The Zero-to-One Playbook: How Figma's Go-To PM Builds New Products Inside Large Companies

Figma's Mihika Kapoor reveals the frameworks for turning ideas into billion-dollar products through vision, conviction, and strategic hype-building.

Design-engineer-PM hybrid shares tactical approaches for securing buy-in, building momentum, and spreading innovation throughout established organizations.

Key Takeaways

• Vision crafting requires cross-functional collaboration from day one, not linear handoffs from research to design to engineering
• Strong conviction enables momentum creation but must be balanced with explicit confidence levels and willingness to pivot
• Hype-building is essential for zero-to-one projects because flames are destined to die without constant stoking
• Prototyping and visual communication trump written descriptions for securing buy-in in visual-first organizations
• User immersion through constant conversations builds the repository of insights needed for strong product intuition
• Internal staging and dog-fooding creates investment through feedback loops that make people feel ownership
• Culture-building activities like team rituals establish trust that enables collaboration during difficult periods
• Entrepreneurial companies need systematic approaches to nurturing bottom-up innovation through hackathons and maker weeks
• AI tools are lowering the floor for building prototypes, making vision communication more accessible to non-technical PMs

Timeline Overview

• 00:00-04:29 - The Mihika Philosophy: Introduction to Figma's go-to zero-to-one PM and her unique design-engineer-product hybrid approach
• 04:29-07:34 - Spike Strengths Over Weaknesses: Why leaning into natural talents beats trying to be good at everything in product management
• 07:34-12:12 - Vision as Everything: How compelling visions anchor teams through chaotic product development cycles and enable forward progress
• 12:12-18:25 - The Democratic Workplace Vision: FigJam case study on transforming brainstorm democratization into broader workplace collaboration innovation
• 18:25-21:52 - Prototyping Without Skills: Using AI tools and collaborative hackathons to build prototypes when lacking design or engineering capabilities
• 21:52-26:36 - Conviction as Catalyst: How strong opinions serve as reaction-generating mechanisms while maintaining weak holds for pivoting
• 26:36-27:45 - Balanced Direct Communication: Being explicitly clear about confidence levels while fostering two-way feedback cultures
• 27:45-32:48 - Strategic Hype Architecture: Internal momentum building through high-visibility forums and external user celebration strategies
• 32:48-42:20 - User Immersion Tactics: Practical approaches for constant user conversation and insight gathering across different product types
• 42:20-47:16 - Operational Insight Management: Converting user conversations into prioritized roadmaps through sales collaboration and feedback systems
• 47:16-50:33 - Passion Through Purpose: Why caring deeply about products creates infectious enthusiasm that elevates entire teams
• 50:33-54:01 - Scope as the World: Reframing product manager responsibilities beyond current projects to company-wide vision alignment
• 54:01-57:00 - Culture Through Connection: Creating team bonds through rituals like Hot Seat and The Figgies that sustain collaboration
• 57:00-01:07:07 - Grace Under Change: Pivoting with enthusiasm by maintaining adaptability around resourcing and execution approaches
• 01:07:07-01:11:48 - High Agency Leadership: Design Nation case study demonstrating bottom-up problem-solving and resourceful execution
• 01:11:48-01:13:15 - Superpower Shadows: How conviction, scrappiness, and detail obsession create both strengths and potential liabilities
• 01:13:15-01:16:07 - Entrepreneurial Culture Architecture: Why companies need systematic innovation processes to maintain competitive advantage
• 01:16:07-01:20:50 - The Flame Keeper Metaphor: Zero-to-one leaders as guardians who stoke ideas and enable wildfire spread
• 01:20:50-01:22:49 - Idea Generation Framework: Combining user empathy with company goal alignment to identify breakthrough opportunities
• 01:22:49-01:26:47 - Reality Distortion Persistence: How optimism bordering on delusion enables breakthrough innovation through repeated pitching
• 01:26:47-01:29:15 - Wildfire Spreading Tactics: Using staging environments and feedback loops to create company-wide investment in new products

Vision as the North Star: Building Shared Reality

Mihika Kapoor's approach to product development centers on vision as the fundamental organizing principle that enables teams to navigate the inherent chaos of innovation. Her framework challenges traditional linear product development by emphasizing cross-functional collaboration from the earliest conceptual stages.

• Vision provides the anchor that transforms setbacks into learning opportunities rather than discouraging failures
• The most effective visions emerge from cross-pollination between research insights, design prototypes, and engineering feasibility constraints working together simultaneously
• Compelling vision communication requires moving beyond traditional pain-point solution timelines to integrated proof-point demonstrations
• At visually-oriented companies like Figma, mockups and prototypes communicate more effectively than written descriptions

The FigJam democratization example illustrates this approach in practice. Rather than starting with market research and progressing linearly through design and engineering, Kapoor's team identified the core insight about brainstorming as a democratic process and expanded that into a broader workplace transformation vision. This required designers, researchers, and engineers working together to create compelling demonstrations rather than sequential handoffs.

Implementation involves creating single artifacts that the entire team contributes to and feels ownership over. This might mean collaborative deck creation in Figma where research insights, design mockups, and technical feasibility assessments combine into unified presentations that generate team-wide conviction rather than function-specific deliverables.

Conviction as Momentum Generator: The Catalyst Approach

Kapoor advocates for strong conviction not as dogmatic attachment to ideas but as a catalytic mechanism that generates reactions and enables faster iteration toward optimal solutions. Her framework treats opinions as starting points for collaboration rather than final decisions.

• Strong opinions create momentum by giving teams something concrete to react to rather than starting from blank slates
• Most product decisions involve two-way doors where wrong choices can be reversed, making speed more valuable than perfection
• Product sense develops through accumulated user conversations that create mental repositories of insights for decision-making
• Explicit confidence communication prevents strong opinions from shutting down collaborative input

The approach requires balancing assertiveness with receptivity. Kapoor explicitly states her confidence levels when sharing opinions, enabling team members to understand when to defer versus when to challenge. This creates psychological safety around disagreement while maintaining forward momentum.

Practical implementation involves treating user conversations as the foundation for building product intuition. Rather than relying on formal research processes, continuous informal conversations with users create the pattern recognition necessary for quick decision-making during ambiguous situations.

Strategic Hype Architecture: Internal and External Momentum

Building sustainable excitement around zero-to-one projects requires systematic approaches to both internal organizational buy-in and external user engagement. Kapoor's framework treats hype as essential infrastructure rather than marketing afterthought.

• Internal hype involves leveraging high-visibility company forums like sales kickoffs and hackathon demo days to create companywide awareness
• External hype requires understanding product personality and designing experiences that make users feel special rather than advancing company metrics
• Early-stage products benefit from being pushed beyond their current development stage to generate learning and organizational investment
• Successful hype creation requires genuine belief in the vision since authentic enthusiasm cannot be manufactured

The sales kickoff demo example demonstrates internal hype architecture. Despite the product being rough and used by only ten people, securing keynote visibility created organization-wide momentum that generated both product insights and company-wide excitement. This approach treats visibility as learning acceleration rather than premature marketing.

External hype requires product-specific approaches. FigJam's birthday celebration with easter egg features leveraged the product's playful personality, while more serious products might focus on breakthrough capabilities or problem-solving demonstrations. The key is aligning hype tactics with authentic product characteristics.

User Immersion: Building Insight Repositories

Kapoor's user research approach emphasizes continuous informal conversation over formal research processes, creating accumulated insight repositories that enable quick decision-making during product development uncertainty.

• Daily user conversations provide pattern recognition capabilities that formal research cycles cannot match
• Non-user insights often prove more valuable than user feedback for understanding adoption barriers and market positioning
• Different product types require different immersion strategies based on audience accessibility and product complexity
• Sales call participation creates cross-pollination between customer pain points and product roadmap prioritization

The approach involves treating every social interaction as potential user research. Kapoor regularly asks friends and acquaintances about their figma usage, creating informal feedback loops that supplement formal research processes. This continuous input creates mental models that enable quick pattern recognition during product decisions.

For B2B or technical products where users aren't easily accessible, the strategy shifts to building relationships with sales teams and participating in customer calls. This creates direct exposure to customer pain points while enabling product teams to inform sales conversations about upcoming capabilities.

Culture as Competitive Advantage: Building Team Connection

Kapoor's culture-building approach treats team relationships as infrastructure that enables collaboration during difficult periods and changes. Her frameworks focus on creating genuine personal connections rather than surface-level team activities.

• Trust establishment through personal connection enables collaboration during high-pressure situations and conflicting priorities
• Culture-building activities can range from simple conversation starters like Hot Seat to elaborate celebrations like The Figgies
• Effective team culture creates emotional investment that makes work more enjoyable and sustains performance during challenges
• Bottom-up culture creation often proves more authentic and sustainable than top-down organizational initiatives

Hot Seat exemplifies low-effort, high-impact culture building. The simple format of timed personal questions creates opportunities for team members to understand each other's backgrounds and motivations, building empathy that improves collaboration during work conflicts.

The Figgies demonstrates how creative celebration can build team identity and appreciation. By creating Oscar-style awards for quirky team characteristics, Kapoor helped team members appreciate diverse personalities and working styles while creating shared positive experiences.

Graceful Pivoting: Adaptability as Strategy

Managing constant change in fast-growing organizations requires systematic approaches to maintaining enthusiasm and productivity despite shifting priorities and evolving strategies. Kapoor's framework treats adaptability as a learned skill rather than natural temperament.

• Successful pivoting involves maintaining vision-level consistency while adapting execution approaches based on new constraints or opportunities
• High agency approaches to problem-solving enable progress despite resource limitations or organizational obstacles
• Change management works best when team members understand underlying motivations and maintain focus on ultimate objectives
• Entrepreneurial thinking within existing organizations requires willingness to adapt resource acquisition and execution strategies

The Design Nation example illustrates graceful pivoting in practice. When original organizational backing disappeared, Kapoor adapted by leveraging student email addresses for cold outreach and building momentum through individual executive conversations rather than institutional support.

This approach requires distinguishing between core vision elements that remain constant and execution details that can be modified based on constraints. Teams that maintain clarity about fundamental objectives can adapt tactics without losing momentum or team morale.

Zero-to-One Leadership: The Flame Keeper Framework

Leading breakthrough innovation within established organizations requires specific skills for nurturing ideas from conception through organizational acceptance and market launch. Kapoor's framework treats zero-to-one leaders as guardians responsible for maintaining project momentum.

• Successful zero-to-one projects require right idea identification, buy-in securing, and organizational spreading capabilities
• Ideas must combine user empathy insights with company strategic goal alignment to generate sustainable support
• Optimism bordering on delusion enables persistence through multiple pitch cycles and organizational resistance
• Early staging and feedback loops create organizational investment by enabling contribution and ownership feelings

The framework emphasizes that great ideas alone are insufficient without systematic approaches to organizational adoption. This involves understanding individual motivations across engineering, design, and business functions while creating opportunities for meaningful contribution based on personal preferences.

Implementation requires treating initial rejections as "not yet" rather than "no" while persistently seeking new forums and approaches for sharing vision. The hackathon demo success demonstrates how different contexts can generate breakthrough moments even after previous pitch failures.

The Future of Innovation: AI-Enabled Product Development

Kapoor's perspective on AI tools focuses on their potential to democratize prototype creation and vision communication, particularly for product managers lacking traditional design or engineering skills.

• AI tools are lowering barriers to prototype creation, enabling more PMs to create compelling vision demonstrations
• Visual communication will become increasingly important as AI makes high-quality mockups and prototypes more accessible
• The fundamental skills of user empathy, conviction building, and organizational influence remain essential despite technological advancement
• Companies that effectively integrate AI tools into innovation processes will maintain competitive advantages through faster iteration cycles

This shift suggests that product management will increasingly emphasize vision crafting, relationship building, and organizational influence as AI handles more technical implementation details. The democratization of prototype creation enables more bottom-up innovation while placing greater emphasis on idea quality and execution leadership.

Organizational Innovation Architecture

Building consistently innovative companies requires systematic approaches to nurturing and scaling bottom-up innovation while maintaining operational excellence in core business functions.

Kapoor's experience at Figma demonstrates how companies can institutionalize entrepreneurial behavior through structured programs like Maker Week while maintaining cultural values that celebrate experimentation. This balance enables breakthrough innovations like multi-edit, Jambot, and the widgets platform to emerge from hackathon projects while ensuring core product development continues effectively.

The key insight is that innovation culture requires both systematic processes and individual leadership. While companies can create forums and incentives for innovation, breakthrough products still require individuals willing to take responsibility for vision development, buy-in generation, and organizational momentum building.

For product managers seeking to drive innovation within established organizations, Kapoor's framework provides actionable approaches for moving from ideas to implemented products. The combination of user insight gathering, vision crafting, conviction building, and organizational influence creates a repeatable methodology for breakthrough innovation within competitive constraints.