Design tools used to be built for one person at a time: save the file, export it, send it around, wait for feedback. Figma told a different story. Design is something a whole team does together, in one place, at the same time.
The product followed the story. Figma ran in the browser, so anyone with a link could open a file. Designers, engineers and product managers could work in the same file at once and watch each other's cursors move. Every big product decision traced back to that one idea.
In 2022 Adobe agreed to buy Figma for $20 billion. Regulators in Europe and the UK stood in the way, the deal was called off, and Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion termination fee. In July 2025 Figma went public and closed its first day of trading worth about $68 billion.
A clear story is a roadmap in disguise. When everyone knows the story, deciding what to build next gets much faster.