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Managing technical debt

Ward Cunningham, the developer who coined the phrase Technical Debt, once said, “Some problems with code are like financial debt. It’s OK to borrow against the future as long as you pay it off.” As a product person, it's helpful to understand what technical debt is, what causes it, and what happens if you don’t address it. Because your decisions often play a critical role in creating and removing technical debt from your product.

Meanwhile, in product news, there’s a dust-up in the WordPress community; Airtable is getting into the product management tooling space for real, and a couple of tools to help you build APIs and keep track of information on Slack.

6 Ways Product Managers Can Help Manage Technical Debt. Technical debt is not always a bad thing, and it’s certainly not the result of “lazy” developers “taking shortcuts.” Often, technical debt can be a great way to get an MVP out the door and beat competitors to market. Maybe you don’t implement the most elegant solution today, but you start generating revenue sooner and can carve out time to address and rework those issues in the future. The folks at ProductPlan shared some tips to manage technical debt so that you avoid taking on unnecessary debt and negotiate existing debt without slowing things down or stalling innovation.

How to deal with technical debt. Technical Debt is everything that stops you from quickly developing software, and often arises when you try to develop software too quickly. The reality is your team will introduce technical debt into your product. Milan Milanović explains how to formulate a strategy to reduce the new debt you create while allowing your team to reduce existing debt.

The definitive guide to technical debt. If there’s one topic that everyone involved with building software products has lived through, it’s probably dealing with technical debt. With that in mind, Luca Rossi published a full, thorough guide on how to handle technical debt: how to prevent it, measure it, and ultimately pay it back.

Technical Debt Management Strategies. Managing technical debt is a critical aspect of software development. The folks at Artkai learned from experience that technical debt is an inevitable part of the development process. Therefore, it is essential to manage it effectively to ensure that it does not impede the development of high-quality software products. Here are various technical debt management strategies that can help you handle your technical debt efficiently and effectively.

Stop technical debt from slowing your product down. What exactly is technical debt? In this ProductTank San Francisco talk, Asa Schachar, Engineering Manager at Optimizely, explains exactly what technical debt is and how to stop it from slowing down the product development process. Asa’s key points include What technical debt is, why it’s important, and how to deal with it.

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AI and Technical Debt

As product leaders, we're all feeling the pressure to integrate AI into our products. The promise is incredible - enhanced user experiences, automated workflows, and the potential for breakthrough innovations. But there's a critical conversation we need to have about the hidden costs, specifically around technical debt.

Here's what's keeping me up at night: Forrester predicts that 75% of technology leaders expect their technical debt to increase by 2026, largely driven by rapid AI adoption. This isn't just another tech trend - it's a fundamental shift in how we build and maintain our products.

The challenge is multifaceted. We're moving fast to ship AI features, often before we fully understand their long-term implications. Teams are bolting AI capabilities onto existing systems without properly considering the architectural implications, creating a tangled web of dependencies. Plus, AI systems require clean, well-structured data, leading many organizations to accumulate "data debt" alongside their technical debt.

The good news is that the industry is responding. AIOps platforms are emerging as a potential solution, with adoption expected to triple by 2025. These platforms can help manage complexity and automate incident remediation, but they're not a silver bullet. While AI can help manage technical debt, it can also create it.

The path forward requires a balanced approach. Product leaders need to invest in robust architecture and data strategies upfront while maintaining clear guidelines for AI integration. Technical debt isn't always bad - it's the price we pay for speed and learning. The key is being intentional about when we take it on and having a clear plan for managing it. The organizations that will thrive in the AI era won't be those that move the fastest but those that build sustainable foundations while maintaining their ability to innovate.

Hopefully, that’s you!

Resources and news curated by Kent J. McDonald.