DESIGN OPS • 2020

Moving to Figma

Scope

Audit Design Tools
Understand Team Needs
Migration to Figma
Phase-out old tools

Role

Research
Acquisition
Advocacy
Admin

Timeline

6 months

Reach

Org wide

Overview

At Airtel, we were some 50 odd designers separated by teams, floors and tools. If there was any sort of collaboration that could happen, we all needed to be at least on the same design tool. With a rapidly expanding team, we also needed a single platform for hosting all work. Sort of a library for all the things we create at Airtel. This idea was the seed that led us to search for unifying the toolset across some 10 teams. Throw in the mix a global pandemic forcing us to work remotely, this problem became the need of the hour.

No matter which team you join, everyone should have the same design tools. This would allow for easier migration between teams. Also, billing would be so much easier for the finance team.

Single toolset to rule them all

COVID had hit the nation and all of us were separated. Collaboration was difficult. Not being able to think together handicapped everyone and forced us to adapt to a remote-world.

Collaboration in a remote world

To each their own

The team was starkly split between Adobe XD and Sketch. Different designer had their own ways of storing files, getting feedback, prototyping, ideating, etc. Some preferred to get feedback over email while some over Slack. It was difficult as a designer to move from one team to another, and then adopt the new way of working.

We started with an inquiry into all the apps our team used. We found more than dozen apps that people needed to get their work. This was heavily fragmented. We listened to the needs of the designers and tried to capture the essential aspect of their ways of working.

What the team wanted

Ease of ideation

People used some form of whiteboard (a physical one pre-COVID) tool to get their conceptual ideas out. This meant a real-time playground for designers, PMs and developers.

Powerful design tool

Sketch had established as the de facto tool for some time now. People needed something that could match its prowess and import Sketch files.

Feedback and review

People had different ways of seeking feedback. Email, Slack, Teams, WhatsApp and carrying the whole freaking laptop over to a desk. This meant there was no single source of keeping track of reviews.

Prototyping

No one can deny the power of seeing your screens in action. The lack of prototyping tools inhibited people from experiencing how a design behaves across time. The team wanted a strong prototyping software so they could make quick mockups.

Hand-off

Zeplin was the de-facto choice here. Still, an important step in the design process that everyone felt had to be taken into account while defining new ways of working.

Archiving and documentation

Files lived in everyone's personal storage or some cloud link shared between 3 people. This was not ideal for a growing team. We needed a central space where all files could be kept open.

Two Main Goals

At the end, we wish to achieve these two goals to improve our ways of working

Remove fragmentation

We wanted to avoid back and forth between 6 different apps while making one screen. As far as possible, we dreamt of having a single suite that met our design needs.

Inclusive workflow

We did not want designers to work in silos. Everyone was a stakeholder and every voice counted. The new workflow should allow for transparency in how we worked.

The perfect fit?

Figma, the leading contender in the single app workflow, was cheaper when compared to the à la carte option. The compromises we made weren’t terribly bad too. A feature here and a feature there.

Best bits of Figma

Figma had a lot more going for it apart from the pricing. Everyone could participate in the design process on Figma. It was ahead of the curve and was built on a collaborative model. This was the prime need as the world shifted to working remotely.

Multiplayer, Figma's live editing feature won so many hearts and made collaboration east.

Live editing

Resources like design libraries could be share seamlessly across
Wynk and Airtel

Org wide libraries

Regular updates and being device agnostic made Figma universally compatible.

Cloud based

Figma allowed paying for new licenses once every quarter. This made onboarding new designer super quick!

Quarterly billing

Figma was our final tool of choice.

It met our needs of a collaborative platform and much more in a single tool. We let the team give Figma a test-drive and share their thoughts on it.

Most people were happy with Figma and how close it was to Sketch in terms of operation. We heard the team’s feedback and tried to solve some issues that were raised.

We got a great response from the people who were the first to make the shift. This gave us the confidence to proceed with Figma.

Great first impression

Early adopters already moved to Figma with their Sketch files. Eager to take advantage of the great features Figma offered.

Ready for the shift

Moving in together

Once we had the go-ahead for Figma. We frantically got in touch with finance and operation teams to get the clearance for buying Figma licenses. After multiple early morning and late-night calls with the folks over at Figma in California, got out very own Figma organisation license. A big shoutout to Ryan Pearce, the account executive from Figma, for being so helpful with the purchase process.Moving to Figma was not the end, it was in fact the beginning. The beginning of a new way of working. The next months were spent understanding the nuances of Figma and how to structure our ways of working around Figma.

Figma's nuances and use

Each tool is meant to be used differently. It has its own features and nuances that you discover by a deliberate effort to master the tool. Figma was no different. It also offered us a new way of working with designers, developers and product managers.

Organisation and Teams

Figma had a new way of storing work. Designers and their work was arranged according to the business units they belonged to.

Open and transparent

All the Teams on Figma were open kept as ‘Open’. Anyone could view any team and the work they did. We wanted to promote a transparent work culture.

Design together

We extended the Figma invite to all the developers and PMs. They were made part of the teams and given access to all the files and encourage to comments and share feedback.

Helping with the move

While the shift came with its own challenges, as an advocate for Figma, I helped the team in multiple ways with the transition to Figma.

Figma, the leading contender in the single app workflow, was cheaper when compared to the à la carte option. The compromises we made weren’t terribly bad too. A feature here and a feature there.

Helped to formulate team structures

Figma offered a new way of working. With collaboration the centre of it, we had to change our methods of segregating work. The team members were divided according to their business units for this. The relevant developers and managers were also made part. This helped all the connected work stay at a single accessible place.

Figma weekly newsletters

To make sure everyone got upto speed with Figma, I rolled out weekly newsletters talking about some of Figma's important features and how we can use it in our new ways of working.

Onboarding PMs and developers

Managers and developers were for the first time part of a design suite. They had to be introduced to this new way of working. All the processes of ideation, feedback, review and hand-off would be done with them having complete transparency of it.

Figma admin

Being part of the decision making since the start, I had a great understanding of Figma's organisational capabilities. I partnered with the Head of Design to be one of the admins for the tool. And having already built a relationship with Figma's sales team, it was helpful during upgrades and getting new licenses.

Snapshots of the Figma Weekly Newsletter rolled out to the team

The roadmap for the planned Figma adoption

Taught designers, managers and developers about the new ways of working with Figma

Impact

After the initial hesitation of shifting to Figma, everyone was eventually delighted to have made the shift. Teams across the organisation were using Figma daily for collaborating on new projects. The stakeholders never felt more involved in the design process. Remote work became a lot easier and teams were thankful that we made the shift early on.

1000+

People were using Figma across the org

Design systems were created across the org

Teams were on Figma in the first 6 months

38%

Team members were happy with the new ways of working

Final words

After a few months, Figma had established itself as the tool of choice for everyone in the design team and outside it. The pandemic lasted for longer than anyone could've predicted. Things that the team was able to accomplish would've been impossible without cloud collaboration offered by Figma. With increased transparency, more people were sharing feedback on design and felt included. PMs and developers also got a view of the exhaustive (and unstructured) design process which designers follow. This helped them empathise better with how designers work. Figma continues to roll out great updates and impress us with the feature list. I can confidently say that the gamble paid off.

Get rid of old tools

We still had old licenses and tools lying around. All of this had to be cleaned up so that all of us were on the same platform.

Evaluate long term impact

The short term impact was positive. The anecdotal stories were reassuring about the switch. As an organisation, we had to get more objective. We had to measure how Figma helped both the company and the team.

Learnings from the project

Never having worked in such a large team, I did not know about the challenges that arise. Few months into the job, and I could see faults in the ways of working. What was a casual discussion with my manager about how we function turned into my first ever design ops project.

Team needs

I got to understand how each member loves and values different things in the design process. And how difficult it can be to manage expectations for such a large group of people.

Envision change

I went beyond the product needs and thought about how design could flourish as a function. One step towards making the teamwork like a well-oiled machine.

Operational work

The project forced me to work with all the red tape in an organisation as large as Airtel. From reaching out to Figma to seeing the final invoice for it, I got to participate in it all.