About This Episode
<p><strong>Adam Mosseri</strong> is the Head of Instagram, where he oversees an app used by over 3 billion people. He also leads the team building Threads. Adam has run Instagram for longer than its founders did, after taking over from Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2018. A designer by training, he spent over 15 years at Meta, starting as a designer on Facebook’s mobile app, rising to lead Facebook’s News Feed, and eventually chosen to lead Instagram. During his tenure, Instagram’s user base has more than tripled.</p><p></p><p><strong>In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:</strong></p><p>1. How the canonical product team structure is changing in 2026, from baker’s-dozen specialist teams to lean pods of four to six generalists</p><p>2. The rise of the “product staff” role—a blending of PM, design, data science, and research into one generalist operator</p><p>3. Why Adam is bullish on designers even as functional boundaries dissolve, and which roles are most at risk</p><p>4. What the Instagram algorithm knows about you, and why it’s only now catching up to what people assumed it knew years ago</p><p>5. Why the rise of AI-generated content is a tailwind for Instagram, and how the company is thinking about creator identity in a synthetic-content world</p><p>6. The two biggest product failures of Adam’s career—Facebook Home and the first version of Reels</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Brought to you by:</strong></p><p><a href="https://workos.com/lenny" target="_blank"><strong>WorkOS</strong></a>—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: <a href="https://workos.com/lenny" target="_blank">https://workos.com/lenny</a></p><p><a href="https://mercury.com/command?utm_source=lennys&utm_medium=sponsored_newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_brand_campaign" target="_blank"><strong>Mercury</strong></a>—Radically different banking, now with Command: <a href="https://mercury.com/command?utm_source=lennys&utm_medium=sponsored_newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_brand_campaign" target="_blank">https://mercury.com/command?utm_source=lennys&utm_medium=sponsored_newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_brand_campaign</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Episode transcript: </strong><a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/adam-mosseri-ai-is-a-tailwind-for" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/adam-mosseri-ai-is-a-tailwind-for</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: </strong><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Adam Mosseri:</strong></p><p>• X: <a href="https://x.com/mosseri" target="_blank">https://x.com/mosseri</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/mosseri" target="_blank">linkedin.com/in/mosseri</a></p><p>• Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mosseri" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/mosseri</a></p><p>• Threads: <a href="https://www.threads.com/@mosseri" target="_blank">https://www.threads.com/@mosseri</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Lenny:</strong></p><p>• Newsletter: <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com</a></p><p>• X: <a href="https://twitter.com/lennysan" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/lennysan</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>(00:00) Introduction to Adam Mosseri</p><p>(02:09) How product teams are changing inside Meta</p><p>(05:48) Blurring roles and career anxiety</p><p>(14:01) Hiring traits that matter now</p><p>(16:48) How AI is resetting who succeeds at work</p><p>(19:38) How Meta thinks about token spend and AI costs</p><p>(23:23) Where human judgment still matters</p><p>(25:56) Why AI is not automatically great at strategy</p><p>(30:36) Why great product leaders are curators</p><p>(34:23) What Instagram’s algorithm actually knows about you</p><p>(38:08) Why chronological feeds often disappoint users</p><p>(40:56) Why AI content may be a tailwind for Instagram</p><p>(43:42) The future of AI and human content in the feed</p><p>(48:00) What Adam admires about other social platforms</p><p>(52:05) How he handles public criticism</p><p>(56:31) Lessons from the Instagram feed redesign backlash</p><p>(01:00:21) Adam’s biggest failure: Instagram on iPad</p><p>(01:03:03) His approach to kids, screens, and social media</p><p>(01:06:56) What Adam wants listeners to remember</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Referenced:</strong></p><p>• What happens after coding is solved? | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams): <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering</a></p><p>• Claude Code: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code" target="_blank">https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code</a></p><p>• Claude Cowork: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork" target="_blank">https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork</a></p><p>• Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny: <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens</a></p><p>• A rational conversation on where AI is actually going | Benedict Evans: <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-rational-conversation-on-where" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-rational-conversation-on-where</a></p><p>• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai" target="_blank">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai</a></p><p>• Mythos: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos" target="_blank">https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos</a></p><p>• Fable: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable" target="_blank">https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable</a></p><p>• Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI: <a href="https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble" target="_blank">https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble</a></p><p>• Plastic Dream Sequence on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/plasticdreamsequence" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/plasticdreamsequence</a></p><p>• TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com" target="_blank">https://www.tiktok.com</a></p><p>• Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal</a></p><p>• Facebook Home: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Home" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Home</a></p><p>—</p><p>Production and marketing by <a href="https://penname.co/" target="_blank">https://penname.co/</a>. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email <a href="mailto:podcast@lennyrachitsky.com" target="_blank">podcast@lennyrachitsky.com</a>.</p><p>—</p><p><em>Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.</em></p> <br /><br />To hear more, visit <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language">www.lennysnewsletter.com</a>