Behind the Craft

Peter Yang

Expert interviews and guides to help you level up as a product leader and creator fast.

Play

Open in

30 episodes
weekly
Avg 41 min
English

Episodes 30

Newest Oldest Longest

All10 Unplayed10 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

June 6 · 31 min
The Exact AI Skills This Solo Founder Uses to Build 5 Apps at Once | Josh Pigford
Josh sold his last startup for $4M and is now building 5 products solo with agents. He showed me his exact AI skills stack, including a 4-step /build skill, an /adversarial-code-review skill where he pits Opus against GPT, a /but-for-real skill that makes the AI catch its own mistakes, and a /learnings skill that improves AI’s output over time. Josh has been a solo builder for 25 years and it was fascinating to watch how he works. Josh and I talked about: (00:00) Why launching fast beats months of planning (01:02) A tour of the 5 AI products Josh built solo (05:22) /build skill: Research, plan, track, implement (10:52) /adversarial-code-review skill: Getting GPT to review Opus' code (16:02) /learnings skill: Make AI update its own CLAUDE.md (16:47) /but-for-real skill: Make AI fix its own mistakes (19:11) Live demo: How to design non AI slop websites (28:55) Advice for builders without technical experience Thanks to our sponsors: Oceans: Hire AI-native EAs http://oceanstalent.com/peter Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams. https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/the-exact-ai-skills-this-solo-founder-uses-josh-pigford Get my personal AI operating system with all my skills and prompts: https://www.behindthecraft.com/ Where to find Josh: X: https://x.com/Shpigford Website: https://initialcommit.co/Subscribe to this channel — more interviews coming soon!
May 24 · 39 min
How This 5x Founder Runs His Startup Solo With AI Agents (OpenClaw, Codex, Devin) | Ryan Carson
Ryan is a serial founder who’s building his latest startup solo with only AI agents. It was fascinating to watch him demo the exact skills and routines he uses to get OpenClaw, Codex, and Devin to manage his inbox and calendar, do sales outreach, and build features while he sleeps. Ryan and I talked about: (00:00) Agents are just cron jobs and text markdown files (02:25) Demo: How Ryan set up OpenClaw to be his AI chief of staff (08:14) The setting most people get wrong in OpenClaw (13:46) How to onboard your agent like you would an employee (17:06) The cron job that books cold meetings while Ryan sleeps (24:36) Why Ryan prefers Devin over other AI coding tools (28:33) Demo: How Ryan ships 10 PRs a day solo (33:08) Google Ads agencies and a $6K/month designer (37:11) Why building the system is the real startup workThanks to our sponsors: Oceans: Hire AI-native EAs http://oceanstalent.com/peter Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams. https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-this-5x-founder-runs-his-startup-solo-with-ai-agents-ryan-carson Where to find Ryan: X: https://x.com/ryancarson Website: https://untangle.us/ Subscribe to this channel — more interviews coming soon!
May 17 · 35 min
Inside Anthropic: How Claude Actually Gets Built | Alex Albert
Alex is a research PM at Anthropic building the next Claude model. He gave me a rare inside look at how the research team operates — including how they turn user feedback into model training, how they decide which capabilities to prioritize, and how they improve Claude’s personality. If you’re wondering how frontier model development actually works, then this interview is a must watch. Alex and I talked about: (00:00) How Anthropic treats each new model as a product (04:58) Building adaptive thinking into Claude (07:07) Why Claude is starting to dream (11:15) "If it's not a one-way door, then it's essentially free" (15:40) How Alex uses Claude Cowork to pressure test his docs (17:05) Inside Anthropic's eval process for new models (21:02) How Anthropic trains Claude's character (32:39) The consciousness question Anthropic is quietly working on Thanks to our sponsors: Oceans: Hire AI-native EAs http://oceanstalent.com/peter Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/inside-how-anthropic-is-building-the-next-claude Where to find Alex: X: https://x.com/alexalbert__ Website: alexalbert.me 📌 Subscribe to this channel — more interviews coming soon!
May 10 · 42 min
Build a Claude Code Personal OS Step by Step in 40 Minutes | Moritz Kremb
Moritz is an AI founder who built a personal OS in Claude Code to manage his emails, create content, and even buy groceries. In this episode, he walks through everything you need to set up your own: folder structure, tools, memory loops, skills, and routines. We also talked about the pros and cons of OpenClaw vs. Claude Code. Moritz and I talked about: (00:00) The honest tradeoffs: OpenClaw vs. Claude Code (09:03) Why Moritz switched to Claude Code (15:40) The folder structure that runs Moritz's entire OS (20:03) The memory loop that makes Claude Code remember everything (23:47) CLI vs. MCP vs. API: which to pick and why it matters (26:02) Skills walkthrough: automated grocery runs and video uploads (29:03) Local vs. remote routines (and when to use each) (31:51) The full content pipeline from idea to posted video (41:43) Tips to start building your first personal OS Thanks to our sponsors: Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Oceans: Hire AI-native EAs http://oceanstalent.com/peter Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/build-a-claude-code-personal-os-step-by-step-moritz Where to find Moritz: X: https://x.com/moritzkremb Website: https://joinagentos.com/ Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!
May 3 · 38 min
Everything You Need to Know About Context Engineering in 40 Minutes | Ravi Mehta
Ravi is a top AI instructor and former CPO of Tinder. In our episode, he did a live demo of using his 3-layer context engineering system (functional, visual, data) to build a beautiful music app instead of the usual AI slop. You’ll never build with AI the same way again after learning about Ravi’s approach. Ravi and I talked about: (00:00) Why most AI prototypes feel like slop (01:08) Context engineering, explained from first principles (05:12) Layer 1 demo: Functional context (09:38) Layer 2 demo: Visual context (13:31) Layer 3 demo: Data context (15:47) Building a custom MCP server in Claude Code (19:54) The full stack prompt: all 3 layers in one shot (24:21) Why separating the data layer is the real unlock (28:59) Should PMs prototype or just ship to production? (33:51) Where PRDs still fit in AI native product development Thanks to our sponsors: Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: The AI meeting notes app that saves you hours. https://granola.ai/peter 📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/three-layer-system-for-context-engineering-ravi-mehta Where to find Ravi: X: https://x.com/ravi_mehta Website: https://www.ravi-mehta.com/ Subscribe to this channel — more interviews coming soon!
April 26 · 43 min
How This Solo AI Founder Bootstrapped 5 Products to 1M+ / Month | Tibo Louis-Lucas
Tibo is a solo founder making $1M+ a month (!) after bootstrapping 5 AI products. I got him to walk through his exact playbook for validating ideas fast, acquiring users, and pricing AI products. If you want to bootstrap an AI business from scratch, this interview is a must watch. Tibo and I talked about: (00:00) The right mindset for solo AI founders (04:48) Tibo's 5-step playbook to reach $1M/month (09:55) The product pivot that unlocked $600K/month (13:08) Why you should charge right away (20:50) The acquisition channel everyone says is dead (it's not) (26:58) Running 5 businesses without a real team (36:34) How to price your AI product (37:20) What's a good churn rate for AI products? (40:16) 9 products failed. The 10th hit $600K/month Thanks to our sponsors: Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: The AI meeting notes app that saves you hours. https://granola.ai/peter 📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-this-solo-founder-bootstrapped-to-1m-a-month-tibo-louis-lucas Where to find Tibo: X: https://x.com/tibo_maker Website: https://www.revid.ai/ Subscribe to this channel — more interviews coming soon!
April 22 · 26 min
How to Build for AI Agents and a Claude Code Second Brain in 25 Min | Ryan Wiggins
Ryan is the VP of Product at Mercury, my favorite fintech product. We covered three things that’s on every AI builder’s mind — how to build a Claude Code second brain, how to make your product agent-ready with APIs and MCPs, and what Mercury’s data reveals about OpenAI and Anthropic’s race for the enterprise. Ryan and I talked about: (00:00) Why APIs and MCPs are the primary interface (04:40) How to get your product agent ready (07:51) Will MCPs cannibalize your app DAU? (10:36) How to decide between MCPs and CLIs (13:10) Inside Ryan's Claude Code second brain (18:40) Getting AI to coach you after every meeting (20:46) Mercury data: Are startups switching to Anthropic? (23:05) The product development process will never be the same Thanks to our sponsors: Wispr Flow: Don't type, just speak https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: The AI meeting notes app that saves you hours. https://granola.ai/peter Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-to-build-for-ai-agents-and-a-claude-code-second-brain Where to find Ryan: X: https://x.com/rywiggs Website: https://mercury.com Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!
April 12 · 40 min
Figma CEO on How Anyone Can Get Good at Design in the AI Era | Dylan Field
Dylan is the co-founder and CEO of Figma. I asked him some tough questions on whether AI can learn taste, how he plans to compete with AI startups, and whether design systems constrain creativity. Two thirds of Figma users are now non-designers and it was also super interesting to hear Dylan talk about where he’s taking Figma next. We talked about: (00:00) Taste, craft, and point of view: the 3 skills AI can't replace (05:33) Can AI agents actually learn design taste? (13:02) Figma MCP to go from design to code and back (17:42) What vibe coding gets wrong about design (22:17) Two thirds of Figma users are now non-designers (29:13) The one trait Dylan hires for over AI fluency (32:01) Why Dylan thinks design is the new code (36:32) Dylan's personal AI workflow for writing and ideation Thanks to our sponsors: Linear: AI agents for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: AI meeting notes that don't suck https://granola.ai/peter Replit: From 0 to full stack app in 2 min https://replit.com/?utm_source=creator&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=creator_program&utm_content=peteryang📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/figma-ceo-on-how-anyone-can-get-good-at-design-in-ai-dylan-field Where to find Dylan: X: https://x.com/zoink Website: https://github.com/figma/mcp-server-guide Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!
April 5 · 43 min
How OpenAI's Codex Team Builds with Codex (43 Min) | Alex & Romain
Alex is the product lead for Codex and Romain runs developer experience. They gave me a rare inside look at how the Codex team operates, including how they build products with Codex and how they ship without traditional specs and roadmaps. Alex also has some spicy takes on the future of PM and what actually matters when hiring. We talked about: (00:00) Live demo: Building a game in seconds with Codex Spark (04:29) "For specs, we write like 10 bullets and that's it" (08:09) "Our designers now write more code than eng 6 months ago" (15:30) "We plan short and long term, never medium term" (22:11) How Alex actually spends his day as Codex PM (32:06) The traditional career ladder no longer makes sense (39:20) What the Codex team looks for when hiring (it's not your resume) Thanks to our sponsors: Linear: AI agents for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: AI meeting notes that don't suck https://granola.ai/peter Replit: From 0 to full stack app in 2 min https://replit.com/?utm_source=creator&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=creator_program&utm_content=peteryang 📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/inside-openais-codex-team-how-they-ship-with-ai-agents-alex-romain Where to find Alex and Romain: Alex: https://x.com/embirico Romain: https://x.com/romainhuet Website: https://openai.com/codex/ Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!
March 29 · 40 min
Claude's Head of Design: Full Claude Cowork Tutorial in 40 Min | Jenny Wen
Jenny is the head of design for Claude. She gave me a rare inside look at how Anthropic operates — including how she uses Cowork to design and build products and the real story behind how Cowork was built. Anthropic is shipping new features almost everyday and it was fascinating to see how they do it. Jenny and I talked about: (00:00) How design work has changed at Anthropic (04:30) "My secret is that I actually use Co-work for most things now" (05:19) Cowork demo: From messy user feedback into product insights (14:41) "Every Monday Cowork gives me 3 vetted product ideas" (23:09) The real story behind Cowork's development (10 days?) (27:18) Exclusive look: Cowork prototypes that didn't ship (34:01) How product planning works at Anthropic (38:10) "If you feel like the ground is shifting, it's because it is." Thanks to our sponsors: Linear: AI agents for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft Granola: AI meeting notes that don't suck https://granola.ai/peter Replit: From 0 to full stack app in 2 min https://replit.com/?utm_source=creator&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=creator_program&utm_content=peteryang 📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/inside-anthropic-claude-cowork-tutorial-jenny-wen Where to find Jenny: X: https://x.com/jenny_wen Website: https://jennywen.ca/ Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!

Showing 21–30 of 30 episodes