In today’s AI hyped world many product organisations face the challenge of effectively integrating AI-based functionality into their product. Regardless of whether you choose to just pick AI functionality from 3rd party cloud vendors such as Amazon, Google etc or have a data science team on board, you will encounter issues. These include the unpredictability of the outputs of data science experiments, the challenge of having to frame requirements in such a way that classic product development teams and data science teams find common ground, and last but not least, most often a lack of suitable data infrastructure that prevents producing Ai-driven functionality in the first place. 

In this talk we will give an insight into our own journey in product management on how we overcame said challenges with an agile – SAFe based – organisation with the focus on a constant flow of outcome. We will provide you with practical tips from an organisational standpoint and insights into how we chose to align agile processes around this ecosystem. 

Martin Rückert is Chief AI Officer at Diamant Software’s AI Research Centre in Darmstadt in the Rhein-Main area, near Frankfurt. In this role, Martin is responsible for all of Diamant Software’s activities related to artificial intelligence: AI research, AI engineering, AI operations and AI-functions-related product management.

Martin started his career in 2000 at IBM Consulting, where he worked with clients on artificial intelligence projects and software products. He later worked in product management and technical evangelism at IBM’s research lab in Böblingen.

Martin worked in SAPs Technology & Innovation group at SAP, focussing on products and strategies related to artificial intelligence as a fellow.

He also worked for Salesforce as Lead Architect in the financial services vertical for the DACH region before accepting a role as senior director of product management at Market Logic Software AG, leading product managers and technical teams building platforms and products in the domain of market research insight management by applying AI-supported algorithms.
He shifted his focus from product management to taking over the responsibility of the Chief AI Officer at Market Logic, focussing more on leading data science and engineering teams before accepting the role at Diamant Software in 2019.

René Ulbricht holds a diploma of engineering informatics and later added a diploma in business economics. He worked at HP for 10 years, primarily in the software division with focus on bug fixing and support processes.

In 2007 he brought this experience to Diamant Software, where he established the third level support. Furthermore, he was responsible for technical service and helped establishing the cloud business. 

Since the beginning of 2018, he has been responsible for product management. His first challenge was the transition to SAFe. After this was successfully mastered, René’s focus has shifted to making the world’s most intelligent accounting software a reality. He is driving this forward in his current role as Executive Vice President of Product Management/Product Owner at Diamant Software GmbH.