The Peterman Pod Anthropic Eng Leader And Ex-Senior Director at Meta On Microsoft vs Facebook, Career Learnings
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Jan 4, 2026 Fiona Fung, an engineering leader at Anthropic and former Senior Director at Meta, brings her wealth of experience to the table. She explores the critical balance between impact and team health, sharing insights from her journey at Microsoft and Facebook. Discussion includes the importance of effective mentoring, the cultural contrasts she observed at Facebook, and why dogfooding is essential for empathy. Fiona also highlights the significance of feedback and kindness in leadership while encouraging younger listeners to embrace their career journeys.
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Make Trade-Offs Explicit
- Discuss trade-offs openly when a project will harm team morale or health.
- Set realistic timelines and tell the team how long the intensive effort will last.
War Room That Lasted Months
- Fiona described a Facebook Marketplace war room that felt like at least two months.
- The team launched 75 experiments at once and underestimated how long focused work would take.
Manage Managers With Clear Roles
- When managing managers, set clear complementary roles and divide responsibilities.
- Build a 'trust but verify' habit and insist on fast, transparent feedback.