Tech Debt is piling up but leadership doesn't care

What would you do?

It’s Monday morning. You check Slack, and you have a LOT of messages.

"Production is down."
"This bug is affecting our biggest customer."
"Why is it taking so long to fix?"

Your team is on it, but every attempt to patch the issue breaks something else. The fix that should have taken an hour has turned into a whole day crisis.

You already know the cause… tech debt. That part of the system has been a mess for years, but fixing it was never a priority. Now, leadership is asking why this wasn't addressed sooner.

You’re thinking: “I brought it up. Many times. No one wanted to listen.”

But did you actually?

Outline

🔒 Tech Debt vs. Tech Risk
🔒 Your options (and how to decide which one to go for)
🔒 How you should manage Tech Debt (and what to communicate with leadership)
🔒 5 Signs your tech debt is getting out of control
🔒 Final thoughts
🔒 Some useful links from me

---

If you enjoy posts like this, consider supporting my work and subscribing to this newsletter.

As a free subscriber, you get:

• ✉️ 1 post per week

• 🧑‍🎓 Access to the Engineering Manager Masterclass

As a paid subscriber, you get:

• 🔒 50 Engineering Manager templates and playbooks (worth $79)

• 🔒 A weekly "What would you do?" scenario & breakdown like this one from real challenges EMs face

• 🔒 The complete archive