How I made over $33,000 on the Figma plugin without writing a single line of code 👈
I’m a product designer and I specialize in creating design systems and component libraries in @figmadesgin. Design Systems are becoming so popular because they make products more consistent, accessible, improve their usability, and reduce design decision-making.
After a great success of my previous products www.antforfigma.com and www.systemflow.co I decided to create an educational resource to teach people how to design such systems. I wanted to show my way of doing this step-by-step.
I had this idea of a plugin for Figma, a workbook that will teach people how to build their own modern design system from scratch.
But why not a video course? Video courses are so popular in education! You may say.
I often find that when I watch a lesson I forget most of the things the author mentioned in the long video. Another problem is jumping between the video player and the software I’m learning. It distracts me a lot. That’s why in Figmaster everything happens in Figma — without jumping between 3rd party apps/websites, without pausing the video, etc.
OK, cool! I have an idea that I think is great.
But how do I know if people will like this form of learning? How do I know if my audience wants to learn how to build their own design system? 🤔
I had to validate it somehow because I didn’t want to write all lessons without knowing that!
👉 I wanted to have at least 500 people on the email list to launch the pre-order.
👉 I wanted to have at least 100 pre-orders to start working on a full course.
Since I’m not a JS developer and I don’t know how to code plugins I decided I’ll create two demo lessons in Figma (as a design file) just to see if people will like this ‘reading and doing’ approach. I’ve set up a simple landing page in Webflow and added a ConvertKit form to collect emails of students who got the demo lesson.
I sent out the email about the first demo lesson to my audience on Gumroad. On the first day, over 350 people signed up. In the meantime, I was preparing the second demo lesson and also sent out a survey to students who got the first lesson to collect feedback so I can improve the next one.
After the release of the second lesson, I had over 650 students on my list. At this point, I started preparing:
👉 pre-order marketing
👉 the design system preview that my students will build during the cour
👉 full course curriculum
👉 landing page
👉 pricing plan
Three weeks after launching the second lesson, I’ve announced the pre-order and started selling on @gumroad.
👉 the price for the solo license was $49 (now it’s $99)
👉 the price for the team license was $99 (now it’s $399)
👉 the sale window was 2 weeks
👉 I informed my audience that if we won’t reach 100 pre-orders I will refund them and the project won’t happen
The pre-order has ended with 191 sales and I started working on the full course.
👉 I designed the plugin’s UI and how it should work
👉 I hired a developer to code it
👉 I wrote the content for the first module of the course
👉 I redesigned the landing page (www.figmaster.co)
👉 I recorded the video for the hero section
After two weeks of hard work, I launched the plugin, the first module of the course, and the new website. Today, five modules of the course are finished. Up until now, I sold over 390 copies. 🔥
What is more, the project was the #1 Product of the Day with over 700 upvotes on @producthunt on May 11.
