Figma
My Experience as a Product Research Intern on Rapid Research Team at Figma
July – Sep'25 · Product Research Intern
TL;DR
What is Rapid Research?
As the only research intern in Summer 25, I was part of Figma's Rapid Research team. We worked as consultants across the product suite, delivering timely insights that helped product teams de-risk launches, address usability issues, understand adoption friction, and prioritize roadmap opportunities to achieve the desired business value.
My projects
Across three projects, I owned the end-to-end research from project intake to stakeholder readouts. I saw firsthand how research shaped decisions. It was truly rewarding and meaningful to watch product teams act on my research findings and ship features informed by my research.
Project highlights
IMPACTS
- Every project I owned led to a product launch, and two of my reports were directly cited in the company's Quarterly Business Review, reflecting how research shaped product strategy at a business level.
- My research reports were cited in PRDs, and the design sketches I created "what this could look like" became a springboard for product teams developing their hero user journeys and design mocks. The reach extended further than my immediate team, too: other teams within the same pillar drew on my research to inspire their own work.
REFLECTIONS
Research can be creative!
When roadmapping feature fast-follows, I designed a collaborative whiteboarding activity during the session instead of a standard survey. This let participants visually prioritize and build on ideas together, uncovering not just what features they wanted, but why and how they'd use them in context. The richer, more nuanced insights gave the product team clearer direction than rankings alone ever could.
Stakeholder management
Working embedded in three different product teams taught me that each team has its own rhythm, commitment in research, and communication style. I learned to adapt: dropping byte-sized insights on Slack, pushing back on scope, and aligning expectation early on. Meeting teams where they are made my research effective in their own contexts.
Don’t bury the lede!
Always lead research reports with the most critical insight—the "north star" finding that should drive decisions.
Team photos
