Connected Teams > Connected Projects for agency partnerships
We've been using Connected Projects at Sanofi to work with external agencies, and honestly? The feature falls short for how agencies actually collaborate with companies.
The core issue: A single Connected Project is too limited when you're embedding an entire agency team into a client organization.
Here's what happens today:
- Agency designers get access to one Connected Project
- They can use company libraries through the side panel (drag & drop only)
- That's it
What's missing:
1. Team-level connection, not project-level
When we onboard an agency, we're not collaborating on a single project. We're integrating their entire team into our design workflow across multiple initiatives. We need Connected Teams, not just Connected Projects.
Think: Agency X works with us on 5 different products simultaneously. Right now, we'd need 5 separate Connected Projects, each requiring individual setup and maintenance.
2. Access to documentation and shared files, not just components
Our libraries contain more than draggable components. We embed:
- Usage documentation
- Do's and don'ts
- Implementation notes
All of this lives on the same page as our components in Figma. But agency partners in Connected Projects? They only see the side panel. They miss all the context that makes our components actually usable.
We also have Product design guidelines in dedicated files to share to anyone working for us.
The real workflow we need:
- Connect an entire agency Figma team to our organization
- Give them full library visibility (components + embedded documentation)
- Give them visibility on specific files
- Let them access multiple projects without individual connections
Right now, we're forced to either:
- Continue to give agencies guest access (double billing + manual maintenance)
- Manually duplicate documentation outside Figma (creates drift)
- Accept that agencies work with incomplete information (quality risk)
None of these are great.
Has anyone found a workaround that doesn't involve compromising security or duplicating work?