Designer Advocate (Tom Factor)

Technical experts from your user base who bridge marketing, product, and sales with credibility

Claire Butler
An inside look at Figma's unique GTM motion

Designer Advocate (Tom Factor)

"They ended up calling it the Tom Factor because he was so powerful, and their deals were so much more likely to close if he joined the calls." - Claire Butler

What It Is

A role that bridges marketing, product, and sales by embedding technical practitioners directly into go-to-market functions. These aren't marketers who learned the product or salespeople with technical training—they're passionate users hired specifically because they understand the product and audience deeply.

At Figma, they called this role "Designer Advocate" (DA). The term "Tom Factor" came from Tom Lowry, who started on the same day as Figma's first sales rep. Tom had been an internal champion at his previous company who got his whole organization to adopt Figma. When he joined Figma, deals were dramatically more likely to close when he joined sales calls.

The key distinction: these advocates never have quotas. They're not salespeople. Their job is to build credibility with technical audiences by speaking their language and understanding their problems.

How It Works

The Profile:

  • Passionate users who find you, not people you recruit
  • Previously worked as practitioners (designers, developers, etc.)
  • Deep technical expertise with the product
  • Often former internal champions who spread the product at their previous company
  • Care about helping users, not closing deals

What They Do:

In Marketing:

  • Gut-check all messaging ("that's too thirsty," "you're using a fluff word")
  • Create technical content that practitioners respect
  • Meet with users informally to gather feedback
  • Represent the authentic voice of the user base

In Sales:

  • Join calls to explain the product in practitioner terms
  • Build credibility that salespeople can't achieve
  • Help translate between user needs and product capabilities
  • Dramatically increase close rates on deals they participate in

In Product:

  • Synthesize feedback from hundreds of customer conversations
  • Bridge between what users say and what product teams need to hear
  • Bring unique context from talking to users daily

Reporting Structure: At Figma, designer advocates report into go-to-market (specifically Claire Butler's team), not sales. This preserves their independence and credibility.

How to Apply It

  1. Identify your super-users - Who's already evangelizing your product without being paid? Who got their whole company to adopt you?

  2. Don't post a job listing - The right people emerge from your community; you can't source them through traditional recruiting

  3. Start with one - Your first hire validates the model. Measure their impact on sales close rates and customer feedback quality.

  4. Partner them with sales early - Have them join every sales call initially. Track win rates with and without them.

  5. Keep them quota-free - The moment you give them a number, you compromise their credibility. They help; they don't sell.

  6. Scale with product lines and regions - As you launch new products (FigJam, Dev Mode) or expand geographically (Japan), add advocates for each context.

When to Use It

Use it when:

  • Your product targets technical practitioners who are skeptical of marketing
  • The person using the product isn't the person buying it
  • Your audience cares deeply about craft and quality
  • You're doing bottom-up or product-led growth
  • Sales conversations require technical credibility

Consider adapting for:

  • Developer tools (Developer Advocates/DevRel)
  • Data products (Data Advocates)
  • Any technical tool where practitioners influence buying decisions

Source

  • Guest: Claire Butler
  • Episode: "An inside look at Figma's unique GTM motion"
  • Key Discussion: (01:08:27) - How the Tom Factor emerged and why it works
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

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