Main Takeaways: -How product debt accumulates -Types of product debt, including technical and design debt and how they differ -How to incorporate product debt into strategy -How product debt translates into increased value

1. www.productschool.com
Use Product Debt to Maximize Business Value
by Devbridge Directors

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5. Renata McCurley
Director, Product Management
Vytautas Paulauskas
Director, Engineering Practices
Managing debt to
maximize value

6. How debt happens
Get organized
Get smart
Get results
Agenda
Manage debt,
maximize value.

7. Prototype
Prod Release
Legacy Use Case
Global Expansion
Scale Up
Concurrency
Integration with
New Market Tool
DEBT
Technical debt Product debt
Feature bloat Scope creep
Low value features

8. Prototype
Prod Release
Legacy Use Case
Global Expansion
Scale Up
Concurrency
Integration with
New Market Tool
DEBT

10. Business
Decisions
Throughout
Development
Technology
Shifts
Market
Shifts

11. Business
Decisions
Throughout
Development
Technology
Shifts
Market
Shifts

12. Get organized

13. Capture and evaluate all debt

14. Debt categories:
Where does your debt fall?
UNPROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL
ACCIDENTAL
INTENTIONAL
Good
debt
Mistakes and
surprises
happen
Experience
gap
Bad
debt

15. Debt categories:
Where does your debt fall?
UNPROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL
ACCIDENTAL
INTENTIONAL
Good
debt
Mistakes and
surprises
happen
Experience
gap
Bad
debt

16. Log it – all of it

19. Get smart

20. Mitigate experience gaps
and mistakes

21. Delivery retrospectives

22. Dedicate 10-15%* of
every sprint to debt
*This amount varies throughout the lifecycle
of a product

23. Convert bad debt into good
debt with impact analysis

24. How NOT to demonstrate impact
“We need to use Splunk for logging because everyone uses Splunk”

25. Our objective of {measurable goal} can be
improved by {specific actionable task}. If we
don't address this, we will immediately feel the
pain through {quantifiable impact}. In the
future, we anticipate {long term implications}.

27. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2019 1H 2019 2H 2020 1H 2020 2H 2021 1H
Not Tracked Tracked but not addressed Tracked and addressed
Projects Tracking Debt

28. Conversion through
impact analysis and
strategic choices
UNPROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL
ACCIDENTAL
INTENTIONAL
Good
debt
Mistakes and
surprises
happen
Experience
gap
Bad
debt

29. Conversion through
impact analysis and
strategic choices
UNPROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL
ACCIDENTAL
INTENTIONAL
Good
debt

32. Get results
Real examples from Devbridge

33. • Devbridge team began work on an existing
client product with considerable debt
• Sequenced technical module work according
to business priority
• Reduced delays on new feature development
from 12 months to 3 months
• New revenue streams available as each
feature area was “unlocked” on the back-end
Strategic approach for services refactoring
overhaul
De-risking with up-front investment
for complex features

34. • Goal: determine whether an existing tool will
generate enough demand in a new market
• Implemented a representative subset of
functions for an industry event
• Client was able to gather actual user intel to
decide whether to continue with the current
path or pivot to invest in other features
Releasing a portion of features to test a new market
Choosing to incur good debt as an
early-to-market strategy

35. • Mobile apps (iOS and Android) which
duplicated web features and required
significant maintenance
• Team recommended a shift to Progressive
Web App based on industry trends
• Benefits: up to 75% reduction in ongoing
maintenance, increased speed to market
Spinning an industry shift to PWA to a
client’s advantage
Minimizing or capitalizing on impact
of technology shifts

36. • Tendency to postpone long-term decisions leads
to increased total cost of ownership
• Capture intentions and implications of future
vision early
• Include debt work in each release to future proof
your product, reduce refactoring, and prevent
later architectural blockers
• Example: Data model planning for globalization
accounting for language selection, storing
multiple translations, date formats
Expansion and scalability
Spreading costs of scalability and
technical maturity across multiple releases

37. Get organized
Get smart
Get results

38. Thank you.
Renata McCurley
Director, Product Management
https://www.linkedin.com/in/renata-mccurley/
Vytautas Paulauskas
Director, Engineering Practices
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vytpau/

39. www.productschool.com
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