The Peterman Pod Anthropic Eng Leader And Ex-Senior Director at Meta On Microsoft vs Facebook, Career Learnings
139 snips
Jan 4, 2026 Fiona Fung, an engineering leader at Anthropic and former Senior Director at Meta, brings her wealth of experience to the table. She explores the critical balance between impact and team health, sharing insights from her journey at Microsoft and Facebook. Discussion includes the importance of effective mentoring, the cultural contrasts she observed at Facebook, and why dogfooding is essential for empathy. Fiona also highlights the significance of feedback and kindness in leadership while encouraging younger listeners to embrace their career journeys.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Leaving Microsoft For Mission
- Fiona left Microsoft after 11.5 years to join Facebook because she wanted to build commerce features.
- She was drawn by mission impact and the chance to learn outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Speed And Collective Ownership
- Facebook operated at much higher speed with weekly sprints and rapid updates.
- The culture emphasized 'nothing is someone else's problem' and broad ownership.
Dogfooding Across Products
- Fiona dogfooded products across roles, from Visual Studio to Facebook Marketplace and VR devices.
- She used dogfooding both to empathize with users and to find reproducible bugs herself.