The future of AI in software development | Inbal Shani (CPO of GitHub)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Inbal Shani is the chief product officer at GitHub, where she leads core product management, along with product strategy, marketing, open source, and communities, including the development of GitHub Copilot. Prior to joining GitHub, she led engineering and product teams at Amazon and Microsoft. In today’s conversation, we discuss:

• What Inbal believes is overhyped and underhyped in the rapidly changing field of AI

• How AI-driven code generation is changing software development

• Her take on whether AI will replace developers

• How software development looks in 3 to 5 years

• How product teams operate at GitHub

• GitHub’s Next team, and other ways the company fosters a culture of innovation

• The success metrics and philosophy behind GitHub’s Copilot

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-future-of-ai-in-software-development-inbal-shani-cpo-of-github/#transcript

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Where to find Inbal Shani:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inbalshani/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Inbal’s background

(04:17) Why generative AI is not going to replace developers in the near future

(05:54) Why AI-driven testing is underhyped

(07:48) What the next 3 to 5 years will look like

(10:13) Stats around the use of GitHub Copilot

(12:07) How Copilot enables engineers to work more efficiently

(13:38) Common mistakes when adopting AI into your workflows

(16:42) How GitHub operationalizes “dogfooding”

(18:46) The philosophy behind Copilot

(20:24) Copilot’s success metrics

(24:54) How Copilot encourages collaboration

(26:37) What we lose when AI writes code for us

(29:35) A retrospective on the generative AI space

(30:47) Inbal’s thoughts on the future of AI

(32:35) How to make space for innovative product ideas

(34:37) How GitHub stays on the cutting edge of innovation

(36:44) The GitHub Next team

(39:20) Advice for early product managers

(42:17) Inbal’s “biggest learning” from her career

(45:34) Inbal’s closing thoughts

(46:19) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• How to measure and improve developer productivity | Nicole Forsgren (Microsoft Research, GitHub, Google): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-measure-and-improve-developer-productivity-nicole-forsgren-microsoft-research-github-goo/

• DORA: https://dora.dev/

• The role of AI in product development | Ryan J. Salva (VP of Product at GitHub, Copilot): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-role-of-ai-in-new-product-development-ryan-j-salva-vp-of-product-at-github-copilot/

• GitHub Universe 2023 day 2 keynote: The productivity platform for all developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_o9kFPVeiw

• Satya Nadella on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella/

• TomTom: https://www.tomtom.com/

• Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success: https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Forward-Turning-Mistakes-Stepping/dp/0785288570/

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996

• Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great: https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Flywheel-Monograph-Accompany-Great/dp/0062933795

• Dare to Lead Like a Girl: How to Survive and Thrive in the Corporate Jungle: https://www.amazon.com/Dare-Lead-Like-Girl-Corporate/dp/1538163527

• All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81083008

• The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Time-Season-1/dp/B09F59CZ7R

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	the user of the AI tools to develop software needs to form a different thinking.
0:04.9	You need to start figuring out how are you using these AI tools to help you be successful
0:10.1	and it's no longer just the actual code writing.
0:12.9	It's really evolving your thinking
0:14.8	to the big picture, to the connected experience,
0:17.0	to connected systems, which today we just find it more
0:20.6	in the world of more senior developers and less in the junior developers.
0:24.8	The junior developers when they start usually we expect them to be able to write
0:28.3	simple code. But if now there is an AI assistant that is helping them
0:31.8	writing code they can spend more time from the get-go
0:34.5	understanding the system, understanding the environment that they are building or understanding
0:39.2	that product that they're building, which today they don't have time because they are still learning how to
0:43.2	quote.
0:43.7	Today my guest is Inbal Shanee.
0:48.3	Inbal is chief product officer at GitHub, formerly a general manager at AWS and at Microsoft, and also senior software
0:55.8	developer on Amazon robotics.
0:58.3	In our conversation, we explore the end state of co-pilot and AI-based tooling for software engineers, what the future of
1:05.2	software development looks like with AI, what's underhiked and overhiked in AI and software
1:10.1	development, what metrics the teams look at to understand if Co-Pilot is doing its job,
1:14.8	what mistakes teams and companies make jumping into AI, the design philosophy of Co-Pilot,
1:20.7	plus what's helped in-ball most become the leader she is today, and also where
1:24.6	GitHub is heading as a product and an organization. With that I bring you Inbal
	...

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