Cem Kansu, CPO @ Duolingo: How Duolingo Build Product 10x Faster with AI

Cem Kansu is the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo, where he leads product strategy for over 90 million monthly active learners. Since joining Duolingo, Cem has played a pivotal role in driving record user engagement, revenue growth, and product innovation, including the launch of Duolingo Math and the wildly successful Duolingo Music. Under his leadership, the company has consistently ranked as the #1 education app globally.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

• Cem’s Origin Story: From Google Ads to Saving Duolingo’s Business

• “Mini CEO” Myth: Why PMs Need to Ditch the Ego

• The Truth About Design Speed and Pixel Perfection

• The INSANE Story Behind Duolingo’s Viral Chess Launch

• Why Smaller Teams Are the Future of Product

• Duolingo’s AI Playbook: How They’re Building 10x Faster

• Will Engineers Even Exist in 5 Years? Cem Gets Real

• Do AI Tools Have ANY Defensibility? Cem Doesn’t Hold Back

• Why Duolingo Took So Long to Monetize (And What They Learned)

• Cem on Killing Ads, Tasteful Monetization, and Investor Doubt

• The Secret to Duolingo’s Paywall Strategy (And What Not to Do)

• Cem’s Weirdest Retention Hack? A Single Emoji…

• The Crazy Science Behind Push Notifications at Duolingo

• Why Feature Names Done Right: GEMS, Freeze, and the Psychology of Value

• Why Cem Thinks Daily Retention is the King Metric

• The ONE Product Feature That Changed Duolingo Forever

• Will Duolingo Become the Disney of Gen Z?

• Dating on Duolingo?! Cem Reacts to Harry’s Craziest Product Ideas

• Cem’s Biggest Product Mistakes — And What He’d Kill Tomorrow

• The One Thing Every PM Must Do to Survive the AI Wave

• Duolingo in 20 Years: Cem’s Wildest Vision Yet