Peter Deng

Former VP of Product at OpenAI (ChatGPT) / Instagram / Uber / Facebook

Peter Deng is one of the most impactful under-the-radar product leaders in tech: VP of Product at OpenAI overseeing ChatGPT, first Head of Product at Instagram, Head of Rider product at Uber, and builder of Facebook News Feed and Messenger.

The Operator The Visionary

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 90%

Execution & Craft 90%

Data & Experimentation 55%

Growth & Distribution 70%

Team & Leadership 75%

User Empathy & Research 70%

Key Themes

building from zero to billions thinking before acting holistic product experience chess moves in product strategy sustainable speed through systems AI product development at OpenAI

Episode Summary

Peter Deng shares lessons from building products used by billions across Facebook News Feed, Instagram, Uber, and ChatGPT at OpenAI. He reveals the counterintuitive insight that sometimes your product doesn't matter (at Uber, price and ETA were the real product) and why planning chess moves in advance with sustainable systems beats rushing to ship.

Leadership Principles

→ Plan your chess moves in advance — think before you act and build systems that let you go sustainably faster
→ Sometimes your product doesn't matter — at Uber the price and ETA were the real product
→ Humans consume the entirety of the product, not just the feature you're building

Notable Quotes

"You have to plan your chess moves out in advance. You have to really think before you act and build systems that were going to let you go sustainably faster."
— On what it takes to build something from idea to billions of users

"Sometimes your product actually doesn't matter. At Uber, the price and the ETA was the product. We humans consume the entirety of the product."
— On the counterintuitive lesson that the UI features may not be what matters most

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