When it creates Figma, Dylan Field is not only looking to build collaborative design software. It starts, without making it a slogan, a strategy that will profoundly transform the way in which a product is essential on its market: make the user the main distribution lever, and the community an active space for value creation. In contrast to classic conquest marketing, Figma embodies invisible but systemic marketing, entirely controlled by the product and nourished by its user base.
A model -oriented model, not storytelling
Figma did not build its notoriety by massive campaigns or media budgets. The adoption came from the inside: designers, developers and product managers have gradually introduced the tool into their teams, often by bypassing traditional purchasing circuits. This viral movement, facilitated by a freemium model and a native collaborative interface, is based on a logic of pure use: it is the simplicity of experience, not the brand discourse, which converts.
The product is designed as a network vector. Each new shared project, each file open to several, creates an exhibition and adoption loop. Collaboration becomes an acquisition channel.
A community as a strategic organ
Dylan Field claims a “third place” type approach: halfway between the house and the office, Figma aspires to create a space of belonging for creation professionals. This community positioning is not limited to meetups or forums. It structures the company: Field is personally traveling to emerging ecosystems (Lagos, São Paulo, Jakarta) to observe local practices and adjust the product.
This strategy is based on a conviction: the most strategic needs do not go up since customer top management, but from users themselves. Marketing is a field work, listening, and local animation on a global scale. Today, more than 80 % of the weekly active users of FIGMA are located outside the United States.
From distribution to co-creation
The power of the Figma community is not limited to making the tool known. It is also a source of content, extensions, templates and new uses. The marketplace (with its components, plug-ins, widgets) is not a simple add-on product: it is a direct extension of the marketing strategy.
For example:
- Eddie Lobanovskiy’s “Design System Starter Template” has been duplicated more than 30,000 times.
- Plug-ins like “Autoflow” or “Content Reel” exceed one million installations.
- More than 5,000 plug-ins are available on Figma Community.
Each shared element amplifies the perceived value and feeds its organic discovery.
Figma also supports community events in more than 100 cities (Les Figma Friends), allowing local users to organize workshops, presentations or meetings themselves.
On the media level, the annual “Figma Config” conference has become a global event, followed by millions of spectators online, with product announcements, testimonies from flagship customers and wide tech press coverage.
A lesson for SaaS publishers
If Figma has not invented community marketing, HubSpot is another example, but has made it a strategic infrastructure. Where many startups struggle to align product, brand and distribution, Figma has integrated these dimensions from the start in one and the same object: the user experience. In France one of the software publishers who best operates this strategy is Pennylane, we will have the opportunity to return to the subject with its CMO Maxime Baumard.
