As building software products gets dramatically faster, knowing what to build becomes even more critical. AI is accelerating a shift towards product engineering: engineers taking broader ownership of customer problems, smaller teams working across traditional role boundaries, and rapid experimentation reshaping how products are developed. The boundaries between engineering, product, and design are shifting, with far-reaching consequences for how we turn ideas into valuable products.
In this opening session, Jan Hegewald joins Stefan Vosskötter to explore what this means for teams and organizations, how roles and ways of working are evolving, and where individuals can make the biggest difference. Why does greater autonomy demand clearer strategy? Which established processes are holding teams back? And what skills will individuals need to thrive as technical expertise, customer understanding, and business judgment become increasingly intertwined?
VP Engineering at Rabot Energy. Ex-Zalando, SumUp and idealo.
Jan is a Berlin-based VP Engineering with over two decades scaling engineering orgs at leading European digital companies, including Zalando, SumUp, and idealo – across eCommerce, FinTech, and GreenTech, from hypergrowth to acquisitions to structured wind-downs. In 2026, he joined Rabot Energy to lead engineering on an AI-powered platform for optimizing consumer energy costs. A practitioner of AI-augmented engineering, he introduced AI-coding tools and embedded ML into development workflows early, giving him a grounded, hands-on view of what it takes to make AI work in real organizations. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Product Management Festival Zurich, teaches at the Digitale Leute School, and offers career coaching for tech professionals.
Founder of Digitale Leute.
Stefan is the founder of Digitale Leute and Deutsche Startups. Since 2005, he has successfully founded various internet startups and has mostly taken the product owner role in these projects. With Digitale Leute he and his team provide deep insights into the different job roles in digital product development and how the world’s greatest companies develop their software products.
