Behind the Craft - podcast cover

Behind the Craft

Expert interviews and guides to help you level up as a product leader and creator fast.

Episodes

Complete Vibe Coding Tutorial: Build a Full Stack App in 30 Min with AI | Matt Palmer

Matt Palmer is the Head of Developer Relations at Replit and a vibe coding expert. He showed me how to build an app to help busy parents find kid-friendly places (playgrounds, hikes) nearby in just 30 minutes without writing a single line of code. We covered frontend, API, databases, authentication, security and more.Timestamps: (00:00) The 3 core traits that make successful vibe coders (02:32) Start with vibe PMing before vibe coding (05:17) Don't just give AI text prompts, do this instead (25:...

Jun 08, 202552 min

Complete AI Course on Prompting, Evals, RAG, and Fine-Tuning | Adam Loving (Meta)

Adam Loving (Meta) has helped 100s of companies craft AI products. Our interview is a complete, beginner friendly AI course on how to use prompting, evals, RAG, and fine-tuning to build great AI products. Timestamps: (00:00) The 2 types of AI optimizations every PM needs to know (02:52) 4 tips to craft compelling AI prompts (07:14) 4 types of AI evaluations to consider (12:06) The scoring trick for advanced AI evaluations (21:50) Retrieval augmented generation explained (27:29) Is fine-tuning ba...

Jun 01, 202546 min

How to Advance Your Career Without Managing People | Sam Gregg-Wallace

Today, I want to share a new episode with Sam Gregg-Wallace.As VP of Talent at Shopify, Sam is building a radical career system where ICs are paid the same as managers, AI usage is mandatory, and employees can advance their career by mastering their craft. If you’re tired of the corporate ladder, then this episode is for you.Timestamps: (00:00) It's time to kick down the traditional corporate ladder (02:00) Shopify's dual career path for crafters and managers (04:32) Live demo: Why Shopify emplo...

May 25, 202541 min

From Idea to Product in 30 Min Using AI Agents (Full Tutorial) | Claire Vo

Claire is the Chief Product Officer of LaunchDarkly, founder of ChatPRD , and host of the How I AI podcast. No product leader uses AI as much as Claire so I was thrilled to get her to demo how she builds a new feature with AI agents and how she’s advising PMs to adapt to AI in the next 18 months. This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join 9K+ companies like Atlassian who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real-time. Get $1000 off at https://vanta.com/peterTimestamps: (00:00) Why ...

May 18, 202552 min

Figma's AI Prototyping Tool is Here and...It's a MUST TRY | David Kossnick

David is the Head of AI Product at Figma and gave me an exclusive demo of Figma Make, Figma’s new AI prototyping tool. We had a great chat about how Make stands out from other tools and how it works under the hood, including a deep dive on evals. This episode is brought to you by Merge — Merge gives SaaS companies like Ramp and Drata a single API to launch over 200 product integrations fast. Book a meeting via https://www.merge.dev/peteryang and get a $50 Amazon gift card when you attend. Timest...

May 11, 202543 min

The Best AI Coding Tools to Use in 2025 | Colin Matthews

Colin Matthews has taught 1000+ students on how to prototype apps with AI. In this interview, we demoed the best AI coding tools for each use case - from prototyping to production apps. This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join 9K+ companies like Atlassian who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real-time. Get $1000 off at https://vanta.com/peter Timestamps: (01:02) The current state of AI coding tools and what to expect (06:43) Text-to-prototype showdown: Bolt vs. V0 vs. Lovable...

May 04, 202544 min

5 Harsh Truths About Wealth You Don't Want to Realize Too Late | Sahil Bloom

Sahil is the founder, investor, and New York Times bestselling author of The Five Types of Wealth. In our chat, he shares some profound life lessons that will be a wake-up call for any high achiever in tech and exactly how he grew to 1M+ followers.Timestamps:(00:00) The one thing high-achievers are missing (02:58) The five types of wealth that create a truly rich life (08:31) The conversation that completely changed Sahil's POV (13:38) What would make him instantly reject a $100M job offer (17:3...

Apr 27, 202545 min

He Built Uber Eats to $25B, Now He's Pushing AI Beyond Chat | Stephen Chau

Stephen Chau, co-founder of Cove, discusses building a visual AI interface to move beyond chatbots. He demos Cove's capabilities in trip planning, snack recommendations, and AI app creation, emphasizing collaboration and context-awareness. Chau also shares insights from scaling Uber Eats to $25B and offers advice for product managers navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Apr 06, 202557 min

I Built a $100M Company in 3 Years by Betting on AI Agents | Arvind Jain (CEO Glean)

Arvind Jain, CEO of Glean, discusses the impact of AI agents on the future of work and how they can enhance productivity. He shares insights on overcoming barriers to AI adoption in enterprises, the skills needed to build successful AI products, and Glean's approach to making AI accessible and valuable for every employee. The conversation also touches on the importance of company culture and having a long-term vision in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Mar 16, 202538 min

Exclusive: Inside the Best AI Model for Coding and Writing | Scott White (Anthropic)

My guest today is Scott White.Scott is the Head of Product for Claude at Anthropic, and I’m excited to be the first to interview him about the hybrid reasoning AI model Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Scott also gave me a behind-the-scenes look at how Anthropic builds AI products, the most essential skills in the AI era, and how Claude will evolve from assistant to agent.This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join 9,000+ companies like Atlassian and Quora, and use Vanta to manage risk and prove security i...

Mar 09, 202545 min

AI Does 90% of My Work Now as a Product Leader | Yana Welinder (Kraftful)

My guest today is Yana Welinder.Yana is the CEO of Kraftful, an AI product that helps 50,000 product teams extract insights from user reviews and surveys. She’s also a power user of ChatGPT and did a live demo of her top AI workflows for Deep Research and Operator.Timestamps:(00:00) At this point, I’m not doing anything without AI(01:38) Live demo of Operator automating product work(08:07) Using Deep Research for competitive analysis(11:05) Unlocking Deep Research to get medical advice(13:29) Mo...

Mar 02, 202537 min

We were going to shut down our company…now we’re worth $700M | Eric Simons (Bolt)

My guest today is Eric Simons. Eric is the CEO of Bolt, the AI coding platform that has exploded from 0 to 3M users in less than a year. Eric gave me a live demo of building a $2B mobile app from scratch with Bolt, how his “overnight” success was seven years in the making, and how real product teams use Bolt to get work done faster. This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join 9,000+ companies like Atlassian and Quora who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Get $1000 off ...

Feb 23, 202548 min

This Vision Playbook Will Change YouTube and Your Life | Ebi Atawodi

My guest today is Ebi Atawodi. Ebi is the Director of Product for YouTube Studio, the home for 65M creators (including me). Ebi gave me an inside look at crafting Studio’s vision and how to define yourself beyond your job title. Ebi’s super inspiring, and you'll love our chat. This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join over 9,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora, and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Get $1000 off at vanta.com/peter Timestamps: (00:0...

Feb 16, 202550 min

This AI Tool Lets You Build Apps Faster Than Googling | Amjad Mosad (Replit)

My guest today is Amjad Mosad, CEO and founder of Replit.Amjad is the CEO of Replit, an AI coding platform with 34M users that’s making it possible for anyone to build an app in 60 seconds from their phone. In our chat, Amjad shared how you can learn to code with AI and gave me a live demo of Replit’s AI agent. We also discussed the skills that will still matter in AI. This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join over 9,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora, and Factory who use Vanta to m...

Feb 09, 202539 min

The #1 Hack to Build Apps With AI Without Getting Stuck | Colin Matthews

My guest today is Colin Matthews. Colin is a rockstar instructor who teaches a popular AI Prototyping for PMs course on building AI apps without coding skills. In our interview, Colin shared how to pick the right AI prototyping tool, what you should do before asking AI to code, and how to build a habit-tracking app step by step in just 20 minutes. Brought to you by: Vanta— Automate compliance and scale your security program. Get $1,000 off. Timestamps: (00:00) Do this before asking AI to code (0...

Feb 02, 202543 min

Inside Suno, the AI Music App You Won't Be Able to Stop Listening To | Mikey Shulman (Suno)

My guest today is Mikey Shulman. Mikey is the CEO and co-founder of Suno, the best AI music app available. I’ve had so much fun using it to make songs with my kids. In our chat, Mikey shares how music LLMs work, how Suno builds AI products, and the good and bad futures of music with AI. Timestamps: (00:00) The good and bad futures of AI in music (03:41) How Suno's music AI actually works (07:31) Building for personalization without losing humanity (10:34) Turning text into actual songs (14:06) P...

Jan 26, 202536 min

The 5 Hidden Rules Behind Successful AI Products | Chris Pedregal (Granola)

My guest today is Chris Pettigrew. Chris is the co-founder and CEO of Granola, an AI meeting notes app that has become indispensable to me. Granola has 70%+ weekly user retention, almost unheard of for consumer AI. In our interview, Chris shared five hard-won rules for building AI products that users love and explained why AI will fix meetings. Timestamps: (00:00) The #1 mistake you can make when building AI products (01:35) The difference between big tech PM and startup founder (06:22) Why Chri...

Jan 19, 202538 min

The AI Skill That Will Define Your PM Career in 2025 | Aman Khan (Arize)

My guest today is Aman Khan. Aman is the Director of Product at Arize AI. Last year, we both heard the Chief Product Officers of OpenAI and Anthropic share that AI evaluations will be the most important skill for PMs in 2025. Aman gave me a crash course on how to build this critical skill in our interview. Timestamps: (00:00) Evals force you to get into your user's shoes (03:42) 5 skills to build right now to become a great AI PM (07:43) How curiosity leads to better AI products (10:20) You can ...

Jan 12, 202546 min

This is What Top 1% PMs Do Differently | Amit Fulay (VP Microsoft)

My guest today is Amit Fulay. Amit is a product VP at Microsoft who previously spent 15 years building products like News Feed (Meta) and Google Meet (Google). In our interview, he reveals the three types of product leaders, how to build trust at each career stage, and what AI means for PMs. He also teaches a popular on leveling up from PM to influential product leader ( get $100 off with this link ). Timestamps: (00:00) The secret to building trust (01:43) 3 distinct types of product leaders (0...

Jan 05, 202539 min

Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet With This Ritual | Katia Verresen

My guest today is Katia Verresen. Katia is one of Silicon Valley's most sought-after leadership coaches. Her clients include Fidji Simo (CEO of Instacart), Kate Rouch (CMO of OpenAI), Deb Liu (CEO of Ancestry), who all rave about how she transformed their careers. In our chat, Katia shared her proven techniques to help you achieve your goals in the new year. Timestamps: (00:00) How to stop doubting yourself (01:54) The year-in-review ritual top CEOs swear by (06:11) I thought I had a horrible ye...

Dec 29, 202448 min

This Will Make You Rethink Your Product and Career in 2025 | Sachin Rekhi (Notejoy)

My guest today is Sachin Rekhi. Sachin scaled LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to $200M ARR and 500 employees. He then left it all behind to start Notejoy; a team notes app. I had a great chat with him about finding market fit for your product and career in 2025 and how to design work to suit your life, not vice versa. Timestamps: (00:00) I got my dream PM job then realized I didn’t want it (02:19) The MVP is dead (08:02) Execution is NOT the only thing that matters (09:40) A proven loop to achieve pr...

Dec 22, 202448 min

How to Survive and Thrive as a Busy Working Parent | Deb Liu (CEO Ancestry)

My guest today is Deb Liu. Deb is the CEO of Ancestry, former VP at Meta, and writer of Perspectives. But for our interview, I wanted to talk to Deb about a more personal topic: How to survive and thrive as a busy working parent with your spouse, aging parents, and kids. In our interview, Deb shared her best advice on building a 60-60 relationship with your spouse, raising resilient kids, caring for aging parents, and dealing with grief. Timestamps: (00:00) How to stop parenting through guilt (0...

Dec 15, 202439 min

Zapier Co-Founder on Using AI Agents to 10X Your Productivity | Mike Knoop (Zapier)

My guest today is Mike Knoop, co-founder of Zapier. Mike co-founded Zapier and started the ARC Prize to accelerate progress towards open AGI. We had a great chat about how Zapier works, how PMs and marketers can use AI to automate even more work, and why LLMs won’t reach AGI by themselves. Timestamps: (00:00) There are two types of AI automation (01:57) How Zapier automation works (05:14) I quit being Zapier's CPO to do AI research (07:54) I gave employees a week off to just use AI(11:57) How PM...

Dec 01, 202445 min

How the Product Manager Role is Changing in 2025 | Jiaona Zhang (CPO Linktree)

My guest today is Jiaona Zhang, CPO of Linktree. JZ is the Chief Product Officer of Linktree and a guest lecturer at Stanford. We had a great chat about AI’s impact on PM managers and super ICs, the shift towards PM specialists, and whether becoming a creator can help advance your PM career. (00:00) Find what makes you happy in your PM career (01:44) AI's impact on PM managers and super ICs (04:03) How to balance strategy and execution (08:24) Streamlining PM tasks with AI (13:28) Creating strat...

Nov 24, 202450 min

Why K-12 Education Is Broken for High Achieving Kids | Niels Hoven (Mentava)

My guest today is Niels Hoven, founder and CEO of Mentava. Niels founded Mentava, an education startup teaching 2-year-olds to read at the 2nd-grade level. We had a great chat about why K-12 education is broken for high-achieving kids, whether AI will unlock personalized learning, and how his software teaches 2-year-olds to read. Timestamps: (00:00) Our schools don't work for high-achieving kids (01:26) The problem with K-12 education in the US (03:08) Why California banned 8th grade algebra (10...

Nov 17, 202438 min

Inside How Perplexity is Disrupting Online Search | Aravind Srinivas (CEO)

My guest today is Aravind Srinivas, CEO and co-founder of Perplexity. Aravind is the CEO of Perplexity, the AI answer engine disrupting online search. Aravind gave me an inside look at how Perplexity builds products, how it scaled to 100M queries a week, and how it’ll deliver better ads than Google’s ten blue links. Timestamps: (00:00) We don't do product reviews (01:22) The secret to Perplexity's incredible shipping velocity (05:16) Giving feedback as a user instead of as the CEO (07:01) How Pe...

Nov 10, 202438 min

Inside Duolingo Unhinged Growth to a $500M Business | Cem Kansu (Duolingo)

My guest today is Cem Kansu. Cem is the Head of Product at Duolingo. Over 8 years, he helped Duolingo grow to 100M+ monthly active users and $500M+ in annual revenue. I had a super fun chat with Cem about Duolingo's unhinged product culture, the top drivers of Duolingo's user and revenue growth, and whether AI will democratize education. Timestamps: (00:00) We love being unhinged with our owl (01:26) Duolingo is a game and this is our core loop (03:46) The top 3 drivers of Duolingo's growth to 1...

Nov 03, 202442 min

How to Crack the PM Interview in 2024 | Satish Mummareddy (Meta)

My guest today is Satish Mummareddy, ex-product leader at Meta. During his 6 years at Meta as an IC7 product leader, Satish interviewed 200+ PM candidates and mentored 100+ PMs. We had a great chat about how to crack the PM interview, choose the right job offer, and find strong mentors. Timestamps: (00:00) How not to let rejection get you down (01:53) Hot takes after interviewing 200+ PMs at Meta (05:14) Why experienced PMs often struggle in interviews (09:13) 3-month plan to crush interviews at...

Oct 27, 202447 min

LinkedIn's Chief Product Officer on Growing to 1B with AI | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn)

My guest today is Tomer Cohen, Chief Product Officer at LinkedIn. Tomer gave me an inside look at LinkedIn’s growth from 100M to 1B+ users by transforming its feed. He also shared his best advice on growing AI products and advancing your PM career. Finally, I had to ask him about r/LinkedinLunatics. 🙂 Timestamps: (00:00) 3 must-have principles for building AI products (02:55) Revamping the LinkedIn feed for knowledge-sharing (06:15) Why it's so hard to be a feed PM and how Tomer overcame doubts...

Oct 20, 202436 min

Founder Mode Lessons from Instagram, Airbnb, and Coinbase | Sanchan Saxena

My guest today is Sanchan Saxena, SVP at Atlassian. Sanchan worked directly with 4 of the best founders out there — Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (Instagram), Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), and Brian Chesky (Airbnb). In our chat, he shares what we can learn from each founder’s superpowers and the 4 traits he always looks for when hiring exceptional PMs. (00:00) The secret product approach that sets Airbnb and Apple apart (01:21) Inside Instagram's early days at 100 employees (03:07) Kevin Systrom ...

Oct 13, 202445 min
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