Key Takeaways
- Dylan Field is the CEO of Figma, a $19.45 billion design tool company used by 95% of the Fortune 500.
- Before co-founding Figma in 2012, he had no experience being a manager.
- Field describes himself as “bad at all of it” at first, but he learned how to be an effective manager over time.
Dylan Field found out the hard way that being a good leader doesn’t necessarily mean being a good manager.
The Figma CEO assumed that because he had always been a leader, he was automatically ready to manage — only to learn that management was its own separate skill set.
On an episode of the First Time Founders podcast that aired earlier this week, Field explained that he “definitely did not know” how to be a good manager at first. Before he co-founded Figma, a $19.45 billion design company used by 95% of the Fortune 500, he interned at companies like LinkedIn and Flipboard. He had never been a manager before co-founding the company in 2012. Figma now has a 1,600-person workforce.
“The good news is if you’re a first-time manager, it’s all very learnable,” Field said on the podcast. “It’ll feel like muscle memory eventually.”
Related: Instead of Cuts, This $28 Billion Dollar Design Company’s Response to AI Is To Hire More People
Field listed the managerial basics: knowing where his team was, running effective one-on-ones, building relationships, setting clear goals and holding people accountable.
“I think I was bad at all of it,” Field said.
Investors also added to the pressure by voicing concerns about Figma quickly getting a product to market, he said. Field co-founded Figma in 2012, but it took the company three years to ship a beta product. Opening up the product to the public took another year, and adding a paid plan took until 2017, marking five years from idea to full product launch.
“Please don’t take away that you should take five years to launch a company,” Field said on the podcast. “You’ll be dead. We are the outlier, from a different time.”
Related: These Billionaire Founders Famously Hate Being a CEO: ‘Like Staring Into the Abyss and Eating Glass’
Field said that what was “tremendously helpful” for growth was hiring the company’s first manager, Sho Kuwamoto, who started as Figma’s director of engineering in 2015. Field “learned a ton” from Kuwamoto about managerial skills.
Over time, Field got better at management, practicing skills like clear goal-setting, until they became instinctual.
Field’s experience is similar to other founders, like Dustin Moskovitz, who have had to learn how to effectively manage employees. Moskovitz co-founded Facebook and Asana, leading Asana for 15 years as CEO. In an interview in October, he said that the CEO role was “exhausting” and didn’t suit his introverted personality.
“By personality, I don’t like to manage teams, and it wasn’t my intention when we started Asana,” he explained. “Then one thing led to another, and I was CEO.”
Related: Airbnb’s CEO Says He Personally Manages 40 to 50 Employees as Direct Reports
Ready to explore everything on Entrepreneur.com? December is your free pass to Entrepreneur+. Enjoy complete access, no strings attached. Claim your free month.
Key Takeaways
- Dylan Field is the CEO of Figma, a $19.45 billion design tool company used by 95% of the Fortune 500.
- Before co-founding Figma in 2012, he had no experience being a manager.
- Field describes himself as “bad at all of it” at first, but he learned how to be an effective manager over time.
Dylan Field found out the hard way that being a good leader doesn’t necessarily mean being a good manager.
The Figma CEO assumed that because he had always been a leader, he was automatically ready to manage — only to learn that management was its own separate skill set.
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.
Read the full article here
