From Pixels to Data Sets: How Figma's New Chief Design Officer sees the Future of Design

Lesson 1: The Happy Path: a road less traveled.

"Instead of building pixels for the ‘Happy Path,’ we are now curating experiences with data sets and evals," Loredana explained, describing the fundamental transformation she witnessed during her eight months leading Meta's consumer AI experiences. This shift represents more than a technical evolution—it's a complete reimagining of what design means.

"Instead of building pixels for the happy path, we are now curating experiences with data sets."

Loredana CrisanChief Digital Officer, Figma

The traditional design process, with its carefully crafted screens and predictable user journeys, is giving way to something far more dynamic. Instead of thinking about static interfaces, designers are now orchestrating systems that can respond to infinite variations of user intent. The happy path still exists, Loredana notes, but "it's less traveled" and takes on many forms depending on how users interact with AI-powered experiences.

Lesson 2: Great design happens at the intersections.

Throughout her career—from classical pianist to sound engineer to design leader—Loredana has thrived at intersections. Her philosophy is simple yet profound: breakthrough innovation happens when different disciplines collide.

"Finally all of my brain felt like it came alive," she recalled about her transition from pure music to sound engineering. "I'm a musician, but I'm also an engineer. That's amazing." This pattern repeated throughout her career, each intersection opening new possibilities and ways of thinking.

Loredana reminded us that design doesn’t live in a vacuum. It thrives where different disciplines collide. This intersection thinking is particularly relevant now as the boundaries between design, engineering, and product management blur. Her own path—from pianist to sound engineer to designer—proved the point: diverse experiences create richer perspectives. The tools are democratizing creativity, making design thinking accessible to everyone.

Lesson 3: Learning at the speed of light: What Mark taught me.

During her nine years at Meta, Loredana absorbed crucial lessons about building at scale. "Speed is one that I always strived for as a leader on my teams because especially in environments like today's learning is the most important thing," she shared.

This emphasis on velocity isn't about being reckless—it's about maximizing learning cycles. In a world where AI capabilities evolve weekly, the ability to quickly test, learn, and iterate becomes a sustainable competitive advantage. Mark Zuckerberg's leadership exemplified this: bold, fast-moving, and focused on continuous learning rather than perfect execution.

Meta's culture also emphasized recognizing and nurturing talent based on ownership and problem-solving ability rather than just expertise. "It's more about knowing how to figure things out and an extreme level of ownership in your area that Meta both recognizes and rewards," Loredana explained. It's a lesson that resonates deeply in our current moment of rapid technological change.

Lesson 4: Workflow is a competitive advantage.

One theme that stood out across the discussion was how workflows themselves can become a true differentiator. Adam crystallized an important insight when he observed: "I think that agencies in the future, your workflows are what are going to set you apart." This observation struck a chord with everyone in the conversation.

Loredana agreed enthusiastically, noting that "we're at a place where these changes happen every decade or so where the process itself can become a competitive advantage for a while." Just as agile methodology gave early adopters an edge in the startup world, companies that master AI-enhanced workflows will pull ahead of their competition.

The opportunity isn't just in using AI tools—it's in designing entirely new ways of working. From automated layer naming in Figma to complex multi-agent systems that handle entire creative processes, the organizations that reimagine how they work—stringing together AI to remove friction at every step—will leap ahead. Adam shared how Traction has been developing these workflows, from programmatic answer engine optimization to creating empathetic AI researchers, each carefully designed to eliminate friction while maintaining quality.

Here’s the kicker: smaller, more nimble teams may actually have the edge because they can pivot faster than big enterprises weighed down by legacy systems.

Lesson 5: Collaboration is the new design studio.

Tools like Figma and FigJam have become more than software—they’re virtual studios where entire teams can build together. The next frontier? Collaborative AI. Imagine AI not just responding to an individual prompt but becoming part of a team brainstorm, a digital participant in the creative process. That’s where things start to get exciting.

“AI will enhance every single part of the process,” Loredana noted, from tedious tasks like renaming layers to more expansive possibilities like team-wide ideation. She pointed out that while most AI use today is still individual, we’re on the cusp of figuring out what it looks like when multiple people—and machines—collaborate in real time.

"There's not yet a lot of collaborative use of AI—and I'm quite interested in exploring that as an idea."

Loredana CrisanChief Digital Officer, Figma

Lesson 6: Why creativity matters more than ever.

Loredana invoked Einstein: "Creativity is more important than knowledge, and I think that AI is going to make this very obvious." Knowledge is cheap and at your fingertips. But knowing what to ask, how to probe, and which directions are worth exploring—that’s where human creativity shines. The best prompts don’t come from technical perfection; they come from imaginative thinking.

"Creativity is more important than knowledge, and I think that AI is going to make this very obvious..."

Loredana CrisanChief Digital Officer, Figma

The real question isn't whether AI can generate designs—it's whether you know what to ask for. "Do you have enough ideas to explore? Can you think of a different angle?" Loredana asked. "This is not where AI shines on its own. Human creativity needs to drive the machine."

Adam reinforced this point, arguing that "prompt creativity is just as important if not more than prompt engineering.” The technical ability to craft prompts matters less than the imagination to envision what's possible. It's not about knowing the perfect syntax—it's about dreaming up the unexpected.

Lesson 7: Building the future together: Why hybrid wins.

The future of design isn’t about replacing people with machines. It’s about using AI to extend what we can imagine and create—while doubling down on the creativity, collaboration, and leadership only humans can bring.

As Figma evolves its AI capabilities, including tools like Figma Make that can generate functional prototypes from natural language, Loredana sees a hybrid future rather than full automation. "I don't think that either humans without automation or automation by itself will be the solution for a very long time," she predicted.

This hybrid approach extends to how we evaluate and test designs. While AI can help with certain aspects of user research and testing, Loredana cautions that when "you put humans in the mix, a lot of crazy things will happen that you didn't anticipate." The unpredictability of human behavior — those beautiful, messy, unexpected moments — remains something that requires human intuition to navigate.

Joe Skopek, a creative technologist who joined the conversation, put it perfectly: "I still think of AI as augmentation rather than automation. I'm not a big fan of just letting the switch go and run on its own." The magic happens in the collaboration, not the delegation.

Lesson 8: "We're all going to be designers."

Perhaps the most radical shift Loredana describes is the expansion of who gets to be a designer. With AI tools lowering technical barriers, design becomes less about software proficiency and more about thinking and problem-solving.

"We're all going to be designers at some point," she predicted, not because everyone will use Figma, but because the core activity of design—exploring possibilities and making decisions about how things should work—will become part of everyone's job.

This democratization doesn't diminish the role of trained designers. Instead, it elevates design thinking to a fundamental business capability. Those with deep design expertise will become even more valuable as guides and leaders in this new landscape. They'll be the ones who understand not just how to use the tools, but why certain decisions create better experiences.

Lesson 9: The Stradivarius Principle.

In one of the conversation's most poetic moments, Loredana shared her vision of great design through the lens of Stradivarius, the legendary violin maker. He didn't just build instruments—he selected the wood, obsessed over the varnish, pioneered new dimensions for deeper sound, and even invented influencer marketing by getting his violins into the hands of the best musicians.

There’s a danger in drawing lines between design, engineering, and product. If you draw that line, it becomes an obstacle in your path.

"Any line that you draw is a line that you have to overcome."

Loredana CrisanChief Digital Officer, Figma

"The reality is that this is what we're trying to do," Loredana explained, "but now we're trying to do that as 10,000 people." The challenge isn't just creating excellence—it's scaling that obsessive attention to detail across teams, time zones, and technologies.

Lesson 10: Looking forward with clear eyes.

As Loredana prepares to shape Figma's future, her vision is both ambitious and grounded. She's not going in with a mandate to change everything. Instead, she's listening to the community, understanding what's working with new tools like Make, and thoughtfully evolving the platform based on real user needs.

For designers, marketers, and technologists, the message from this conversation is clear: embrace the intersections, prioritize learning speed over perfect execution, and remember that human creativity remains irreplaceable. The future of design isn't about choosing between human creativity and AI capability—it's about orchestrating both to create experiences we haven't yet imagined.

As Adam noted near the conversation's end, we're witnessing the emergence of new roles and new ways of thinking. The polymaths who can see across disciplines, the orchestrators who can bring together different capabilities, the creative thinkers who can imagine new possibilities—these are the people who will thrive in this new landscape.

The path forward isn't always clear, and it certainly isn't always happy. But as Loredana's journey shows us, the most interesting things happen at the intersections, where different worlds collide and create something entirely new.