// intro

Mubarak

Product Design Manager · Kissflow · 8+ years

// act 1 / setting the scene

Quitting Figma: The Trend, the Truth, and What Actually Broke.

A year inside Kissflow's move to an AI-first design workflow.

› why we left

Figma is a great tool.
We left because our way of working changed.

draw the screen → ship the feature
// our new way

We build two ways now.

We dropped handoff — it's still translation. These two aren't.

01
Prototype on a production clone
We build a prototype on a copy of our real product, using our real design system. The developer takes that code and plugs it in.
Little translation
02
Work directly in the codebase
The designer works straight in the real code — from idea to shipped — and ships it.
No translation
// the biggest change

Designers are becoming builders.

This is the biggest change of all.

Before
Designer =
translator
We translated ideas into designs for others to build.
→
Now
Designer =
builder
We build the real thing ourselves.
// the mismatch · 1 / 2

Why Figma doesn't fit
the new way of working.

Every time, we had to feed the product context.

No memory in the tool — we rebuilt the whole context ourselves, every screen.

Our design system existed twice — once in Figma, once in code.

Two copies, kept in sync by hand — until they drifted apart.

The final UI never matched my design.

Every handoff lost a little; we spent weeks putting it back.

Most of our time went to handoff.

Explaining, reviewing and fixing ate the week — the designing didn't.

// the mismatch · 2 / 2

Why Figma doesn't fit
the new way of working.

We validated prototypes, not products.

The real learning only started after development.

Fast is the new normal.

Others ship in days; slower now means falling behind, fast.

One person can do more now.

One person plus AI carries more of the chain — a lot of this is economic.

› the honest question

If we stop the Figma license tomorrow —
what actually breaks?

// act 2 / what breaks

Figma wasn't
one tool.
It was running
your whole pipeline.

[ one app, many jobs ]

Handoff Source of truth Design system Assets Comments Onboarding Audits UX copy
// break 01
#1

Design Handoff.

  • [+]Devs knew exactly what to build
  • [!]That clear spec is gone
  • [!]Everyone hands off their own way
// break 02
#2

Source of truth.

  • [+]One link showed everyone the latest work
  • [!]Now the work is scattered
  • [!]Some can't find it, some can't see it at all
// break 03
#3

The design system.

  • [+]Designers built from one shared library
  • [!]That library is gone
  • [!]Nowhere to build, consistency slips
// break 04
#4

Assets.

  • [+]Grabbed in seconds from one library
  • [!]That library has no home now
  • [!]Duplicates creep in, styles drift
// break 05
#5

Comments & feedback.

  • [+]Feedback lived right on the design
  • [!]Now it scatters across chats and PRs
  • [!]The "why" behind decisions is lost
// break 06
#6

Onboarding.

  • [+]New designers learned by browsing the file
  • [!]That browsable history is gone
  • [!]Ramp-up time doubles
// break 07
#7

Audits.

  • [+]Quick checks ran across the whole product
  • [!]That check surface is gone
  • [!]Quality slips before anyone notices
// break 08
#8

UX copy.

  • [+]All the words lived in the design
  • [!]Now labels and errors are scattered
  • [!]Copy drifts out of sync with the product
Handoff Source of truth Design system Assets Comments Onboarding Audits UX copy
› the reality

It doesn't break
one at a time.
It all goes at once.

Touch one thing — the whole structure comes apart.

That's why a sudden quit fails.

// the design team

It all lands on the design team.

Developer
Let me check the dev mode
Content
I need to update the copy
Stakeholder
Can I see the work?
New hire
How does this flow work?
PM
Where's the latest design?
Manager
Send me the final design file
Engineer
Where's the new component?
QA
Did we check contrast?
// act 4 / the question

Is there a solution
that solves this?

Go on — name one.

// act 4 / the answer

There isn't one.
So we built it.

Kissflow Studio
// where the work moves

Work moves from a single tool to a connected ecosystem.

Closer to the product.
Closer to the code.
Closer to reality.
That's the new
way of working.
Studio
Source of truth
Product repo
Assets
Repo / library
UX copy
In-product
Prototypes
Preview builds
Onboarding
Docs / guides
Comments
PR comments
Handoff
Pull requests
Design system
Storybook / code
// act 5 / demo

Let me show you Kissflow Studio.

hub.kissflow.design/new-project
▶
new projectsystem already loadedprompt Claude iterateshare preview linkdev consumes the code

If you stop the license tomorrow —
you'll know what breaks, and what to do.

// the end

Thanks!

Questions? Let's talk.

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