Nan Yu
Works on product for Codex at OpenAI; head of product at Linear for four years to 2026, and previously CTO at Everlane and VP of product at Mode.
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Their wordsThe the biggest constraint uh is honestly like people's understanding and ability to sort of absorb what you're what you're giving them, right?
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 3rd of 18 in this recording
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Our reading
The most successful agent designs have probably been the ones that map onto human nature.
Their wordsI I I think when designing this like the the most successful um efforts have really tried to map on to human nature, right?
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 4th of 18 in this recording
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Our reading
Agents probably need to be grouped into bundles of activity rather than managed one by one.
Their wordsI think there there's there's something in there where we need to group these things into sort of bundles of activity
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 5th of 18 in this recording
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Our reading
Systems thinking and user empathy in agent design are the old product principles in disguise.
Their wordsI I I think those are very important but ultimately they're just the old principles in disguise.
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 7th of 18 in this recording
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Their wordsI think something that probably matters way more now than it's done before is is onboarding.
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 12th of 18 in this recording
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Their wordsSo I think the the having a a more kind of direct uh deeper relationship bears a lot of fruit there, right?
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 16th of 18 in this recording
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Their wordssomething that looks a lot like self-driving is probably going to be the the thing that really you know becomes much more important and prominent in the next year.
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 18th of 18 in this recording
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