Jasper "Dutch" Steutel

The difference is subtle, but it is massively important. Simplistic cascades end up lobbing prescriptive work at teams. The fabric approach assumes that teams have strategies as well. The elements are coherent and connected.

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Last Thursday, a $47B IPO validated something a lot of us have known for a long time: Community is a growth strategy. That IPO with a 250% first-day pop and 13 million monthly users....that was FIG – Figma's public debut. Figma made design collaborative – and made community part of the foundation from the very beginning. That mindset shaped everything, from how they handled feedback to how they showed up in every community program. It’s rare—really rare—for a company to go this far without losing sight of what made them special. The product’s incredible, sure. But the magic? It’s the way they empowered their users to feel like co-creators, not customers. Early adopters gave feedback in real time, taught each other, and built the first how-to guides. That energy grew into Friends of Figma (https://lnkd.in/g6Q8UycX meetups in cities around the world, run by volunteers, sharing use cases and workflows face-to-face.  The online community exploded – and just this year, they launched the Figma Forum (https://forum.figma.com/) on Gainsight's Customer Communities to give people an even richer place to connect.  Their IPO success (which outperformed most major offerings since 2020) was about a lot of things: revenue, profitability, product love, smart execution. But let's not miss this: Figma has always put its community at the center. They leaned into community early. Before it was cool. And they still do.  Jason M. Lemkin wrote about the massive IPO results on @SaaStr. He said it best: “Figma’s IPO success isn’t just about timing—it’s about building an incredibly sound SaaS business that grows efficiently, expands its market, and generates sustainable profits. Figma proves that great SaaS companies can still command premium valuations and deliver explosive public market debuts. SaaS isn’t dead. In fact, it’s bigger than ever." For those of us doing the sometimes messy, often underappreciated work of building community, this should feel like a huge milestone. Because when a company like Figma hits the public markets with this kind of clarity about who they serve and how, it pushes the whole field forward. I’m beyond proud that we get to support the Figma Forum through our platform at Gainsight. And Even more proud to watch this community (and this company) keep raising the bar.

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6 Pillars of Product Ops, authored by Graham Reed, is a strategic layer that enables product orgs to scale. Every growing team needs structure. But not bureaucracy. The goal is fewer blockers, clearer priorities, and faster decisions. That’s where these 6 pillars come in. They’re a practical guide to setting up Product Ops that actually works: 𝟭. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 Drive strategy and alignment. Enable clear communication. Provide tools and resources. 𝟮. 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Support business with product lens. Enable teams with product-related needs. 𝟯. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Deliver product data and insights. Support prioritization and roadmap monitoring. 𝟰. 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Share clear, timely, and relevant updates. Tailor communication to the audience. Enable feedback for ideas and suggestions. 𝟱. 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Ensure processes add value. Continuously refine workflows. Adapt to team and business needs. 𝟲. 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Build trust and open communication. Align teams toward common goals. Connect teams and business units. And here’s what Product Ops actually does day-to-day: → Tool management → Project & Process management → Enabling data & Insights → Cross-team communication → Onboarding & Enablement → Facilitating planning & Prioritization If your team is growing, your Ops should too. Use these 6 pillars to scale without the chaos. Want the full guide with the best resources? It’s inside Product Map. Check the link in the first comment 👇

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AI is ubiquitous in our workflows as developers today. But adoption without intention? That’s where we risk losing the human at the center. I recently wrote for VentureBeat about what I’ve learned driving AI innovation at PagerDuty It’s not just about rolling out tools—it’s about building trust. In the piece, I share the 4 E’s we use to drive empathetic adoption that sticks: ✨ Evangelism – Clarify the why ✨ Enablement – Meet people where they are ✨ Enforcement – Align, don’t dictate ✨ Experimentation – Celebrate progress over perfection 👉 Read it here: https://lnkd.in/grsEmkPU Curious how you're keeping humans at the center of your AI journey? #AI #EngineeringExcellence #Devops

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During my time as an engineering leader, one of my frustrations was seeing talented teams slowed down by DevEx bottlenecks. That's why SurveyMonkey's transformation story hits so close to home. They went from manual EC2 rebuilds to a fully automated, Kubernetes-based platform with enterprise grade compliance. The catalyst was LinearB workflow automation which gave them control over their development pipeline. Here's what made the difference: - Automated PR routing eliminated additional developer approval delays - Intelligent auto labeling created audit trails for SOC2 compliance - Custom workflows standardized across all teams The transformation was remarkable: faster cycle times, improved developer experience, and an infrastructure team that moved from reactive to strategic. As their team said: "We don't want to build custom tools unless we absolutely have to. LinearB automation gave us everything we needed right out of the box." This is the evolution we're seeing across enterprise engineering teams, moving from reactive DevEx to proactive workflow. Get the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/d3XCpSiU

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Conversations about AI and how it will influence our future can be pretty noisy making it hard to tune into those who really do have something useful to say based on a depth of experience and understanding. In the latest episode of 🎙The Progress Report🎙, I’m joined by two such voices, Gina Fratarcangeli, Managing Director, North American GSI Leader & AI Ambassador at Google together with my good friend and colleague, Todd Mason Scott, SVP & Head of Alliances, Digital Transformation at Kyndryl. 🎧 Tune in to hear our on conversation about how AI is reshaping the way we work: http://bit.ly/3UGluDS        #AI #BusinessTransformation #EmployeeExperience #AIecosystem

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