Building One with Tomer Cohen

Building Figma with Yuhki Yamashita: Collaborative Design, AI Teammates, and Building for Builders


Listen Later

When product teams talk about “a single source of truth,” they’re usually describing an aspiration — a kind of digital nirvana where everyone works from the same context. In engineering, that problem was solved years ago. In design, it took a fundamental mindset shift.

Few people understand that shift better than Yuhki Yamashita, Chief Product Officer at Figma. When Figma launched in 2012, the idea of multiple people editing the same file, watching every keystroke in real time, felt radical. Today, Figma is used by more than 95% of the Fortune 500, powering collaboration across designers, engineers, and product teams worldwide.

In this episode of Building One, host Tomer Cohen talks with Yuhki about what it takes to build products for builders and what he’s learned from his product roles at Microsoft, Google, and Uber.

Tomer and Yuhki discuss:

  • Why designing for product teams is uniquely powerful and uniquely challenging
    • What Yuhki learned from Microsoft, Google, and Uber, and how each shaped his product philosophy
      • How to design tools for non-designers without diluting power or precision
        • The rise of “vibe coding” and its parallels in design
          • Why Figma’s multiplayer model was a means, not an end
            • How AI can evolve from a personal assistant into a true multiplayer teammate
              • Why storytelling is one of the most underrated product skills
              • This conversation is for anyone building products, leading teams, or shaping tools, and for every builder who believes clarity and collaboration are the real drivers of great work.

                Follow Yuhki Yamashita on LinkedIn.

                Follow Tomer Cohen on LinkedIn and check out his newsletter, Building LinkedIn.


                ...more
                View all episodesView all episodes
                Download on the App Store

                Building One with Tomer CohenBy LinkedIn

                • 5
                • 5
                • 5
                • 5
                • 5

                5

                25 ratings


                More shows like Building One with Tomer Cohen

                View all
                Pivot by New York Magazine

                Pivot

                9,578 Listeners

                Pod Save America by Crooked Media

                Pod Save America

                87,790 Listeners

                The Daily by The New York Times

                The Daily

                112,742 Listeners

                The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett by DOAC

                The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

                8,866 Listeners

                Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel by LinkedIn

                Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

                1,018 Listeners

                Everyday Better with Leah Smart by LinkedIn

                Everyday Better with Leah Smart

                347 Listeners

                This Is Working with Daniel Roth by LinkedIn

                This Is Working with Daniel Roth

                60 Listeners

                Huberman Lab by Scicomm Media

                Huberman Lab

                29,226 Listeners

                The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

                The Ezra Klein Show

                16,089 Listeners

                Get Hired with Andrew Seaman by LinkedIn

                Get Hired with Andrew Seaman

                149 Listeners

                The Path with Ryan Roslansky by LinkedIn

                The Path with Ryan Roslansky

                44 Listeners