Building One with Tomer Cohen Building Anthropic with Mike Krieger: Product Playbooks In The Age Of AI, Why Memory Is Key, And Instagram Lessons
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Dec 9, 2025 
In a captivating discussion, Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram and Chief Product Officer at Anthropic, shares insights from his vast experience in technology. He reveals the turning point that catapulted Instagram to success and the critical lessons learned from shutting down Artifact. Mike emphasizes the importance of simplicity in design for both Instagram and AI products and discusses how memory enhances user interaction with AI assistants. This conversation is a goldmine for anyone looking to innovate in the product space.
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Stanford Shaped A Builder's Mindset
- Mike credits Stanford's design thinking and the Mayfield Fellows Program for shaping his product mindset.
- Those experiences taught user-centered discovery and gave him a shared language with co-founder Kevin.
Pivoting To A Clearer Core
- Mike describes pivoting from Bourbon (a check-in app) to a focused photo app within a week of prototyping.
- He and Kevin concentrated on one problem and hit on photos, which revealed a clearly superior core product quickly.
Core Over Incremental Features
- A product rarely succeeds from incremental features if the core doesn't work.
- Distilling to a single, strong core can unlock much greater adoption than additive tweaks.