What a great thread! Thanks so much for your comments guys.

I can understand it from both point of views. Agreed, it’s very important to not silo out other departments and also get their feedback. However it’s equally important to remember which type of mindset those departments are sitting with in their daily work. Sales might be biased towards wanting as much new functionality as possible to be able to sell more. They’ve heard a lot of good ideas from clients — but are those ideas worth pursuing and do they align with the business strategy? Getting their feedback initially when starting a project may not be so valuable but I think giving them access to the finished result and let them test it out is a great idea. I agree to involving other people but let’s not forget a product team is a group of specialised people who do this as their job — it’s safe to assume they know what they’re doing.

If anyone, I’d personally involve the Support department more than Sales and Marketing which, to me, is more a matter of alignment afterwards (which is not just important but very important.) But the Support people are the ones who actually know the issues users and clients are experiencing and how they experience the system.

Also thanks for your responses Teo, I’m glad you’re enjoying Figma too! :)