Figma replacing Sketch, InVision, and XD
Head of Brand Design at a Series E startup on Figma's wall-to-wall adoption
Figma won because it turned design from a file handoff workflow into a shared workspace where product decisions happen live. Sketch, InVision, and Adobe XD each covered part of the old stack, drawing screens, prototyping flows, or sharing mockups, but teams still had to export, sync, and circulate files. Figma collapsed that into one browser based canvas, then pulled PMs, engineers, and brand teams into the same place.
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In one Series E startup, there were 10 Figma users, 14 Adobe Creative Cloud seats, and zero Adobe XD users. That pattern matters because it shows Figma was not replacing Adobe broadly, it was specifically taking over the UX and product design job that XD was supposed to own.
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Sketch and InVision split design into separate steps. Designers made screens in Sketch, then exported work into docs, decks, or prototypes for review. Multiple teams describe Figma removing that extra packaging work, because the file itself became the review surface, the prototype, and the source of truth.
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Adobe had distribution, but not designer pull. Teams already paying for Creative Cloud still chose Figma, because top designers preferred the browser based, multiplayer workflow. That made Figma a second budget line, not a cheaper substitute, and gave it room to displace XD even inside Adobe heavy organizations.
The next leg of this shift is broader seat expansion beyond core designers. Once design review, brainstorming, prototyping, and developer handoff all live in one system, the winning product is the one that can turn occasional viewers into regular collaborators and then into paid editors across product, engineering, and marketing.