Managing technical debt is always a trade off. The company I work at is failing at it. We:
* Bootstrapped a startup, left ourselves tons of tech debt
* Glommed as many features onto the core product as possible to meet enterprise needs
* Got a ton of MRR and are the leader in our corner of the industry
* Never pivoted to being a mature company, never paid off the debt. Now the bugs are pretty unmanageable and the software is too complex. It’s hard enough keeping the service afloat, let alone adding new features.
* About 50% of our customers try the software and churn out within six months. Our client industry is only so big, and we’re actively pissing off a huge chunk of it.
* Now we have a PR problem. Industry people leave us bad Google reviews, which our company owners can usually get deleted. They also warn people in industry Facebook groups not to try our product.
If you don’t pay off tech debt eventually, it will catch up with you in lost growth.
About 50% of our customers try the software and churn out within six months. Our client industry is only so big, and we’re actively pissing off a huge chunk of it.
What that means is that you haven't yet found your product market fit. Better not scale up or you will burn.
* Bootstrapped a startup, left ourselves tons of tech debt
* Glommed as many features onto the core product as possible to meet enterprise needs
* Got a ton of MRR and are the leader in our corner of the industry
* Never pivoted to being a mature company, never paid off the debt. Now the bugs are pretty unmanageable and the software is too complex. It’s hard enough keeping the service afloat, let alone adding new features.
* About 50% of our customers try the software and churn out within six months. Our client industry is only so big, and we’re actively pissing off a huge chunk of it.
* Now we have a PR problem. Industry people leave us bad Google reviews, which our company owners can usually get deleted. They also warn people in industry Facebook groups not to try our product.
If you don’t pay off tech debt eventually, it will catch up with you in lost growth.