Now, Figma is leveraging its innovative nature to change the nature of work itself \u2014 at least inside its brand-new New York City office. In early June 2021, Figma opened a new hub in NYC in the heart of Union Square: it\u2019s an office space, yes, but one designed in Figma\u2019s traditionally forward-thinking style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A new hybrid future of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Currently occupied by roughly 40 employees (with plans to double by the end of 2021), the office will accommodate the company\u2019s hybrid work model, which allows employees to choose whether they wish to work fully remotely or be assigned to a specific Figma hub\u2014there are also hubs in London and San Francisco. Even then, employees are only expected to work out of the office a minimum of two specific days a week \u2014 which is to say, all in-person employees will be at the office at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “New York City is this paragon of arts and culture with a really rich history of design influence”<\/p>Katie Szeto, product manager, figma<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n “Every employee has a choice. They can decide to be fully remote, or associated with a hub,” Katie Szeto, a product manager at Figma and a senior leader of the NYC hub told BrainStation Magazine. “The office here is expanding aggressively, and really the aspiration is that we’ll be growing in all forms and functions here, with a focus on sales and product development.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a simple work model that was born at Figma from the widespread shift to remote work due to COVID-19, which has fundamentally redefined office culture on the whole. One unique aspect of this new work model is that Figma unveiled it in August 2020<\/a>, months before other tech leaders made the permanent switch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring one of our first conversations, we debated if we needed to decide now versus later,\u201d Field wrote in a blog post when Figma first announced its hybrid approach. \u201cWhy not pause to see what our peers would do, then follow their lead? Ultimately we decided that we shouldn\u2019t wait to work through this \u2014 lack of clarity was a source of employee anxiety and we needed to pick a direction so we could start optimizing our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Figma, the hybrid work model being launched in New York City is not just a reflection of the company\u2019s core values, but also in many ways mirrors its core product offering. Field and co-founder Evan Wallace developed Figma as a tool that could leverage browser power to allow designers cloud-based collaboration capabilities no matter which team they were working with, regardless of location; Figma, the software, in other words, is practically purpose-built for remote work. In the early development stages, Field and Wallace envisioned a tool \u2014 not unlike Google Docs \u2014 that would enable designers to work like engineers, accessing, editing, and collaborating within a single cloud-based file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its launch, Figma has introduced a number of new tools, including plug-ins that allow developers to build their own tools within the app. In April 2020, Figma secured $50 million in Series D financing<\/a>, bringing the company\u2019s total funding to $132.9 million and leading to a valuation of $2 billion at that time. Figma is now the design program of choice for a number of the world\u2019s top companies, including Spotify and Airbnb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company\u2019s remote work-friendly thinking extends beyond its office culture and core product, too. In April of this year, Figma launched FigJam<\/a>, a digital whiteboard tool whose need arose after what Yuhki Yamashita, Figma\u2019s Product VP, described as a year of remote work. Yamashita watched Figma employees \u2014 referred to as Figmates \u2014 use the product in \u201call kinds of creative and unexpected ways\u2014from multiplayer pong to ice breakers to meal planning and brainstorming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d3ghupt9z9s6o0.cloudfront.net\/app\/uploads\/2021\/07\/16144435\/491ad711661f7d69e07b21f71ca54ad574aaccae-4240x2000-1-1024x483.png\")
Success through collaboration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n