Slides Felix Sargent recently used in his discussion w/ mentees of The Product Mentor. Synopsis: Part of Being a Product Manager is knowing how to make trade offs between getting it done, and getting it done right. Technical Debt, vs Delivery. What's the right balance? Tune in to find out. The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…Better Decisions. Better Products. Better Product People. Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community. http://TheProductMentor.com

1. Managing Technical Debt
Felix Sargent

2. It’s not just you
We all suffer from technical debt.

5. What is technical
debt?

7. Bugs … Bugs
Everywhere
Cause: Management pushing for features and functionality with high pressure,
low use of "best practices" such as code review, architectural review, ordered
backlog

9. How did we get here?
- Management pushing for features and functionality
- No code or architectural review
- Little Structure
- Firefighting

10. We actually need
to fix this...

12. Killing bugs is not
the answer

14. How do we fix this?
● Strongly defined goal

15. Strongly Defined Goal
● Refactor Permissions code to support new Permissions Model
● Eliminate HTTP 500 type errors caused by Flux Capacitor Instability
● Reduce time to load page by at least 20%. From 2 seconds >= 1.6 seconds.
● Break PHP app into services to separate concerns

16. How do we fix this?
● Strongly defined goal
● Healthy development practices

17. Healthy Process
● Code Reviews
● Healthy, equitable discussions
● Reliable automated software Tests

18. How do we fix this?
● Strongly defined goal
● Healthy development practices
● Time

19. Time
● Make the case to management
● Output will decrease for a period of time
● But we will be able to deliver more later

20. Strongly Weakly Defined Goal
● Refactor Permissions code to support new Permissions Model
● Eliminate HTTP 500 type errors caused by Flux Capacitor Instability
● Reduce time to load page by at least 20%. From 2 seconds >= 1.6 seconds.
● Break PHP app into services to separate concerns
● Remove and refactor code to improve readability
^^ Kidding - don’t do this.

21. Nothing gets
released
Cause: Scope of technical fix was not properly defined, or attached to customer
functionality

22. Technical Debt is
Inevitable

24. It’s OK to accrue
technical debt

25. Exploration

26. One Offs

27. Technical Debt is
Philosophical
Problem

28. Wabi-Sabi

30. Kintsugi

32. Thank you!