Uzabase, Inc updates design culture with Figma

Uzabase, Inc operates a number of businesses and services, including SPEEDA, a SaaS business service that supports agile management, and Newspicks, the largest economic news media for consumers in Japan.

However, Uzabase was using multiple design tools for product design, which plagued it with problems around collaboration and speed. In addition, there were a lot of file conflicts and teams frequently had to revert back to the previous state after a modification or update.

One of Figma and FigJam’s strengths is that they allow everyone to be involved and collaborate in product development and design, and build an organisation committed to "Work in Progress". Uzabase discovered this after trying out Figma Professional, then deciding to upgrade to the Organization Plan… and then to Enterprise. This case study explains why.

The inconvenience of not collaborating

Online collaboration was essential for Uzabase because it had designers who worked remotely even before they introduced Figma.

A spokesperson for the firm says, “At the time, we were having terrible problems with screen sharing during online meetings, where we were working together but not actually looking at the same file.” It was not possible to share designs using the existing design tools, and this was highly inconvenient.

A relaunch of NewsPicks was running at the same time, and the business needed to rapidly create, review, and revise the design.

For this, the team often created both a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the ideal type while mob-designing. The problem was, sharing, reviewing, and revising design ideas created a project bottleneck.

Trying out Figma

Uzabase decided to introduce Figma, starting small. They found it “very easy to use” with most of the functions they needed in one tool, and especially liked its ease of collaboration.

The spokesperson says, “I realized how convenient it is to share the URL of a file and immediately be able to design together on the same file. Being able to use it in the browser means that we can always handle the latest version of the file without having to consciously save it.

Figma allows components to be managed in Variants and Props, so the design and code can be integrated. This greatly improves the feasibility and efficiency of product development. “Even if you have a good design, it cannot be reflected in the product if it cannot be incorporated into the code,” comments the spokesperson.

The benefits of moving from Figma Professional to Organization

Uzabase enjoyed using Figma so much that it upgraded from the Professional plan to Organization and then Enterprise. The first transition, from Figma Pro to Business, brought a number of advantages for Uzabase.

• They integrated design management across teams. Managing all product design within a single organization has increased convenience.
• Designs that were previously fragmented across the team can now be brought together within a single organization. This allows different teams to go back and look at the designs and use the design assets in a unified way.
• The Business plan provides a branching function. This allows users to create a branch from the main file, modify data in the branched file, and then merge it back into the main file after review.
• Master component management using branches. A member of the design team asked for a business plan "branch" for master management, to manage versions and master components that are not covered by the Professional plan.

Benefits from the transition to an Enterprise plan

The second transition brought additional advantages for the company.

• Enterprise plan subdivides account management. The company decided to move from the Business plan to the Enterprise plan as it allows for more detailed control of accounts and billing.
• With the Enterprise plan, "workspaces" are now available. By setting an administrator for the "workspace," the "workspace administrator" can invite external guests and upgrade editors on an approval basis, making it possible to simplify account management and reduce management hours.

Large-scale introduction of FigJam

In addition to Figma design, Uzabase also brought FigJam on board as a “creative engine” for collaboration between engineers, product managers, and also on the business side.

Their Uzabase of over 200 people took to FigJam “very smoothly with no confusion”.

Uzabase uses FigJam in the following ways.

• Creation of the entire Project Management roadmap
• Wire production in conjunction with Figma
• KPT (Keep Problem Try) for meeting review
• Proposal page layout
• Research analysis
• List of interview questions
• Workflow creation

“FigJam has become a partner in thought and discussion due to its overwhelming lightness,” notes the spokesperson. “It’s very important to have a tool that can keep up with the speed of discussion and thinking,” says the spokesperson, who adds, “Information is brought together in one visible place without being dispersed.”

They add, “I put everything related to the project in FigJam, everything. For example, I put all of my images, textures, color samples, fonts, logo related data, rough sketches, etc. in the file.”

Benefits of using Figma alongside FigJam

Uzabase now has a culture of collaboration through its extensive use of Figma and FigJam, and expects it to further impact the overall management of the company.

Figma and FigJam fit into Uzabase’ agile culture, allowing components and library management to be used across all teams, which has increased the speed of product development, and changed the product development flow itself.

“With Figma and FigJam, product managers and engineers are involved at an early stage, and this has made the design process about three times faster,” said the spokesperson. “We are convinced that the way forward is not to simply hire 100 more designers, but rather to determine how to enable existing non-designers to perform design work.”

Internally, this is now known as the “100 Designers” concept.

“With a good design system and design tools like Figma, even non-designers can design,” says the spokesperson. “We will continue to use Figma and FigJam, involve non-designers in design, realize the 100 Designers Initiative, and continue to create great product experiences.”