The tech debt elephant: A product perspective

Overview\nAs a product manager, balancing technical debt with feature work is essential for long-term product success. This article explains what technical debt is, why it inevitably accumulates, and how to prioritize architectural improvements alongside user-facing work.\n\nKey Takeaways\n- Technical debt includes outdated tech, poor code quality, and inadequate infrastructure.\n- Unchecked debt slows development, raises maintenance costs, and harms reliability.\n- Prioritising debt reduction should be balanced against delivering user value.\n- Use product outcomes and roadmap goals to decide when to invest in architectural work.\n\nWho Would Benefit\n- Product managers needing guidance on tech debt trade-offs.\n- Engineering leaders seeking alignment with product priorities.\n- Technical leads responsible for maintaining code health.\n- Teams aiming to improve delivery speed and product reliability.\n\nFrameworks and Methodologies\n- No specific framework mentioned; the article encourages integrating debt assessment into product road-mapping processes.