AI DevSummit 2025 + DeveloperWeek Leadership 2025: Full Schedule

2:00pm PDT

PRO Session: From 0 to 70: How to Scale Product & Engineering Teams

Thursday May 29, 2025 2:00pm - 2:25pm PDT

Ken Weiner, GumGum, Chief Technology Officer

From 0 to 70: How to Scale Product & Engineering Teams: A product is only as strong as the team behind it—without the right leadership and guidance, even the best ideas can fall flat. To foster growth and innovation, it's essential to have a clear strategy for scaling operations and aligning resources. Ken, who's grown GumGum’s technology team from 0 to 70+ employees, will share tactics to scale your teams, operations, and product for the long term. He’ll discuss strategies such as establishing career ladders, minimizing dependencies between teams, and leading with an innovative mindset. Additionally, he’ll highlight the importance of fostering diversity within your team to drive growth and creativity.

Speakers

Ken Weiner

Chief Technology Officer, GumGum

Ken Weiner is the Chief Technology Officer of GumGum, where he has led engineering and product teams in developing a blend of cutting-edge contextual, creative, and attention technologies. Ken, as GumGum's first employee, has driven the company's technological innovation for over... Read More →

Thursday May 29, 2025 2:00pm - 2:25pm PDT
DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

DeveloperWeek Leadership

Additional Topics Agile, Leadership Career Paths, Learning and Development, Team Collaboration, Change Management, Product Management and Engineering Alignment, Scaling Engineering Team
Session Type PRO Session
Tracks DeveloperWeek Leadership, Technical Leadership / Management & Teams (Managing People) (DeveloperWeek Leadership)
In-Person/Virtual In Person

9:30am PDT

[Virtual] OPEN Session: Agile, Scrum, Kanban: The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Productivity and Value

Wednesday June 4, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT

VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

Marin Niehues, PLOIN GmbH, Chief Strategy Officer

Scrum. Kanban. Standups. Sprints. Agility is often promoted as the key to improved delivery and happier teams. But can it really turn a dysfunctional environment into a high-performing one?

Adding Scrum, Kanban, or XP on top of existing dysfunction doesn’t fix the root issues. Frameworks promise better delivery, but they fall short when they’re slapped onto teams with unclear goals, poor communication, or leadership misalignment. Real value doesn’t come from ceremonies or boards—it comes from addressing core problems first.

In this session, we’ll take a look at what must come before any agile method can yield real results. We will identify common organizational dysfunctions that frameworks alone can’t fix, and we’ll outline practical steps for addressing these root issues first. You will learn how to evaluate whether Scrum, Kanban, or XP is the right fit—or if it’s time to discard them altogether. Expect concrete advice and clear examples that help you move beyond superficial “agility” to truly value-driven work.

Speakers

Marin Niehues

Chief Strategy Officer, PLOIN GmbH

Marin Niehues works as the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Business Consulting at PLOIN GmbH, a German consulting boutique specializing in management and business consulting. In this role, he leads teams and consulting projects from VC-backed startups to international DAX40 companies... Read More →

Wednesday June 4, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

DeveloperWeek Leadership

Additional Topics Agile, SCRUM
Session Type OPEN Session
Tracks OPEN Session, DeveloperWeek Leadership, Technical Strategy / Methodology & Tooling (DeveloperWeek Leadership), Virtual
In-Person/Virtual Virtual