Rewriting the app under deadline

Chintan Turakhia is Senior Director of Engineering at Coinbase, where he’s led the transformation of a 1,000-plus-engineer organization to embrace AI tools at scale. When tasked with rewriting Coinbase’s self-custody wallet into a consumer social app in just six to nine months, Chintan turned to AI as a force multiplier. His team has achieved remarkable efficiency gains, including reducing PR review times from 150 hours to just 15 hours, and dramatically compressing the cycle from user feedback to shipped features.

What you’ll learn:

1. How to drive AI adoption in large, established engineering organizations
2. The “speed run” technique that got 100 engineers to push 70 PRs in 15 minutes
3. How to identify and replicate the behaviors of AI power users
4. Why engineering leaders must get hands-on with AI tools to drive adoption
5. How to build custom AI agents that integrate with your existing workflows
6. The metrics that actually matter when measuring AI’s impact on engineering velocity
7. How to compress the cycle from user feedback to shipped features

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Brought to you by:

WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready today

Rovo—AI that knows your business

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Chintan

(02:38) How Coinbase approached rewriting their app with AI assistance

(08:00) The importance of leadership conviction and hands-on demonstration

(10:30) The “PR speed run” technique that transformed team adoption

(17:57) Measuring success

(19:20) Demo: Real-time feedback-to-feature implementation

(23:14) Using Cursor to analyze AI adoption patterns

(33:15) Quick recap and appreciation

(36:00) Demo: Building a live feedback capture system using AI transcription

(40:50) Using custom Slack bots to automate engineering workflows

(47:10) Advice for driving AI adoption within your organization

(50:00) Personal use case: AI for wine selection based on taste preferences

(55:23) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Tools referenced:

• Cursor: https://cursor.sh/

• Linear: https://linear.app/

• Slack: https://slack.com/

• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/

• Claude: https://claude.ai/

• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

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Other references:

• Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/

• React Native: https://reactnative.dev/

• How custom GPTs can make you a better manager | Hilary Gridley (Head of Core Product at Whoop): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-custom-gpts-can-make-you-a-better-manager

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Where to find Chintan Turakhia:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chintanturakhia/

X: https://x.com/chintanturakhia

Base App (formerly Coinbase Wallet): https://base.app/

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Where to find Claire Vo:

ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/

Website: https://clairevo.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/

X: https://x.com/clairevo

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.