Inside the plugin, you can do whatever is available to the developer on the web. There are practically no restrictions on the possibilities, except for those related to the system. Fortunately, they are all detailed in the documentation . Many detailed articles have already been written on the topic of technical implementation of plugins, for example, here or here . As product designers, Lev Brook and II wanted to go through all the stages of plugin release, from idea and code writing to promotion and work with feedback from real users. The article is about that.
Figma plugin weekend club
It all started with meeting Grigory Mashkovtsev . He already has several of his plugins, some of them have two to three thousand active users. There is, for example, Thanos UI - a plugin that removes the random half from the selected elements.
With a small group of designers, we started gathering on Saturdays and gathering expertise in plugin production. At the meetings themselves, we discussed the technical implementation of features together, for example, calling the API, interacting with elements inside Figma, coding the UI plugin, or using filters for pictures. The rest of the time we thought about ideas for plugins and product component, positioning, marketing and analytics.
For ourselves, we have compiled a checklist with the main stages of work on the plugin:
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When you realize that creating a plugin is not only writing code, but a bunch of other important processes, you need a whiteboard. We brought all our plugins right into Notion:
We used the simplest structure: Not started / In progress / Completed. We have sorted our tasks by tags: Code / Back / UI / Marketing in order to separate tasks among themselves. I do not exclude that for more complex plugins that imply a bunch of different complex activities, other approaches are suitable.
Plugin idea
Not worrying too much about the quality of the idea, but rather worrying about its virality, we decided that it would be a plugin about cats - it would add cats from memes to different parts of the selected frames. They kind of evaluate the design. It took three days to complete. Our plugin has no interface at all, it just adds cats to the selected frames and closes.
We've worked on positioning. In the description of the plugin, they said that these cats will serve you in order to make design decisions - replace the art director; and in some cases it will be possible to completely eliminate user research. We prepared a beautiful cover and a memorable logo.
Despite the fact that the average plug-in review time is from three to eight days, our plug-in was uploaded in a day and a half.
Your plugin was approved
So, the plugin is in production. What's next? How to get users to know about this amazing tool that will drastically reduce the time for making design decisions.
Below is a list of tools that will help you make good coverage of your plugin views and create more installs:
- The first bet was on personal brand and the power of Facebook. In our case, the bet was not justified, but perhaps someone will succeed.
- Thematic channels in the telegram. The most useful for me was the Russian-language telegram channel about plug-ins for Figma, it brought more than 300 installs per day, now there are more than 15,000 Russian-speaking designers there. If you want to force the views of your plugin, you can order advertising in this channel and the link to the plugin will hang in the top for several hours.
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- Product Hunt. Product Hunt — . , , 00:00 . 4 5 Product of the Day, 12-. , , Product Hunt Figma .
- Twitter Figma Plugins. : Figma , Product Hunt, . Figma Plugins 2000 , Figma 110 000.
- Facebook. , , - , .
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Right now, Figma does not have any built-in analytics to find out the reach and conversion in install. But there is a useful tool, Figma Plugin Stats , that helps you learn a little more. It collects statistics on installs, likes and, most importantly, views. The most interesting thing is that the number of views can be seen for any plugin, knowing only the profile handle of its developer. On the same day with our Hidden Kittens , the famous Blush plugin from Pablo Stanley appeared, which now has 36,000 installations. With the help of this script, we learned that its conversion to install is comparable to ours. More, of course, but not 10 times. This means that it just has more reach. It turns out that the number of installs can be predicted in the same way.
Monetization
Right now, there is no native way to monetize your plugin. Some guys add a link to a site where you can subscribe to a higher plan, then login to the plugin and access the premium functionality.
Another option that will help make money on the plugin, if it is very popular with subscribers - the guys from Figma can directly contact the author and jointly drag these functions directly into Figma, in which case, cooperation is paid. We clarified this with Tom Lowry at the London Figma Meetup, he confirmed that Figma is very interested in such a collaboration.
However, in the future, Figma plans to significantly simplify the process of creating and monetizing plugins, to do something like an App Store mechanic.
This is what happened as a result
In total, in three months we got 1000 installs and a few likes. Plugins are a great way to practice creating your own product and learn something new. You can look at all aspects of creating a product: from developing an idea to promoting.