Don't Go Into Tech Debt

January 29, 2024

Happy Monday everyone! There is lots going on in the Cleveland Product scene, so let’s get to it!

Article of the Week

We Product people love to solve problems for our customers by launching new features. But not everything in our backlog is a shiny, new feature that our customers will use. Sometimes we have to make compromises while building new features, often incurring technical debt which at some point, like a mortgage or business loan, needs to be paid off.

Prioritizing technical debt is a challenge for many Product Managers, engineering teams, and even stakeholders. I recently read this article by Product Plan that gives some pointers on how best to do exactly that. My three favorite takeaways:

  1. Be an organizational advocate for maintenance - The Product Managers that work best with their engineering teams are advocates for technical work, even if they fully don’t understand the work involved. Advocate for addressing technical debt often - your engineering team, your organization, and your customers will thank you.

  2. Encourage your development team to track technical debt in the same place they track other development items - Two simple words: one backlog. Having everything in one backlog adds transparency to the prioritization process, and all items - shiny new features and lingering technical debt - can be discussed at the same time.

  3. Plan reasonable workloads for sprints - This seems kind of obvious, but trying to stuff too much work into a sprint will force engineering teams to make compromises, sometimes unnecessarily so. Partnering with your engineering team to accurately plan your sprints will allow the team to create the best solution possible while limiting the amount of technical debt incurred.

Technical debt is natural in software development, but there are things you can do as a Product Manager to lessen the impact. Read the full article to learn more!

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About the Author

My name is Shawn Leitner. I started the Cleveland Product networking group in 2017, which helps to connect Product professionals around Cleveland, providing them with a forum to network, learn, and share stories. For my day job, I'm a Product Consultant & Coach for Pathfinder Product and help clients implement strong Product practices so they can create products that their teams love building and their customers love using. Connect with me on LinkedIn or feel free to attend one of my events either virtually or in-person. Always up for meeting for a cup of coffee also!