Building Anthropic with Mike Krieger: Product Playbooks In The Age Of AI, Why Memory Is Key, And Instagram Lessons

About this episode

Tomer Cohen interviews Mike Krieger about product development lessons from building Instagram and Anthropic's AI assistant, Claude.

Breakout products rarely hinge on a single moment of luck. They’re shaped by countless decisions — what to prioritize, what to cut, and how deeply you understand the people you’re building for. Few builders have navigated those decisions at the scale of Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram and now Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. Instagram reshaped how billions communicate visually. Today, Mike is helping redefine how we interact with technology again — this time through one of the world’s leading AI assistants. At first glance, building a global social network and building Claude might seem worlds apart. In practice, the parallels run deep. In this episode of Building One, host Tomer Cohen talks with Mike about scaling, knowing when to pivot, and why the rise of AI is transforming the craft of product-building. Tomer and Mike discuss: The inflection point that turned Instagram into a global phenomenon — and the crisis that sparked it Why Mike decided to shut down Artifact, and the lesson he believes every founder should know about when to stop vs. persevere The surprising similarities between building Instagram and building Claude How working at Anthropic changed his…

People in this episode

Host: Tomer Cohen

Guest: Mike Krieger

Topics covered

• product development
• AI technology
• Instagram
• decision making
• scaling products
• user experience

Keywords

• product playbooks
• AI
• Instagram
• Claude
• decision making
• scaling
• user interfaces

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Instagram, Anthropic

Products: Claude, Artifact

More episodes of Building One with Tomer Cohen

• Building Harvey With Gabe Pereyra: Ethical Walls, Agents, and What AI Can Unlock For Law Firms · May 21, 2026 · 34 min
• Building 'How I Built This' With Guy Raz: Patterns, Pivoting, And The Value Of Time · April 15, 2026 · 29 min
• Building Lovable With Anton Osika: The Power Of Simplicity, AI As A Technical Co-Founder, And Why 'Vibe Coding' Needs A New Name · March 10, 2026 · 30 min
• Building Heidi With Thomas Kelly: AI As A Care Partner, A Surgeon's Lessons For Building, And The Future Of Healthcare · February 17, 2026 · 30 min
• Building Fender With Justin Norvell: Iconic Guitars, The Art Of Restraint, And Learning To Play Faster With AI · January 27, 2026 · 29 min
• Building Figma with Yuhki Yamashita: Collaborative Design, AI Teammates, and Building for Builders · November 18, 2025 · 29 min