Skip to main content


Heather Fleming

Heather Fleming
Gilt

As senior director of the program management organization at Gilt, Heather Fleming oversees the execution of strategic technology initiatives across the company’s 170-member tech team. Heather’s chief aim is to challenge the status quo of project management best practices by continually experimenting with agile project management methodologies. Since joining Gilt in 2010, she has directed a wide variety of customer-facing, international, and back office projects instrumental to the ecommerce leader’s continued growth and success.

Job Title: 
Senior Director, PMO
Speaker Presentations
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - 11:30am
Agile Readiness
Going Agile? Three Conversations to Have Before You Start

All too often, companies adopt a mission to “go agile” before truly understanding what that entails. Business managers are quick to jump on the agile bandwagon, believing that going agile will magically make projects happen faster. Teams are getting certified in Scrum believing it is the silver bullet that will suddenly make everyone more productive. Inevitably, cracks begin to develop, and expectations are not met, leaving everyone questioning the value of going agile at all. Heather Fleming and Justin Riservato say there is a better way! The truth is that going agile will result in more productive teams and faster delivery of projects—but only if everyone can agree on the rules of the game. Learn why gaining consensus on the principles of agile is more important than implementing a specific process. Explore how having three key conversations—about saying no to deadlines, ensuring business partner engagement, and experimenting with process—up front can save you from an agile disaster.