How OpenAI's Codex Team Builds with Codex (43 Min) | Alex & Romain

How OpenAI's Codex Team Builds with Codex (43 Min) | Alex & Romain

Author: Peter Yang April 5, 2026 Duration: 43:16

Alex is the product lead for Codex and Romain runs developer experience. They gave me a rare inside look at how the Codex team operates, including how they build products with Codex and how they ship without traditional specs and roadmaps. Alex also has some spicy takes on the future of PM and what actually matters when hiring.


We talked about:

(00:00) Live demo: Building a game in seconds with Codex Spark

(04:29) "For specs, we write like 10 bullets and that's it"

(08:09) "Our designers now write more code than eng 6 months ago"

(15:30) "We plan short and long term, never medium term"

(22:11) How Alex actually spends his day as Codex PM

(32:06) The traditional career ladder no longer makes sense

(39:20) What the Codex team looks for when hiring (it's not your resume)


Thanks to our sponsors:

Linear: AI agents for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft

Granola: AI meeting notes that don't suck https://granola.ai/peter

Replit: From 0 to full stack app in 2 min https://replit.com/?utm_source=creator&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=creator_program&utm_content=peteryang


📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/inside-openais-codex-team-how-they-ship-with-ai-agents-alex-romain


Where to find Alex and Romain:

Alex: https://x.com/embirico

Romain: https://x.com/romainhuet

Website: https://openai.com/codex/


Subscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!


For anyone building the future, Behind the Craft is a conversation with Peter Yang that moves beyond theory and into the tangible details of creation. This podcast lives in the messy, rewarding space where ideas become real products. Each episode is built on candid interviews with experts who have been in the trenches, dissecting the pivotal decisions, the unexpected hurdles, and the hard-won lessons that rarely make it into a polished case study. You’ll hear the unvarnished stories behind the features and companies shaping our world, focusing on the practical frameworks and mental models that effective product leaders and creators rely on daily. It’s about understanding the craft from the inside out-the strategic shifts, the team dynamics, the user insights that truly move the needle. Tune in for a direct, no-fluff dialogue designed to accelerate your own journey, providing actionable guidance you can apply immediately to level up your own work. This is where the blueprint meets the build.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Behind the Craft
Podcast Episodes
The Ultimate Guide to Developer Marketing | Lee Robinson (Vercel) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:08
My guest today is Lee Robinson, VP Product at Vercel. Lee has built products and great developer experiences for over a decade and has written some of the most clear-sighted content about how to get developers to adopt y…