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EO Studio30-Minute Masterclass on Product Thinking | Instagram Co-Founder & Anthropic CPO, Mike Krieger
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Mike Krieger on Instagram, Artifact's Failure, and Building AI Products
- Krieger traces his path from a Brazilian childhood fascinated by computers to Stanford's Symbolic Systems program, which taught him to solve real problems, prototype early, and pick complementary partners.
- Instagram emerged when Krieger and Kevin stripped the Burbn check-in app down to its working core, photo sharing, at a moment when mobile hardware and networks were improving rapidly.
- Artifact failed because it bet too heavily on personalization without delivering value early, and Krieger explains how he and Kevin set concrete experiments and a deadline to decide when to stop.
- At Anthropic, building products alongside constantly evolving models means designing for moving targets, being upfront about limitations, and using thumbs up/down feedback to guide each new model.
- Krieger expects consolidation among model builders and AI apps, wants models with memory, proactivity and agency, and advises young people to trust winding paths and invest in lasting relationships.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasEvery product must solve a real problem
Krieger says users won't adopt something just because the technology underneath is intelligent. This lesson from Stanford was reinforced by Artifact and now shapes how Anthropic designs Claude for first-time users.
Strip a product back to what works
Burbn was a location check-in app, but photo sharing was the part that worked. Removing the distracting features led to what became Instagram.
Look for technologies ready for wider adoption
Krieger looks for early adopters already doing interesting things and for a fast rate of improvement, such as the jumps from iPhone 3 to 4 or from Claude 3 to 3.5. Builders should make something useful today that can catch the next leap.
Personalization must deliver value from the start
Artifact only became very personal after users read many articles, so most bounced saying it was like Apple News. That experience led Anthropic to ask onboarding questions to get user intent quickly.
Set concrete criteria for shutting down
Krieger and Kevin listed the ideas they would feel silly not trying, prioritized three, and moved on when those didn't change the trajectory. He also advises checking in with investors, who may say it's time to call it.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI think one big lesson is that users are not gonna adopt a feature or a product just because the, the technology underneath or just because it has intelligence. It actually has to still solve the problem.
— Mike Krieger
It's never a celebration, but it doesn't have to be, you know, a tragedy either.
— Mike Krieger
the great product breakthroughs come from people being close to the details, understanding what could be better, coming up with the next idea themselves, not waiting for a, you know, strategy meeting.
— Mike Krieger
the companies change, the projects change, you know, the economy changes, but the relationships you build in your career will be the relationships that you have over and over again.
— Mike Krieger
To me, entrepreneurship is about finding ways in which the world could be different and better and in feeling empowered to go make that change.
— Mike Krieger
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SPEAKERS
Mike Krieger
guestInstagram co-founder; later co-founded Artifact and served as Chief Product Officer at Anthropic.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
