In This Blog
- What Is Technical Debt?
- How Tech Debt Affects Your Team
- How to Start Tackling Tech Debt
- Final Thoughts
- FAQ
When your internal systems slow things down, your team feels it. Workflows become bloated. Tools don’t connect the way they should. And the software you rely on starts acting more like a blocker than a helper.
The result? Frustration, slower output, and a team that’s too distracted by workarounds to perform efficiently.
In many cases, the underlying issue is technical debt: accumulated shortcuts, outdated decisions, and unfinished fixes that quietly pile up over time. Left unchecked, tech debt hurts performance and chips away at morale.
I’m Jeff Ellsworth, Technical Product Owner at Emergent Software. In this post, I’ll break down how tech debt builds, how it affects your employees day-to-day, and what leaders can do to start fixing it.
First Off, What Is Tech Debt?
Technical debt is the cost of putting off the right solution in favor of the fast one. It’s what builds up when teams make short-term choices to hit a deadline, skip documentation, delay maintenance, or avoid reworking something that isn’t quite right. Over time, those decisions create friction: messy code, patchy integrations, unnecessary manual work, or tools that no longer fit the way your team operates.
People often compare it to a company’s financial debt; like a loan balance you’re carrying. But unlike money (debt that most teams don't see), tech debt is something your people face and feel every day. It shows up as slow systems, bugs popping up unexpectedly, and clunky workarounds. It drains your team’s energy in a way that’s hard to put numbers on, but impossible to ignore.
Where Does Tech Debt Come From?
Tech debt isn’t created overnight. It usually builds up slowly. Here are some common scenarios where tech debt can arise:
- Startups and fast-growing companies: Speed is king. Teams take shortcuts to get products out fast, planning to clean up later. But that cleanup often gets pushed aside as new priorities take over.
- Older companies with legacy systems: These businesses depend on older software and tools that feel risky to touch. Over time, these systems get fragile and complicated.
- High-pressure and tight resources: When deadlines or budgets tighten, teams skip things like testing or refactoring just to get things done on time.
- Poor documentation and communication: If no one’s writing things down or explaining decisions, it gets confusing as new people come in or projects change.
One thing I want to stress: tech debt isn’t the fault of the people doing the work. Usually, it’s the result of leadership pushing to meet deadlines or save money. The folks on the ground have to deal with the mess, but the choices that create debt often come from the top.
How Tech Debt Affects Your Team
Tech debt changes how your team feels about their work. For example, developers tend to avoid the parts of the code they know are fragile because touching those areas risks introducing bugs or crashes. That slows down new features and stifles creativity.
Support teams often find themselves creating manual fixes or unofficial tools just to get by. This adds complexity and makes their jobs more frustrating than they should be.
And product managers? When their ideas and requests repeatedly get put on the back burner, they can lose faith that anything will change. That makes it harder to push for improvements, which in turn hurts your product’s growth.
Over time, this creates a culture where people stop speaking up because they think nothing will get done. That kind of disengagement spreads fast. You’ll see more turnover, slower innovation, and a general sense that the team is just treading water.
Your people want to do great work. But when the tools and systems are working against them, it’s tough to stay motivated. That’s what ultimately wears down employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Signs That Tech Debt Is a Problem in Your Organization
- “It’s just faster to do this manually.” When your team regularly picks manual workarounds, that’s a big red flag.
- “We’ve been asking for this fix forever.” Longstanding bugs or requests that never get addressed show priorities are off.
- A bunch of unofficial “shadow” systems popping up.
- Higher turnover or unhappy technical staff.
One way to catch these issues early is by running surveys asking your team about the tools and processes they use every day. People often have insights they don’t share unless you ask.
Why Tech Debt Gets Ignored
Even though tech debt slows things down, it can be tough to get the green light to fix it. Here’s why:
- There’s usually no separate budget for fixing old problems. Funding goes to new features.
- Teams are under pressure to deliver new stuff fast, so going back to fix old shortcuts feels like a distraction.
- The impact of tech debt is hard to measure. Unlike new features, it doesn’t have clear numbers showing its value.
- Everyone is hired to execute the current roadmap, not to clean up past mistakes. But ignoring tech debt only makes it worse, slowing development and draining morale over time.
How to Start Tackling Tech Debt
Tackling tech debt might sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be a massive project right off the bat. Instead, try taking small, steady steps.
- Start by listening: Your team knows the pain points better than anyone else. Look to your engineers, support staff, ops; they’re on the front lines. Ask them what slows them down or causes headaches.
- Make the debt visible: Add those issues to your project management system or backlog so they don’t get forgotten. If you can, try to estimate what fixing those issues might save you in time or reduced risk. Even rough numbers can help make the case.
- Fix bit by bit: Not every problem needs a big overhaul. Some things can be patched gradually.
- Bring in outside help: If your team is already maxed out, don’t hesitate to bring in external engineering partners to tackle foundational problems while your team stays focused on current goals.
Even fixing one small pain point — like a bug that’s been annoying people for months or streamlining a cumbersome workflow — can boost morale and remind everyone that progress is possible.
Final Thoughts
Tech debt is more than just a technical snag. It’s a people problem. When your internal systems make it harder for your team to do good work, morale takes a hit. Engagement drops. And that hurts your business, plain and simple.
Cleaning up and modernizing your systems is an investment in your team’s happiness and your company’s future. The sooner you start, the better off everyone will be.
Small changes can make a big difference. Once your team sees things getting better, it creates momentum that helps everything else fall into place. So don’t wait until tech debt becomes a crisis. Start chipping away now, and you’ll thank yourself later.
If you need help tackling your technical debt, reach out to us at Emergent Software!
FAQ
Is all tech debt bad?
No. Some technical debt is a normal part of moving fast. When you’re racing to get a product out or test an idea, you might make trade-offs on purpose to save time. That’s fine as long as you keep track of it and come back to fix things later.
The problem is when debt builds up unnoticed or unplanned — when shortcuts aren’t documented and forgotten over time. That’s when it starts hurting productivity and causing frustration. The key is to treat tech debt like any other work item: recognize it, prioritize it, and allocate time to fix it before it causes bigger problems.
How can I tell if tech debt is hurting employee satisfaction?
You’ll probably hear about it in team conversations: complaints about how long tasks take, tools that don’t work, or processes that keep breaking. Turnover among engineers or support staff can also be a sign. Running surveys focused on internal tools helps reveal frustrations before they get worse. And watch out for “shadow IT” (when people build unofficial tools because official ones don’t meet their needs).
What if we don’t have time or resources to fix tech debt?
This is really common. Everyone’s focused on new features and hitting deadlines. That’s why bringing in outside help can be smart. A specialized partner, like Emergent Software, can assess your tech debt, prioritize fixes, and tackle foundational work without pulling your internal team off their current goals. Just be sure to keep communication clear so your team knows the goal is to support them, not replace them.
How do I convince leadership to prioritize tech debt?
Getting leadership on board with fixing tech debt can be tricky because it doesn’t show up in revenue reports or flashy KPIs. What helps is shifting the conversation to business impacts: slower delivery times, rising costs, and losing talented people.
Try to back this up with data if you can. How much time is lost dealing with bugs or manual processes? What does turnover cost in recruiting and training? Also, highlight risks like potential security holes that come with outdated systems.
Show leadership that you’re not just asking for vague cleanup but that you have a clear plan with priorities and measurable goals. If you can propose some quick wins — small fixes that deliver immediate benefits — that often gets people’s attention.
The goal is to get them to see tech debt as a strategic issue, not just a back-burner chore.
What mindset helps manage tech debt better?
The biggest shift is treating your internal tools and systems with the same respect as your customer-facing products. Too often, companies put all their energy into new features while ignoring the messy stuff behind the scenes.
It means valuing things like maintainability and usability, not just speed. It means making tech debt a regular part of sprint planning and retrospectives, not an afterthought.
It also means creating a culture where people feel safe bringing up problems without fear that their concerns will be ignored or dismissed.
Finally, leadership has to balance short-term deadlines with long-term health. Sometimes that means slowing down to build a better foundation so your team isn’t stuck constantly firefighting.
When a team commits to doing things right, not just fast, they build systems that last — and create a workplace where people want to stay and grow.
