Plamen Balkanski is a seasoned software delivery and product leader with over 20 years of experience helping teams, and entire organisations, work smarter, move faster, and build better systems. He’s led transformations across government, telecom, and finance, including HMRC, the Home Office, and O2, where his work contributed to national award wins.

Plamen blends hands-on delivery with coaching, product thinking, and systems design. His approach draws from Kanban, Lean, Team Topologies, and XP, not just in theory, but in the messy real world of multidisciplinary teams, legacy systems, and hard deadlines.

Plamen is a certified Lean Stack Coach, Professional Kanban Practitioner, and long-time mentor and judge for MassChallenge, where he supports founders building the next wave of impact-driven businesses. He writes for modern software leaders who care not just about shipping features, but about building healthy, high-performing teams that can sustain delivery over the long term.