How Big Room Technologies uses Figma, the industry standard for user experience design

This article will be going over a what is Figma, how Figma is used at Big Room Technologies and a conclusion about why Figma is an excellent platform for design, prototyping and developer handoff.

What is Figma?

Figma is like a Swiss Army knife for designers, but in digital form. It's a super handy tool for creating all sorts of user interfaces, whether it's for websites, mobile apps, or any other digital project you can think of. What makes Figma stand out is its cloud-based nature, which means you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. This is valuable because it allows a person to work from their pc, laptop, in the office or at a cafe and always pick up where they left off. 

Figma isn’t just about designing pretty interfaces – Figma also helps to bring your designs to life. With features like version history and commenting, you can easily keep track of changes and gather feedback from your team or clients. And when it's time to show work to clients/stakeholders, Figma's prototyping capabilities let you create interactive mockups to really bring your vision to life. Being able to create prototypes that behave close to the final application is invaluable to having everyone involved understand the ux patterns the app will have; it also saves time in development since the behaviors and patterns will be agreed upon by stakeholders and easily understood by devs. So whether you're a seasoned designer or just dipping your toes into the world of UI design, Figma is definitely a tool worth checking out for its flexibility, convenience, and robust toolset.

How we use Figma at Big Room Technologies

Here at Big Room, Figma is the primary design tool. It literally has pretty much everything needed to create wireframes, prototypes, high fidelity mockups, and final deliverables for developers. Although it has everything needed in a design platform, most of our work doesn’t start directly in Figma. It actually starts with gathering information and context about the project we’re working on from the client and hopefully their users. That’s because design without reason is effort that is somewhat wasted. Taking the time to understand the users of a given project can be invaluable, both in time and cost, for reaching an end goal that is meaningful for the client as well as their users. 

Something that needs to be mentioned is just how powerful implementing design systems can be for speeding up work on large scale projects. Figma has been awesome for being able to take core components from one section of the design and being able to bring them to a different part of the design to keep consistency. Big Room has been able to leverage Figma design systems to create core components that exist between multiple apps for the same client; this allows the apps to feel consistent with each other, which minimizes work for both the designers and developers.

Figma is useful in pretty much every stage of a product’s life cycle. We use it to map out user journeys and stories, test wireframes to make sure they align with user goals, create and test prototypes, as well as create final high fidelity mockups for clients and developers. Learning Figma is actually pretty easy. However mastering Figma, with its shortcuts, workflows, and powerful toolset takes time; so be sure to take breaks, it’s a marathon, not a race.

Conclusion & TLDR

Switching to Figma as our primary tool for design has drastically changed how we communicate with clients, work as a team, and build products. We at Big Room are looking forward to the future of the platform and am always happy to see improvements and new features. In case you skipped all the way to the end of this article, here is the quick TLDR. 

• Teamwork Made Easy: With Figma, your whole team can work together on designs in real-time, no matter where they are, fostering collaboration and creativity. It’s helped us connect with stakeholders in a faster and more effective way, leading to better outcomes and quicker feedback loops.

• Anywhere, Anytime Access: You’re never tied to a single computer or location. Figma lives in the cloud, so you can jump into your projects from any device with an internet connection, so you’ll never forget to upload a file or design.

• All-in-One Design Toolkit: From wireframing to high-fidelity prototypes, Figma has all the tools you need in one place, simplifying your workflow. Coming from a background of using multiple tools for various steps in a product’s lifecycle, it’s been great to have a single application that handles the vast majority of needs.

• Prototype with Ease: Create interactive prototypes right within Figma, making it easy to bring your designs to life and get feedback from stakeholders. Honestly, this is one of the most powerful aspects of the platform. Being able to actually test against users with mockups that move and behave like a real application is incredibly valuable for making changes and really shaping the experiences we as designers create.

• Keep It Consistent: Build and manage design systems effortlessly in Figma, ensuring your projects stay on-brand and cohesive. At Big Room Technologies, it’s really helped us to cut down on the time it takes to create new projects and products within a client’s ecosystem.

• Learn and Grow Together: Figma has a thriving community of designers, tutorials, templates, courses, and bootcamps to help new and existing users grow. I’ve been extremely impressed with the resources they and others provide to this vast and robust application.

5 Signs that it’s Time to Review Your Tech Stack

As your business evolves, so should your technology. Your tech stack—the collection of tools, frameworks, platforms, and programming languages you use—plays a critical role in your ability to innovate, scale, and remain competitive. But how do you know when it’s time to pause and take a serious look at what’s under the hood?

Here are five signs it’s time to review your tech stack:

1. Slow Performance is Holding You Back

If your application experiences regular downtime, can’t handle peak traffic without issues or just operates slowly in general, your software is telling you it needs help. These kinds of performance opportunities can be rooted in outdated frameworks, inefficient data architecture, or a lack of scalability in your current infrastructure.

2. Your Team Is Struggling with Productivity

A tech stack should empower your technology team, not slow them down. If your team is spending more time troubleshooting legacy code, managing fragile builds, or dealing with complex deployment processes, the stack may be hindering progress.

3. Integration with Modern Tools Is Becoming a Headache

The ability to easily integrate with other services—analytics platforms, CRMs, payment processors, etc.—is crucial for staying competitive. If integrating new tools feels like forcing a square peg into a round hole, it could mean your tech stack is outdated or too rigid.

4. Security Risks and Compliance Issues Keep Popping Up

Older technologies often lag behind in security patches and may not support modern encryption standards or compliance requirements. If you're frequently dealing with vulnerabilities, manual audits, or difficulty meeting compliance standards, your tech stack might be putting your business at risk.

5. Your Business Has Outgrown Your Current Architecture

Perhaps your product started as a simple MVP, but now it’s supporting thousands (or millions) of users. If your stack was chosen for speed to market rather than long-term scalability, it may be time to revisit those decisions.

Final Thoughts

Tech stack decisions aren't meant to be permanent. What worked ten or five or even two years ago may not be the right choice today. Periodic reviews of your technology stack help you stay agile, reduce technical debt, and seize new opportunities faster.

If you’re seeing any of the signs above, it might be time for a comprehensive Technology Stack Evaluation. At Big Room Technologies, our Advisors help businesses optimize their tech ecosystems so they can scale with confidence.

Is Fixed-Price Really Safer? Why Time and Materials Could Be the Smarter Bet for Software Development Projects.

When kicking off a custom software development project, one of the most important decisions you’ll make with your technology partner is how the work will be billed. Many new clients come to us assuming that a fixed-cost contract is the safest way to protect their investment, but we’re here to tell you that’s not always the case.

Throughout our 25 years in business, we’ve worked under a variety of billing models. And while fixed-price contracts may offer the allure of a predictable cost, we’ve found that time and materials (T&M) consistently delivers more value, greater flexibility, and better outcomes in the long run.

In this post, we’ll explore why time and materials contracts are well-suited for software development, especially in complex or evolving projects.

1. Software Is Inherently Iterative

Building custom software isn’t like ordering off a menu, it’s more like designing a tailored suit. You may start with a vision, but as ideas evolve, users give feedback, and technical constraints come into play, the shape of the project often changes (and that’s a good thing!). A T&M contract supports this natural iteration. With T&M, you’re not locked into a rigid spec. You can pivot as needed, refine priorities, or incorporate new user insights without renegotiating the entire contract.

2. Faster Start, Less Red Tape

Fixed-price contracts often require weeks (sometimes months) of detailed scoping before work even begins. Every feature needs to be well-documented and estimated up front, and when that’s done, you’re locked in. Forget something? You’ll need to renegotiate the entire contract or live without it. In contrast, T&M allows the team to start solving problems right away. You still estimate and prioritize work, but without the pressure to predict every little detail upfront. This accelerates time-to-value and keeps momentum strong.

3. Transparency and Trust

A well-run T&M project includes regular check-ins, reporting, and budget updates. This transparency helps build trust and keeps everyone aligned on progress and priorities.

With fixed-price, there’s often a temptation for vendors to cut corners, limit scope, or charge for change orders when things shift. T&M fosters a more collaborative, honest working relationship focused on delivering real value.

4. More Flexibility to Prioritize Value

In software development, not all features are created equal. T&M allows you to invest more time in what matters most, and spend less on what doesn’t. As the project unfolds, you can reallocate the budget toward high-priority features, adjust timelines based on what’s working, or deprioritize lower impact ideas. This leads to smarter decisions and better ROI.

5. Shared Risk and Realistic Expectations

With T&M, both the client and development team share responsibility for keeping the project on track. You have a say in how time is being spent and what’s being prioritized. It also creates space for the team to raise concerns early if requirements shift or risks arise.

Fixed-price often creates a false sense of certainty, and when things go sideways, the cost can be scope creep, delays, or strained relationships. T&M acknowledges the complexity up front and focuses on collaboration over rigid guarantees.

What to Expect When You Choose Big Room

During the proposal phase, we’ll work with you to identify key features and perform an initial scope based on the details you can provide at that time. Then we’ll provide a range of hours that we think it will take to complete them. The low end of the range is representative of the scenario where we’ve scoped everything 100% accurately up front, development goes off without a hitch, and there are no changes required. The high end of the range represents what we believe accounts for maximum iteration—maybe we create two kinds of users for your application and then you realize you actually need six. Or, you decide that you want to send users a PDF copy of a report as well as display it within your software interface. Usually, we end up somewhere in the middle of the initial range, but no matter what, we keep you up to date every step of the way so that there aren’t any unpleasant surprises  (only happy ones!).

Final Thoughts

Time and materials isn’t about giving up control or visibility, it’s about gaining flexibility, speed, and a development partner that’s aligned with your goals. TLDR, time and materials allows you to change your mind. If your software project is complex, user-driven, or likely to evolve, a T&M contract might just be the smartest path to success.

Are you ready to get started with your software project? Let’s connect! We’re happy to share more about our approach and how we structure engagements for transparency and impact.

Why We Make You the Product Manager: Our Unique Approach to Agile Software Development

At Big Room Technologies we don’t just build innovative custom software—we build collaborative, long-lasting partnerships. Sure, you’ve probably heard that before, so what makes us truly different? 

When you work with Big Room, you get a seat at the development team table, right alongside our engineers.

We invite our clients to become Product Managers in the Agile development process. Agile isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a central pillar of how we work, and it dramatically impacts the success of every project we deliver.

Bridging the Gap Between Vision and Execution

Too often in software development, there’s a disconnect between what a client envisions and what gets built. Requirements get lost in translation, priorities shift without notice, and the end result can miss the mark.

By making our clients active Product Managers, we close that gap.

As a Product Manager, you’re embedded in the team, participating in sprint planning, reviewing deliverables in real time, and making critical decisions about features, functionality, and priorities. This level of collaboration ensures we’re always building the right thing at the right time.

What It Looks Like in Practice

Here’s how we make this collaboration work:

• Regular “stand up” meetings where you stay up-to-date with our progress and provide feedback to keep things moving smoothly.

• Backlog prioritization sessions where we collaborate to prioritize features and clarify user stories.

• Live demos at the end of each sprint so you can see progress, give feedback, and adjust direction.

• Transparent tools and reporting so you’re never left wondering what’s being worked on or what’s coming next.

• Regular interaction with our team’s Product Owner to ensure your vision and feedback is getting translated to the development team accurately.

Why It Works

1. Faster feedback loops: We don’t wait weeks to learn what you think. Instead, you’re involved every step of the way.

2. Better products: By prioritizing features based on your industry knowledge, we build tools that actually solve your unique business problems.

3. Shared ownership: When you’re part of the process, you’re more invested in the success of the product, and so are we.

4. Fewer surprises: Agile doesn’t mean chaos, it means continuous iteration and improvement. 

Not Just Agile — Empowered Agile

Many companies “do Agile,” but few truly embrace what it means to involve the customer as a core team member. At Big Room, we believe the best software is created not just for you, but with you.

We’ll be honest, this approach takes commitment. It requires your time and attention throughout the development process, just as it requires our transparency and expertise. But when we bring these elements together, the results are powerful: software that fits your needs, adapts to your business, and delivers real value. 

Ready to Be a Product Manager?

If you’re looking for a development partner who focuses on real outcomes, and you're ready to play an active role in shaping your product, we’d love to connect; first consultations are always free!