy memo.

Your answer must

State a clear 24 month recommendation for Figma's role in AI generated interfaces, including what Figma should do, what it should not do, and why.
Segment at least 3 user or customer groups and prioritize the most important use cases for each.
Propose a monetization and packaging approach for Figma Make and related AI capabilities, and explain the impact on seat revenue, usage revenue, and enterprise buying.
Lay out a phased plan for the next 12 to 24 months, including the first moves that should ship within 2 quarters.
Define success metrics and decision points, and address major risks such as seat cannibalization, output quality, IP and trust concerns, and dependence on external model providers.

Constraints

Assume Figma can fund at most 2 additional cross functional squads for this strategy in the next 12 months.
Do not assume acquisitions, exclusive model partnerships, or a major company reorg.
Any recommendation must meet enterprise expectations for admin controls, auditability, and clear handling of customer content and generated output.
The first meaningful customer facing changes must launch within 2 quarters.

Format

Use short sections for recommendation, target segments, product and pricing, roadmap, metrics, and risks. Make tradeoffs explicit and say what you would deprioritize.