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Yuhki Yamashita is Chief Product Officer at Figma. Prior to Figma, he was Head of Design of Uber\u2019s New Mobility efforts, and before that a product manager at Google and Microsoft. Adding to his impressive resume, Yuhki also taught introductory computer science at Harvard. In today's episode, we talk about operationalizing quality, the case against OKRs, and how Figma isn't just known for product-led growth, but also for building a community of empowered users. Yuhki also shares why he thinks storytelling is key to being a great product manager, owning the "why," and the potential impact of Adobe's acquisition of Figma.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-inside-look-at-how-figma-builds

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:

\u2022 Notion\u2014One workspace. Every team: https://www.notion.com/lennyspod

\u2022 Vanta\u2014Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny

\u2022 Flatfile\u2014A CSV importer that says yes instead of error: mismatch: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny

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Where to find Yuhki Yamashita:

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuhkiyam

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuhki/

\u2022 Website: https://www.figma.com/@yuhki

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Where to find Lenny:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Referenced:

\u2022 Yuhki\u2019s guest post on Lenny\u2019s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-figma-builds-product

\u2022 Shishir Mehrotra on Lenny\u2019s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-of/id1627920305?i=1000576021672

\u2022 Five Why\u2019s template: https://www.figma.com/templates/5-whys-template/

\u2022 Dylan Field on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoink

\u2022 Jeff Holden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffholden

\u2022 Figma: https://www.figma.com/

\u2022 Friends of Figma: https://friends.figma.com/

\u2022 Camille Ricketts on Lenny\u2019s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-notion-leveraged-community-to-build-a-10b-business-camille-ricketts-notion-first-round-capital/

\u2022 Adobe Illustrator: https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/campaign/pricing.html

\u2022 Adobe Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/

\u2022 Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/

\u2022 The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber: https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/0140442936

\u2022 Serial podcast: https://serialpodcast.org/

\u2022 The Good Nurse on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81260083

\u2022 FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/

\u2022 Asana: https://asana.com/

\u2022 Slack: https://slack.com/

\u2022 Notion: https://www.notion.so/

\u2022 Dropbox Paper: https://www.dropbox.com/paper/start

\u2022 Figma\u2019s Alignment Scale: https://www.figma.com/community/widget/1030848035996871692

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Yuhki\u2019s background

(09:05) What Yuhki learned from being on a design team

(10:29) Why managing designers is more difficult than managing product teams

(12:20) Why storytelling is important for product managers

(16:35) How to improve your storytelling skills\xa0

(18:51) Why PMs need to know the \u201cwhy\u201d of the product they are managing

(22:34) The importance of developing a community and strong customer relationships

(26:13) How to use different types of feedback

(28:11) Working with Dylan Field

(32:44) Testing at Figma and the branching emerging feature

(34:54) Why your entire company should be using your product

(36:50) The importance of having personal accountability\xa0

(38:48) Why Yuhki likes to stay out of the way of engineers fixing their own bugs

(40:50) Yuhki\u2019s thoughts on OKRs and how they are used at Figma

(48:40) Figma\u2019s interview process

(51:45) How Figma\u2019s sales team works by creating human connections and empowering designers

(54:57) How Figma built community and created organic growth

(56:36) Advice for founders\xa0

(58:57) The potential acquisition by Adobe and the future possibilities for Figma

(1:01:42) Closing thoughts\xa0

(1:03:44) Lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.