The 5 types of debt you face in product management (and how to deal with them)

Morning product peeps! I had a monster sleep-in last Sunday—the kind that throws your whole day off in the best possible way. It made me think about debt, specifically sleep debt, and how easy it is to let things pile up without realizing it. So, from now on, I’m giving myself (and you!) a bit of extra breathing room by sending this newsletter out a little later in the day. After all, a little space can make all the difference. Now, let’s talk about the kinds of debt we deal with in product management—and how to keep them from snowballing.

Debt. You can't avoid it. Not in life, and definitely not in product management. No matter how hard you try, there’s always something you’ll trade off—time, scope, quality—to get things moving faster or push something out the door. The key isn’t in avoiding debt altogether, but in knowing how to manage it before it gets out of control.

Here are five types of debt that product teams face and, more importantly, how to manage them before they become a problem.

1. Tech Debt

What it is:

Tech debt is the kind we all know and love (or love to hate). It’s the bugs, workarounds, and messy code we accumulate in the race to ship something faster. Sometimes, this debt is intentional—because shipping something now is more important than building the “perfect” thing later. But often, it’s unintentional, sneaking in when teams don’t have time to align properly.

How to avoid it:

First, embrace the fact that some tech debt is healthy. The trick is to be intentional about it. Keep a log of the debt you’re taking on, and make sure everyone understands the why behind it. That way, you’re not just accumulating skeletons in the closet—you’ve got a plan for them.

How to get out of it:

Create space in your roadmap to pay it down. Maybe it’s a dedicated sprint for refactoring or just chipping away at it regularly, but don’t let it rot. When tech debt festers, it slows down your team and breaks the product in ways that hurt the user experience (and your sanity).

2. Design Debt

What it is:

Design debt is more subtle but just as harmful. It’s when the product’s design no longer fits user needs or when inconsistent patterns start creeping into your UI. It’s not always about things being broken, but more about how design decisions made to ship quickly can start adding friction down the line.

How to avoid it:

Regular usability testing. Set benchmarks for how well users can complete key tasks, and watch for when the cracks start showing. If you spot them early, you can patch things up before they start frustrating your users.

How to get out of it:

Run a design debt audit. Measure how users interact with your product and prioritize the worst offenders. Focus on what’s going to have the biggest impact on usability, and put a design system in place to prevent future debt from stacking up. This way, your team won’t be reinventing the wheel with every new feature.

3. Process Debt

What it is:

Process debt is what happens when your internal workflows and systems start to slow you down. Maybe your team’s spending more time chasing down information than building features, or your support team is constantly overwhelmed because of a clunky process that was never fixed. This is debt that creeps in when the way you work doesn’t scale with your growing product and team.

How to avoid it:

Be ruthless about simplifying and automating processes. Ask yourself, “Does this still make sense?” If the answer is no, it’s time to fix it. If there’s a manual workaround, you’re probably accumulating process debt.

How to get out of it:

Start by finding the biggest bottlenecks. Where are things getting stuck? Where are manual tasks slowing down progress? Once you’ve identified those, focus on automating or streamlining them. A simple fix can often save a ton of time and pain later.

4. Admin Debt

What it is:

This one’s sneaky. Admin debt is all the little tasks that aren’t directly related to building products but still need to get done—like organizing files, managing your inbox, or keeping your tools updated. It’s the invisible weight that drags down your productivity when you don’t take time to clear the clutter.

How to avoid it:

Set aside regular time for admin tasks. It sounds boring, but trust me—blocking out an hour a week to get to inbox zero or tidy up your workspace makes a world of difference. And where you can, automate the mundane stuff.

How to get out of it:

If you’re already drowning in admin debt, don’t let it overwhelm you. Block off a chunk of time, tackle it head-on, and put systems in place so it doesn’t pile up again. Small tweaks, like automations or filters, can keep you from spiraling back into admin chaos.

5. Culture Debt

What it is:

Culture debt happens when the way your teams work together starts to fall apart. Maybe communication breaks down, or teams start working in silos, each optimizing for their own goals rather than the company’s broader mission. It’s the “soft” debt that creeps in when your culture isn’t actively maintained.

How to avoid it:

Transparency and trust. Encourage open communication across teams and ensure everyone understands the bigger picture. Regularly align on goals so that everyone knows what the company is working toward, not just their individual KPIs. And don’t forget psychological safety—teams need to feel safe calling out when things are going wrong.

How to get out of it:

Start by having honest conversations about where things are breaking down. Build more cross-team collaboration and give people the freedom to speak up when they see issues. A lot of culture debt comes from misaligned incentives, so getting everyone on the same page can solve a lot of problems before they become full-blown crises.

We all accumulate debt—it’s part of building products and running businesses. But letting debt stack up without acknowledging it? That’s when it becomes dangerous. Whether it’s tech, design, process, admin, or culture debt, the key is to manage it actively and make trade-offs consciously. Recognize that debt isn’t inherently bad—it’s just a tool that needs to be managed before it manages you.

So, what kinds of debt are you dealing with? Let’s talk about how to tackle it head-on before it gets out of hand.