What happens after coding is solved? | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams) (1h 39m)

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• Release date: 2026-06-21
• Listen on Spotify: Open episode
• Episode description:

  Fiona Fung leads the teams behind Claude Code and Cowork at Anthropic (overseeing Boris Cherny and the entire engineering and PM team). Before Anthropic, she spent 11 years at Microsoft building Visual Studio and TypeScript and then moved to Meta, where she started Facebook Marketplace (now generating over $100 billion in GMV annually), worked on Meta’s first smart glasses and AR glasses, and led infrastructure, growth, integrity, and safety teams at Instagram. She’s been an engineer for over 25 years and has a unique perspective on how the role of building software is changing.In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:What she’s learned about running a team that’s shipping 8x more code than beforeWhich roles AI will transform nextSpecific ways her team uses AIHow Claude “routines” have changed how she operates as a managerThe context-switching problem no one has solved yetThe biggest unsolved problem in AIWhat keeps her up at night—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and moreMercury—Radically different banking, now with Command—Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering—Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0—Where to find Fiona Fung:• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fionafung—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Fiona Fung(02:31) How the engineering role has transformed over 25 years(09:28) What an AI-pilled software team looks like in 2026(12:26) Using Claude to manage and review team output(14:40) The evolution of code review and verification(16:55) Who to hire: creative builders and deep systems experts(18:18) The shift to ambitious thinking(19:40) The growth mindset required to thrive in AI-native teams(25:52) Helping small businesses adopt AI tools(31:46) How Anthropic spots latent demand and builds for it(35:08) The next frontier: asynchronous work with AI routines(38:06) Agency and accountability in AI-native teams(39:40) The vibe shift from token-maxing to ROI measurement(44:24) The “bad vs. sad” quality framework(49:34) Why all managers start as ICs at Anthropic(55:24) Preventing skill atrophy(58:43) Managing context switching with 20 AI agents running(1:00:08) How PM and data science roles are transforming(1:03:40) The importance of dogfooding and using your own product(1:08:36) Outstanding questions(1:12:48) The future of engineering jobs and education(1:17:59) What keeps Fiona up at night: team culture at scale(1:22:53) From six-month roadmaps to JIT (just-in-time) monthly planning(1:27:03) Lightning round—Referenced:• Running an AI-native engineering org: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igO8iyca2_g• Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens• Today, Anthropic engineers on average ship 8x as much code per quarter as they did compared to 2021-2025: https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2062568864240836995• Visual Studio: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com• Joseph Campbell’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/192665-the-cave-you-fear-to-enter-holds-the-treasure-you• Life-changing Cowork use case: https://x.com/lennysan/status/2059664455001334124• Introducing Claude for Small Business: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-small-business...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Summary

• 🚀 8x Productivity Explosion: Anthropic engineers ship 8x more code; coding is no longer the bottleneck and ambition becomes the new limit.
• 🧠 High Agency Wins: Thriving engineers show high agency paired with accountability; growth mindset and leaning into fear separate winners from the frustrated.
• 🔍 Verification Over Volume: Massive velocity demands automated frameworks, TDD evolution, and proactive ‘bad vs sad’ experience monitoring instead of manual reviews.
• 🤝 Human Connection Matters: AI-heavy workflows risk loneliness, leading teams to add pairwise lunches and hackathons to share workflows and stay connected.
• 👥 Blurred Roles, New Hires: Engineers become product-minded while PMs/designers ship code; hiring now targets creative builders and deep systems experts.

Insights

• How does AI remove coding as the bottleneck and shift focus to ambition and what becomes possible?
  • Time: 0:00 – 0:14
  • Answer: Anthropic engineers now ship 8x more code, making everything theoretically possible and raising the question of how ambitious teams can be. This transforms engineering from execution limits to vision and prioritization.
• As AI agents handle more work, how can teams prevent loneliness and maintain human connection and learning?
  • Time: 0:36 – 0:40
  • Answer: Heavy agent use can make engineering feel isolating, prompting initiatives like pairwise programming lunches where teammates learn from each other’s unique workflows and stay connected.
• Why do high-agency engineers thrive while others resist or fear AI tools, and how can leaders help close that gap?
• What new verification and quality practices are needed when velocity increases dramatically and non-engineers also ship code?
• How should hiring and team structures evolve when the ideal profiles become creative builders with product sense plus deep systems experts?

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