Technical debt gets a bad reputation, but it's often the right choice. The key is taking it on deliberately, with clear understanding of the interest payments and a plan for eventual payoff.
Debt makes sense when speed to market matters more than long-term maintainability—which is often true in early-stage products. The code you ship teaches you things the code you plan never can.
Debt becomes problematic when it's invisible or unmeasured. The most damaging technical debt is the kind teams don't acknowledge, where shortcuts compound without anyone tracking the accumulating interest.
We recommend maintaining a technical debt register—a simple list of known shortcuts, their likely costs, and triggers for addressing them. This transforms debt from a lurking problem into a managed risk.