Former OpenAI exec says team building is like solving puzzle: ‘The teams that I've helped build are a team of…’

Former OpenAI executive Peter Deng believes that building the right team is like solving a complex puzzle — every piece must fit perfectly. Now a general partner at Felicis Ventures, Deng shared his views on leadership, team-building, and hiring during a recent episode of Lenny’s Podcast. Speaking at the podcast, Deng compared strong teams to the Avengers, where each member brings a different “superpower” to the table. "The teams that I've helped build are — the most successful ones are a team of Avengers that are just very different, have very different superpowers," he said.Deng is known for his work on major consumer tech products, including ChatGPT Enterprise, Facebook Messenger, and Uber Reserve. At OpenAI, he played a key role in shaping the user experience of AI tools. "As a leader, you have to set up your team the right way," Deng said. "You have to really think about your team as a product and what are the various pieces you need to really stretch the gamut of what you're thinking about," Deng stated."But together, you as the leader are the one who's helping adjudicate any differences or any disagreements, but you know you're getting the best outcome when everyone's pulling and obsessing over a different thing," he saidWhen hiring, Deng said two traits matter most: the ability to work independently and a deep desire to grow. "I think the growth mindset thing is so important to me — that we build an org where people are self-reflective, and want to get better, and take that feedback, and give that feedback," he said."And it just is this meta unlock that I found to be true."He added that he actively looks for specialists who fill specific gaps, likening the process to designing a role-playing game (RPG) team."It's almost like you're playing an RPG where everyone has different sliders and you have to create this super team where everyone actually spikes in different ways," Deng explained.