The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Good tech debt (Interview)

Feb 6, 2020

Jon Thornton, Engineering Manager at Squarespace and author of a popular blog post on "3 Kinds of Good Tech Debt," dives into the nuances of technical debt. He explains how good tech debt, when leveraged correctly, can drive innovation and product development. Jon likens tech debt to financial debt, highlighting the need for strategic, intentional decision-making. He shares real-world analogies, like homeownership, to illustrate the balance between fast feature releases and sustainable code quality, emphasizing the importance of communication and prioritization in managing these challenges.

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INSIGHT

Good Tech Debt

"Good tech debt" is about intentionally not fixing unimportant things now.
This allows developers to focus on perfecting what truly matters.

ANECDOTE

Mortgage Analogy

Jon Thornton compares tech debt to financial debt, like a mortgage.
A mortgage is acceptable debt because it provides immediate value.

ANECDOTE

Squarespace Email Prototype

At Squarespace, Jon Thornton's team used "good tech debt" by building a simple email sending tool.
This allowed them to test core features quickly before investing in a robust email infrastructure.

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Jon Thornton (Engineering Manager at Squarespace) joined the show to talk about tech debt by way of his post to the Squarespace engineering blog titled “3 Kinds of Good Tech Debt”. We talked through the concept of “good tech debt,” how to leverage it, how to manage it, who’s in charge of it, how it’s similar to ways we leverage financial debt, and how Squarespace uses tech debt to drive product development.

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Featuring:

Jon Thornton – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

3 Kinds of Good Tech Debt ~> discuss

“Tech debt” is a dirty word in the software engineering world. It’s often said with an air of regret; a past mistake that will eventually need to be atoned for with refactoring.

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