Product leadership & delivery · Belgrade, remote-first
Your roadmap isn't the problem. Delivery is.
I'm Veljko Barnić. I take product teams that are busy but not shipping - unclear requirements, stalled decisions, releases that slip - and turn them into a backlog people can execute and a cadence the business can plan around.
Free, no pitch. If it isn't my problem to solve, I'll say so.
- Head of Product / Delivery
- Senior & Lead PM / PO
- Consulting engagements
Belgrade, RSWho this is for
You're hiring
Open to Head of Product, Head of Delivery, and senior or lead product roles. The short version for hiring managers: scope I've run, the first ninety days, and the CV.
For hiring managersYou need a consultant
A free intro call, advisory hours, a two-week delivery audit, or a fractional Product Owner 2 days a week. Start with the smallest version that answers the question.
Engagements & pricingSix ways delivery quietly goes wrong
None of these show up as a single dramatic failure. They show up as a roadmap that keeps moving right.
The backlog is a wish list
Hundreds of tickets, no ranking anyone believes in, and every stakeholder convinced their item is next. Sprints start with the definition still being argued.
Estimates are fiction
The build takes the days you planned. Discovery, review, QA, rework, release and support take the other half, and nobody budgeted for them.
Decisions have no owner
Engineering waits on product, product waits on compliance, compliance waits on a call that keeps getting moved. The work is ready; the decision isn't.
Releases are an event, not a habit
Every launch is a scramble of manual checks and last-minute sign-offs, so the team ships less often, which makes each release riskier still.
Nobody knows what "done" means
Every team has a definition of done. Most of them are different, none of them are written down, and the gap only surfaces at the point where the work was supposed to ship.
The same status gets asked for three times a week
When delivery is not visible, people pull it out of you in meetings. The cost is not the meeting, it is that the answer is slightly different every time.
Three delivery problems, three outcomes
- ClickOut Media · 2024-now
Owning an affiliate product backlog
SEO, content, engineering and QA all had a claim on the same sprint. I made the trade-offs explicit and tied prioritisation to OKRs, KPIs and experiment results instead of the loudest voice.
Read the detail - Condor Gaming · 2023-2024
Shipping regulated casino platforms
Every release had to clear technical, security, regulatory and customer-experience standards at once, across payment providers, game suppliers, affiliates and multiple licensed markets.
Read the detail - SiGMA World · 2022-2023
Six global event brands in parallel
SiGMA, AIBC, AGS, Med-Tech, Ikigai and FX.World, each with its own launch calendar, and sites that cannot go down during festival traffic. I streamlined the update workflow so content shipped through the peak.
Read the detail
What it’s like to work with me
Feedback and recommendations from colleagues who have worked with me closely and experienced my approach to product, leadership, and teamwork.
I had the opportunity to work with Veljko as a Product Owner. He is a hardworking and dedicated professional who consistently put effort into supporting the team and keeping things moving.
He was always willing to get involved, help the team when needed, and take the time to understand different challenges and requirements. I appreciated his availability and his willingness to step in and support the team, particularly when things became more demanding.
He also showed a good level of commitment to the projects he was involved in and was always approachable when we needed to discuss priorities, requirements, or any issues that came up during the work.
I worked with Veljko for around seven months on a large and complex platform, joining the project while it was already well underway.
One thing I especially valued was the depth of his product knowledge. Veljko understands not only what needs to be built, but also why it matters and how different parts of the product connect. That context was extremely valuable to me as an engineer and helped me become productive quickly.
We worked closely on several critical areas of the platform, where strong collaboration between product and engineering led to significant improvements.
Veljko brings together deep product knowledge, clear direction, and a strong understanding of how to work effectively with engineers. I really enjoyed working with him and would gladly do so again.
We've worked together since April 2025 — I was a developer on the team, Veljko was our Product Owner.
Veljko is the kind of product person developers actually enjoy working with. He describes tasks in detail, always has extra context ready, and is happy to walk through the business logic again if something isn't clear. He also has no problem coming to the team with technical questions when he doesn't know something, which saves everyone a lot of time.
Just as importantly, he's great to talk to — about work and outside of it. A real team player. I'm glad for the time we spent on the same team and hope we get to work together again.
I had the pleasure of working closely with Veljko, and one of the things that stood out to me from the very beginning was his work ethic and the level of responsibility he brings to everything he does.
Veljko is an exceptionally hard-working and reliable professional. When he takes ownership of something, you can trust that it will be handled properly and followed through to completion. Even when dealing with a demanding workload or several priorities at the same time, he remains focused, organized, and dependable.
What I particularly valued was his ability to manage multiple responsibilities without losing sight of the bigger picture. We often worked in situations where several projects, requests, and priorities were moving in parallel, and Veljko was someone I could rely on to keep things moving, adapt when priorities changed, and make sure important details didn't fall through the cracks.
Another quality that really stands out is his ability to troubleshoot problems. When something wasn't working as expected, Veljko was persistent and methodical in getting to the root cause. He is good at breaking down complex issues, investigating different possibilities, and finding practical solutions. Veljko approaches his work with a strong sense of responsibility and takes his commitments seriously. Rather than waiting for someone else to step in, he takes initiative, looks for solutions, and does what is needed to get the job done. That consistency makes him someone you quickly learn you can depend on.
On top of that, Veljko is a great person to work with. He is collaborative, committed to the team, and always willing to put in the effort when things get challenging or deadlines are tight.
Veljko is a hard-working, responsible, and highly dependable professional who can successfully handle multiple priorities, troubleshoot complex problems, and take real ownership of his work. I would gladly work with him again and can strongly recommend him to any team looking for someone they can trust to take responsibility, stay committed, and consistently deliver.
Working with Veljko over the last 1.5 years has been an absolute pleasure. As a developer on his team I always felt supported, trusted and encouraged to bring new ideas forward. He always ensured I had the context needed to make the best technical decisions, provided clear direction and made informed decisions product-wise.
What I appreciate most is his ability to balance business goals with user needs while still giving engineers the autonomy to propose improvements. He always has a positive attitude, open to feedback and leads in a way that makes you feel motivated rather than managed.
I genuinely enjoyed working with Veljko and I would happily do so again in the future. Any team would be lucky to have such a dedicated and inspiring Product Owner/Manager and any product would benefit from having Veljko leading its direction.
I had the pleasure of working with Veljko at ClickOut Media, where we were both part of the Product team. As a Product Owner, Veljko was always highly organised and handled projects with confidence and ease.
I particularly appreciated how supportive he was on the projects I worked on with him. He was always positive, approachable, and willing to provide guidance whenever needed. His communication was excellent - he responded quickly, clearly, and always with kindness and respect.
Veljko has a great work ethic and brings a calm, collaborative attitude to the team. I really enjoyed working with him and would highly recommend him to any organisation looking for an experienced, dependable, and supportive Product Manager.
Fix the delivery, and the roadmap starts moving
Six years of running product and delivery in affiliate and iGaming: regulated, performance-driven, fast. Here's where I'm most useful.
Product discovery & roadmap
Turn strategy into a prioritised roadmap with an order the team can actually commit to.
Backlog ownership
Epics, user stories and acceptance criteria written so sprints start ready, not half-defined.
Agile delivery & Scrum
Ceremonies run with intent. Scrum or Kanban methodology, chosen to fit the team rather than the certificate.
QA, release & compliance
Test planning, defect triage and the licensing and security gates regulated products have to clear.
Conversion, SEO & affiliate
Funnels and monetisation reviewed with SEO and performance, then improved through structured testing.
Stakeholder alignment
One point of contact for leadership, vendors and delivery. Honest status, visible dependencies.
What working together looks like
No long discovery phase before anything useful happens. You get a read on the problem in the first week.
- Step 1
Intro call
30 minutes, free. You describe the problem; I tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.
- Step 2
Diagnosis
I look at the backlog, the ceremonies and the last few releases, and talk to the people doing the work.
- Step 3
Findings & plan
What's actually blocking delivery, ranked by impact, with a concrete plan rather than a deck of principles.
- Step 4
Execution
I do the work with your team: rebuild the backlog, run the ceremonies, unblock the decisions.
- Step 5
Handover
Documented ways of working your team keeps using after I'm gone. That's the point.
- Step 6
Check back
Thirty days after handover, one hour: what stuck, what didn't, what needs another pass. No charge, and usually the most useful hour of the lot.
Six calculators I actually use
No email required, no sign-up, nothing stored. They run in your browser: use them, bookmark them, send them to whoever needs convincing.
Story point estimator
A shared definition of 1 to 13 points, plus a calculator that turns a sized backlog into working days including regression.
Open the toolRICE backlog prioritiser
Score initiatives on reach, impact, confidence and effort, and get a ranked backlog you can defend in a room.
Open the toolRelease date forecaster
Backlog, velocity, variability and scope creep into best, likely and worst-case completion dates.
Open the toolSprint capacity planner
How much of the raw team-hours sum survives ceremonies, absence and focus factor. A ceiling, not a commitment.
Open the toolFeature cost & risk estimator
The true cost of a feature once discovery, design, review, QA, rework, release and support are counted.
Open the toolMeeting cost calculator
What that recurring meeting costs per session, per month and per year, and what trimming it would save.
Open the toolNotes on product delivery

Product Discovery Process Guide for Teams That Ship
This product discovery process guide shows product leaders how to turn uncertain ideas into tested, decision-ready work before delivery begins with less risk.
Read the article
Refinement (Grooming) That Gets Teams Shipping
Refinement (grooming) turns a crowded backlog into decisions, usable work, and dependable releases. Learn how product leaders run it with accountability.
Read the article
How to Plan Product Capacity Without Missing Dates
Learn how to plan product capacity using real delivery data, explicit trade-offs, and clear ownership to make roadmaps and releases credible and reliable.
Read the articleSomething isn't shipping. Let's find out why.
Send me three sentences about what's stuck, or take the free 30-minute call. Either way you'll get an honest read - including if the answer is that you don't need me.

