Technical Debt Isn’t Just an Engineering Problem
Let’s get one thing straight: technical debt isn’t the secret playground of engineers. It doesn’t quietly sit in the background while teams merrily ship features. It’s a ticking time bomb, and when it goes off, the blast radius impacts everyone; Product Managers, stakeholders, users, and yes, even the engineers who warned about it in the first place.
Yet, technical debt is often brushed aside as “engineering problem,” something to be dealt with later when there’s “time”. Spoiler alert: there’s never time. And by the time you do get around to addressing it, the costs have ballooned, timelines have slipped, and user trust has eroded.
So let’s talk about why technical debt is everyone’s problem and, more importantly, how we can tackle it together.
What Is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is like cutting corners to meet a deadline. It’s the code you know isn’t optimal but works for now. It’s the shortcuts, the hacks, the “we’ll refactor this later”, decisions that pile up over time. But just like financial debt, it accrues interest. The more you ignore it, the harder it becomes to move quickly and effectively.
Example:
Imagine you’re building a house. You decide to skip insulation to save time and money. The house looks fine, but when winter arrives, heating costs skyrocket. Fixing it later means tearing down walls; a much bigger (and costlier) problem than doing it right the first time.
In software, technical debt manifests as slower (future) development cycles, more bugs, and increased maintenance costs. The real kicker? It eventually blocks your ability to innovate and deliver value.
Why Should Everyone Care?
1. It Slows Down Feature Delivery
The same codebase that shipped your MVP quickly becomes a drag when debt piles up. Every new feature takes longer to implement because the foundation is shaky. Engineers spend more time untangling old decisions than building new solutions.
2. It Affects User Experience
Technical debt isn’t just an internal issue. Users notice when systems crash, when performance lags, or when features are half-baked because the underlying code is duct-taped together.
Example:
A team rushed to ship a feature for a major customer demo, skipping proper testing and ignoring warnings about scalability. The feature worked during the demo but crashed under real-world user load. The fallout? Lost revenue and a strained customer relationship.
3. It Increases Costs
Bugs caused by technical debt lead to rework, firefighting, and longer development cycles. These costs are rarely factored into project budgets, but they’re very real and they grow exponentially over time.
Addressing Technical Debt: A Team Sport
The good news? Addressing technical debt doesn’t have to be a blame game. It’s about collaboration, alignment, and shared responsibility.
1. Acknowledge It Openly
The first step is to admit that technical debt exists and affects everyone. Avoid framing it as an “engineering issue”. Instead, discuss it as a barrier to delivering business value.
2. Make It Visible
Use metrics to quantify technical debt and its impact. Highlight things like bug resolution time, developer productivity, and user feedback. When stakeholders see the data, it’s easier to prioritize debt alongside features.
Example Metrics:
Cycle Time: How long does it take to complete a task?
Error Rates: Bugs caused by rushed solutions.
Downtime: How often are users affected by system failures?
MTTR: How long does it take us to restore service?
Deployment Frequency: How often can we deploy? How painful is each deployment?
3. Prioritize It Like Any Other Work
Technical debt shouldn’t live in the shadows. Bring it into the backlog. Make it part of the conversation during refinements and planning.
4. Build It Into the Roadmap
Just like features, technical debt has a place on the roadmap. Use initiatives like “tech sprints” to get this going and then dedicate a percentage of each sprint to tackling it. Product Managers, this is where you shine; connect the debt to business outcomes, like faster delivery or improved user satisfaction.
5. Set the Right Culture
Leaders need to create an environment where engineers feel empowered to call out technical debt without fear of being labeled blockers. Teams should celebrate proactive maintenance, not just shiny new features.
Balancing Debt and Delivery
Here’s the tricky part: You can’t eliminate all technical debt, nor should you try. Some debt is necessary to move quickly, especially in the early stages of a project. The key is knowing when to take on debt and when to pay it off.
Example:
A startup rushes to release a feature critical for landing funding. They knowingly accrue debt but have a plan to address it in the next quarter. That’s smart debt. Compare this to a team that accrues debt without a strategy. This is where things spiral out of control.
Final Thoughts
Technical debt is everyone’s problem because it affects what we all care about: delivering value to users, staying competitive, and maintaining a healthy team culture. It’s not about pointing fingers; it’s about working together to build something sustainable.
So, the next time someone asks why we’re spending time “cleaning up code,” remind them: It’s not just cleanup. It’s an investment in your team’s ability to innovate, deliver, and thrive. Let’s stop treating technical debt like a dirty secret and start treating it like the strategic priority it is.
Very crisp take on the topic :)