Most ProtoPie users start drawing in design tools like Figma and prototype in ProtoPie. The seamless experience between design tools and ProtoPie was crucial. The faster and easier ProtoPie can import designs from Figma, the quicker our users start prototyping.

However, the import feature didn’t meet anywhere near users’ needs. The users complained about the import feature as it was essential for their work. The improvement of the import was the top request from our official user feedback channel. One critical feedback that caught my eyes was, “Import is a dealbreaker when using ProtoPie.”

The Dealbreakers

We learned that the dealbreakers could be grouped into seven categories as we gathered user feedback.

• It is too slow.
• It is impossible to import layers as vectors. Users have to redraw the same shapes to make interactions.
• It overwrites all layers when imported again even though only one layer is modified in Figma. It often breaks properties or interactions.
• It is inefficient as it can only import one scene at a time.
• It is inefficient to look for specific layers for interactions as it imports all layers in a scene by default.
• It is impossible to import prototypes made in Figma.
• It is impossible to import components made in Figma.

I demonstrated the problems to the product team as a temporary product manager. People were aware of the problems, but the demonstration resonated with them that too much time was wasted for users even before starting to prototype. I naturally took this project as a product designer and product manager, working with a brilliant engineer.