Ex-OpenAI VP says the most successful company teams are like the Avengers

• Peter Deng, a former VP at OpenAI, said he looks at teams as if they were products.
• The most successful groups he's worked with had varied skillsets, he said on "Lenny's Podcast."
• Deng said he prioritized staffing his teams with a series of specialists, like the Avengers, rather than generalists.

When investor Peter Deng worked at OpenAI, he treated building a team like a puzzle. All the right pieces had to be in the right places.

"As a leader, you have to set up your team the right way," Deng, who previously was OpenAI's VP of consumer product, said on an episode of Lenny's Podcast. "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, now a general partner at Felicis Ventures, has previously contributed to a series of well-known features, including ChatGPT Enterprise, Facebook's Messenger app, and Uber Reserve.

The VC said the best teams he's worked with throughout his career were those composed of people with diverse skill sets.

"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. "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."

Deng looks to staff his teams with a series of problem-solvers, he said. He thinks about needs that aren't being met, and then works to hire specialists who can close the gap.

"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," he said.

When Deng would search for new additions, he said he largely looked for two traits in applicants: the potential for autonomy and an appetite for continued improvement. Deng did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

"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."