Technical Debt: Feature or Bug?

Technical debt gets a bad rap. But the truth is more nuanced.

What is Technical Debt?

Technical debt is the cost of choosing speed over perfection. It’s:

• Quick hacks instead of elegant solutions
• Copied code instead of shared utilities
• Features shipped without tests
• Architecture decisions made in a rush

When Debt Accelerates Growth

Validation Phase

You don’t know if your product will work. Carrying debt is the right choice:

• Build fast, learn what users actually want
• You’ll probably throw away 50% of your code anyway
• Clean code on the wrong problem is waste

Known Time Window

If you know you’ll refactor in 2 months, take on debt:

• Ship the feature users are asking for
• Get feedback with real usage
• Then rebuild with proper knowledge

When Debt Becomes Toxic

Passive Accumulation

The worst debt is the kind you ignore:

• It quietly slows down every feature
• Junior developers get confused
• Bugs multiply

Without Repayment Plan

Debt needs a plan. Ignoring it:

• Velocity drops by 20-30% per quarter
• New hires take weeks longer to be productive
• Production issues increase

The Balance

Good teams:

• Take on debt intentionally - with clear trade-offs
• Pay it back systematically - 20% of capacity to cleanup
• Monitor it - track time spent on bugs vs features
• Communicate it - founders understand the cost

The goal isn’t zero debt. It’s intentional debt with a repayment strategy.