Design-Led Bottom-Up Figma Adoption

This was a design led software purchase, not an IT led procurement cycle. Individual teams started using Figma because it solved a daily workflow problem, then the VP of Experience, who effectively ran design across brand, copy, product, and UX, turned that usage into a formal budget decision. That matters because Figma spread by becoming the easiest place for designers and nearby collaborators to work, before anyone treated it as an enterprise rollout.

• The buyer sat much closer to design than IT. In this company, the VP of Experience managed the design org and broader experience function, while centralized IT handled pricier, more sensitive systems like Salesforce and HubSpot. Figma was cheap enough and low risk enough for teams to test first, then standardize later.
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• The bottom up pull came from concrete product behavior. Figma put files in the browser, kept libraries current, stored version history centrally, and let multiple people work in the same place. That removed the old Sketch workflow of local files, syncing, and repeated refreshes of brand assets.
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• This pattern showed up beyond one company. Other design leaders described teams at Uber, Sonder, and Lime adopting Figma after parts of the org had already started using it. In practice, Figma often entered through designers, then expanded to product managers, engineers, and other reviewers once the file became the working source of truth.
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Going forward, the same motion points to expansion beyond core designers. Once a design leader approves budget after teams prove usage, the next layer is more editors, more cross functional reviewers, and more workflow inside Figma itself. That is how a design tool turns into a broader collaboration system inside growing companies.