Adam Mosseri 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.How the canonical product team structure is changing in 2026, from baker’s-dozen specialist teams to lean pods of four to six generalistsThe rise of the “product staff” role—a blending of PM, design, data science, and research into one generalist operatorWhy Adam is bullish on designers even as functional boundaries dissolve, and which roles are most at riskWhat the Instagram algorithm knows about you, and why it’s only now catching up to what people assumed it knew years agoWhy the rise of AI-generated content is a tailwind for Instagram, and how the company is thinking about creator identity in a synthetic-content worldThe two biggest product failures of Adam’s career—Facebook Home and the first version of ReelsBrought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and moreMercury—Radically different banking, now with Command• X: https://x.com/mosseri• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mosseri• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosseri• What happens after coding is solved? | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering• Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code• Claude Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork• Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens• A rational conversation on where AI is actually going | Benedict Evans: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-rational-conversation-on-where• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai• Mythos: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos• Fable: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable• Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble• Plastic Dream Sequence on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plasticdreamsequence• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com• Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal• Facebook Home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_HomeProduction and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity
Listen now | Instagram’s Adam Mosseri on the new product team structure in 2026, the rise of the “product staff” role, and the hiring traits that matter most today







