Figma Question

[Carlisle1500]

Can someone talk about this acquisition of Figma? Is XD dead?

See attached

[yoooowow]

me too

[thomashallgren]

This is a leveraged buyout of Adobe. Adobe will be required to do things for the private equity investors that are even worse for the design community. 

[Carlisle1500]

@thomashallgren  Figma is a good product so they are on the right track but you are right about sacrificial lambs. If they don't integrate this company fast and raise prices...heads will roll!

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

...and the day started out so well this morning.

What a mess. Bad news for Figma users, and bad news for XD users.

Obviously XD's development will end with the acquisition of Figma. And Figma's successful business model will be turned on its head and ruined by Adobe management in a few years time.

Chances are a new upstart company will provide an alternative to Figma that uses Figma's old successful business model, and after a decade or two or so Figma will but remain a pleasant memory.

I shudder at the thought of having to install the CC app to merely be able to open a Figma file. Or be dependent on the CC Cloud. Urgh!

I suppose it is time to look for alternatives if this acquisition pulls through. Adobe's history of acquisitions and their inability to respond quickly and innovatively to industry changes are reasons enough for me to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket.

And I won't be the only one, let me tell you: I foresee a small exodus of Figma users leaving or preparing to leave.

Let's hope this deal doesn't happen - but Figma's owners must be dancing in the streets now.

[rayek.elfin]

Well, I just checked Figma's forum to check the response of the Figma community. The avalanche of negative responses from users is hardly unexpected.

Too many services and software in the hands of one company that buys out any competition is just bad for customers in the end.

[Peter Villevoye]

Although Figma is a great tool with overwhelming revenues and huge popularity, it's rumored that Figma has never been a profitable company. So stating it's a "successful business model" is just as unverified. Investors have been plunging big sums of money into it, in order to eventually sell it to a company like Adobe.

[Carlisle1500]

@Peter Villevoye  Your comment deserves more attention. A large firm sees these small businesses as fodder for them. They try to find a company that is growing just fast enough for them to eat them up and Adobe has done this with Figma.

My issue is with Adobe Managment. They cannot keep staffers when they eat companies. Marketo...they lost a guy who was a genius. The Adobe CEO is only trying to create a firm that hires only indians. He offers Indians / India lower prices on testing which is discriminatory. He is creating a culture that really doesn't bring the "Best" together. Only the Best of India. I will not comment further but lets see how long or if the CEO of Figma stays or is pushed out. He's young enough to possibly stay but he may be intelligent to see the clear bias at Adobe. What will the culture of Adobe look like when this is over? 

[Earth Oliver]

The larger problem is that Adobe no longer hires PMs who are experts in the product they're managing. If you look through the job listings, the requirements now are having an MBA and previous experience being a PM. Knowledge of the industry or tools is no longer necessary, which is why development has stalled and why every release is plagued with significant issues. Adobe no longer cares about the professions that put Adobe on the map in the first place.

[Peter Villevoye]

Hey Carlisle and Earth Oliver, you have rightful worries. But this is not a "small business" they bought. This "fodder" is their most expensive acquisition of a private software company, ever ! And it's the best in town, and probably the last chance they have of finally getting their behinds into this whirling hot jacuzzi called UI design. Muse and Adobe XD didn't work out, largely because it was seemingly based on a wrong vision and fragile technology. (Just take a look at the complaints and requests in the Community and UserVoice.) Let's hope they learnt from this $20B lesson...

[Earth Oliver]

Peter, that's because Adobe hired PMs who didn't have a clue about the market and whose only qualification was having an MBA.

[Peter Villevoye]

Having roamed in many Adobe communities, I know very well how often PM's changed. It's indeed baffling to see how they drop by, take their stance, whip up a roadmap, and leave again. One of the scarce exclusions to that is Dani Beaumont, to whom I'd like to give a shout out, and hope she'll survive this turmoil again...

[thomashallgren]

This purchase will place Adobe (with a pdf bow) in the hands of the Private Equity firms lending the 2's and 0's... I think working for Adobe on other projects after this is not good. The Adobe developers who lead other apps may be sidelined. 

[Carlisle1500]

@Peter Villevoye  I appreciate your experienced comments but I just feel $20 billion is too much for a firm that had only $400,000,000 in revenue last year. Microsoft paid $70B for Blizzard but they are a great company with amazing products and USERS. I just don't see it here with Figma. UI to me is just dog-$hit unless you can covert to code.

[thomashallgren]

@Carlisle1500 i disagree. Figma has serious value to product designers, large corporations and communites. FigJam is a perfect collaboration tool. Developers I work with LOVE when I deliver with Figma. Design systems are powerful in Figma. Adobe doesn't understand web development or this product. Major concern.

[Wednesday Dessauer]

It does strike me as funny that none of the people praising 'Figma's successful business model" (who seem to mostly be on the free tier?) are counting the $20B as part of Figma’s business model or its success.

“if  you're not paying for the product, then...”

[thomashallgren]

Figma should be turned into a #PublicGood supported by the community. 

[Carlisle1500]

@thomashallgren  I don't agree with that...products need real customers for sustainability.

[thomashallgren]

The XD team is full of brilliant people. Unfortunately it's an Adobe product and as a result has been stuck for years. The innovation stopped in the end of 2017 when they started to build partiy with the Windows version. Figma beat them by going with a crossplatform web app development from the start. Can't beat that model. Apps built on operating systems don't work any more. Web apps are the future. 

[thomashallgren]

The browser is the operating system of the future. Check out Chrome books.

[thomashallgren]

I begged Adobe in 2017 not to develop the Windows version of XD. Nothing could stop them from destroying themselves.

[Carlisle1500]

@thomashallgren  I've heard this argument many times but everything is evolutionary in business. At one time the parties were in different corners (Mac vs. Windows) and to sell them you had to create different products. Over time now, we have a crossplatform and Adobe has bought them so they are well-positioned...if they can sell it to the Gov'ts

[thomashallgren]

@Carlisle1500 Adobe lost, I was right. Adobe did not have a vision to build one code base for all platfoms. It cost Adobe $22 Billion to course correct - plus the lost expense of many billions building XD. Proof Adobe can NOT build software from scratch any more. The last great software Adobe built from scratch is Illstrator, back in 1986. All other apps were acquired by Adobe. Adobe is not innovatitve, it's a long tail bone yard of formerly great software experiments. We may get 4-8 more great years of Figma from here. After that, not so much. 

[Peter Villevoye]

One more: Adobe invested a lot in writing code for InDesign.

BTW: Illustrator started as an easier testing environment for writing PostScript, in stead of writing code (hence the fountain pen as main drawing tool, as the ideal tool for writing...) As long as they don't creep too much under Figma's skin, we'll be alright. 

[Peter Villevoye]

I've been an Adobe user, trainer, and endorser since 1986. I've seen Adobe acquire or merge with several companies. Yes, they killed a lot of stuff, but they also saved, cherished, and invented a lot of tools. You can't blame them for running their business in a way they think is necessary and profitable. Figma needs to grow in order to become profitable, and Adobe is in desperate need of a proper UI, wireframing and prototyping tool. You do the math...

Some points to note:

Figma is 100% web-based, but offers an off-line app and the use of off-line files.

Collaboration is a breeze; it's not required, but you'll quickly learn how easy it is.

Figma can already import XD files, and this option can be improved, if neccesary.

It has a richer feature set (with much more refinements) compared to Adobe XD.

The only XD feature Figma lacks, is the Repeat Grid's auto-fill/alternating content.

It has a similar approach for plugins, and most plugins will offer a Figma version.

Figma offers everything XD users been shouting and waiting for since many years.

The design approach is similar, with some differences in jargon, setup, and handling.

The interface looks similar at first sight but is far more efficient and more logical.

The vector-drawing will offer you a feature you'll wish in Illustrator: T-sections !

Will Adobe bring Figma down by "a slow lethal injection of Adobe bureaucracy" (as some one very rightfully and frighfully stated) ? Let's hope not. By acquiring Figma, they acknowledge they failed –again– and clearly seem to miss the vision and technologies for a new era of designing for digital media. Let's hope they eventually learned their lesson.

[thomashallgren]

Adobe is a great company with great people. It's always better for them to acquire the winners in the marketplace. I would like to see Adobe adopt the Figma web-app development strategy for all the rest of their apps so innovation can happen cross platform more rapidly. The Mac/Windows parity problem has destroyed all progress in software for 25+ years. Native apps need to end.