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OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)

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OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

2025/04/10
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

2025/04/10
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Kevin Weil is the chief product officer at OpenAI, where he oversees the development of ChatGPT, enterprise products, and the OpenAI API. Prior to OpenAI, Kevin was head of product at Twitter, Instagram, and Planet, and was instrumental in the development ...

Highlights

In this conversation, Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer, shares insights from his journey leading product development at one of the most influential AI companies in the world. Drawing on experiences from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook’s Libra project, he discusses how OpenAI balances cutting-edge research with real-world product execution in an era of rapid technological evolution.
06:54
AI is whatever hasn't been done yet.
12:41
Interviews went well—and nine days later, I was hired.
17:20
Writing evals will become a core skill for product managers
27:34
Quarterly roadmapping enables teams to reflect, learn, and adapt quickly despite uncertainty.
36:56
AI models now 'think' before responding, requiring new UI patterns to show progress during processing.
41:45
Chat fits naturally with human speech patterns and remains the most versatile interface for AI.
43:59
OpenAI has transitioned from a research-led to a product-focused company
46:43
Fewer product managers enable faster execution and less over-management.
48:47
PMs at OpenAI must lead through influence and earn the trust of researchers by showing clear value.
51:43
90% of code will be written by AI in a year
53:27
Julia, OpenAI's chief people officer, vibe coded an internal tool using AI.
1:01:39
Human problem-solving approaches inspire better AI system design
1:04:37
AI tutoring could be one of the most important applications of AI
1:14:57
GPT-3.5 was 100x more expensive than today's GPT-4.0 mini
1:16:40
Sora is the worst AI model we'll ever see — all future models will be better
1:26:02
LLMs are a zip file of human knowledge

Chapters

Kevin’s background
00:00
OpenAI’s new image model
04:06
The role of chief product officer at OpenAI
06:52
His recruitment story and joining OpenAI
10:18
The importance of evals in AI
17:20
Shipping quickly and consistently
24:59
Product reviews and iterative deployment
28:34
Chat as an interface for AI
39:35
Collaboration between researchers and product teams
43:59
Hiring product managers at OpenAI
46:41
Embracing ambiguity in product management
48:45
The role of AI in product teams
51:41
Vibe coding and AI prototyping
53:21
The future of product teams and fine-tuned models
55:55
AI in education
1:04:36
Optimism and concerns about AI’s future
1:06:42
Reflections on the Libra project
1:16:37
Lightning round and final thoughts
1:20:37

Transcript

Kevin Weil: The AI models that you're using today is the worst AI model you will ever use for the rest of your life. And when you actually get that in your head, it's kind of wild. Everywhere I've ever worked before this, you kind of know what technology y...