How Anthropic’s product team moves faster than anyone else | Cat Wu (Head of Product, Claude Code)

Cat Wu is Head of Product for Claude Code and Cowork at Anthropic, building one of the most important AI products of this generation. Before joining Anthropic, Cat spent years as an engineer and briefly worked in VC. Today, she’s interviewing hundreds of product managers who are trying to break into AI—and seeing firsthand what separates those who thrive from those who fall behind. *We discuss:* 1. How Anthropic’s shipping cadence went from months to weeks to days 2. The emerging skills PMs need to develop right now 3. Why you need to build products that don’t yet fully work, so you’re ready when the next model closes the gap 4. Cat’s most underrated AI skill: asking the model to introspect on its own mistakes 5. Why Claude’s personality is core to its success 6. Why Anthropic’s mission alignment eliminates the friction that slows most large organizations 7. Why “just do things” is the most important principle for working at AI-native companies *Brought to you by:* WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: https://workos.com/lenny Vanta—automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI: https://vanta.com/lenny *Episode transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-half-of-product-managers-are-in-trouble *Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:* https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0 *Where to find Cat Wu:* • X: https://x.com/_catwu • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cat-wu • Newsletter: https://catwu.substack.com *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 Cat Wu (01:29) Working with Boris Cherny (04:29) What Anthropic looks for when hiring PMs (06:18) How to help your teams move fast (08:58) How PRDs and roadmaps have evolved at Anthropic (10:28) The Mythos mode