Transitioning into a managerial role often brings an unexpected challenge: managing technical debt. While engineers understand the dangers of accumulating code shortcuts and quick fixes, new leaders frequently find themselves in a tough spotpressured to ship features quickly while also keeping the codebase sustainable.

Whats tricky is that prioritizing technical debt can feel like a losing battle. If you push too hard, stakeholders label you the “no” manager, stalling progress and frustrating product teams. If you let it slide, the mounting debt quietly erodes productivity and software quality over time. So how can you strike the right balance?

Understanding Technical Debt Through a Business Lens

The first step is reframing technical debt as a business concern, not just a geeky coding issue. Technical debt impacts speed, reliability, and customer satisfactionkey metrics non-technical leaders care about.

• Quantify the impact: Use measurable effects like increased bug frequency, longer release cycles, or slowed onboarding to highlight costs.
• Translate debt into risk: Illustrate how ignoring debt increases the chance of outages or costly rewrites.
• Frame debt repayments as investments: Make it clear that paying down debt accelerates future feature delivery.

When you present technical debt with this language, stakeholders are more likely to see it as a priority rather than an obstacle.

Prioritizing Tech Debt Within Your Roadmap

Not all debt needs immediate attention. Instead of trying to eradicate all issues at once, you can create a system to prioritize what matters most.

• Assess impact vs. effort: High-impact, low-effort fixes should be tackled early.
• Identify debt blockers: Focus on debt that prevents new features or causes frequent bugs.
• Allocate capacity consistently: Reserve regular time slots (e.g., 10-20% of sprint capacity) to chip away at debt items.

This approach allows your team to keep pushing features while gradually improving code health, avoiding major disruptions to velocity.

Making Technical Debt Visible and Transparent

One of the biggest challenges is that debt is invisible to many stakeholders. Heres how to bring it into the open:

• Create a tech debt register: Maintain a documented list of debt items, their impact, and status.
• Visualize debt alongside feature work: Add tech debt tasks to your planning tools so they are part of the ongoing conversation.
• Report metrics regularly: Share updates on bug trends, code complexity, or technical improvements in stakeholder meetings.

Transparency builds trust and avoids surprises when debt-related work slows feature releases.

Balancing Tech Debt Payments with Shipping New Features

Finding the sweet spot between addressing debt and delivering new capabilities is a delicate dance.

• Negotiate with product stakeholders: Help them understand that some shipping delays lead to long-term faster delivery.
• Opt for incremental refactoring: Encourage the team to improve code as part of feature work whenever possible.
• Use pilot projects: Demonstrate value through smaller debt-reduction initiatives that show clear benefits.

Being flexible and adaptable helps you avoid rigid patterns that alienate business partners.

Avoiding the No Manager Trap

Many new managers fall into the trap of becoming the debt policesaying no to most requests, harming relationships, and losing influence.

• Practice empathy: Understand the pressure business teams face for rapid delivery.
• Collaborate on solutions: Involve stakeholders in setting realistic timelines that include debt repayments.
• Be clear but diplomatic: Explain risks without sounding like a blocker, positioning yourself as a partner in success.

When you frame debt management as a shared goal, you can maintain your credibility and foster a collaborative environment.

Empowering Your Team to Champion Technical Debt

Finally, engage your engineering team in managing debt proactively.

• Encourage ownership: Let engineers identify and prioritize debt in their areas.
• Set coding standards: Create guidelines that minimize new debt introduction.
• Celebrate wins: Recognize efforts when debt is reduced or code quality improves.

With the team aligned, technical debt becomes a collective responsibility rather than a managers burden alone.

Managing technical debt as a new engineering leader isnt easy, but with careful prioritization, effective communication, and collaborative mindset, you can keep your roadmap moving while safeguarding your codebase for the long haul.