Hello!
My apologies for a brief quasi-commercial interruption about Technical Debt.
Over the course of my career, Technical Debt and I have become old frenemies.
I learned how to deal with it through painful experience, consistent experimentation, the collaboration of like-minded teammates, and a lot of patience.
The resulting methodology was validated by a number of platform and product launches and the occasional big exit.
If we've had the pleasure of working together with know my game: Find the Constraint.
I've used it to enable teams to address material technical debt at several organizations, and created meaningful technical leverage along the way.
While few things give me more satisfaction than coaching my team in the ways of Find the Constraint, I've found too many people put in the position of trying to solve large-scale technical debt without a well-articulated playbook.
Surprisingly, given the vast number of organizations and teams affected by technical debt, I couldn't find anything satisfying after a search through the (Lazy) Web.
So I'm going to try an experiment.
The idea is to create a cohort-based course on finding pathways from technical debt and creating technical leverage.
It'll feature a combination of live lectures, community discussions, and a set of artifacts and templates which product managers, engineering managers and technical leaders can apply to their own unique technical debt situation. In other words: a Technical Debt Playbook.
Initially I didn't plan to charge, but some friends who have done similar things suggested that engagement benefits from having some skin in the game. The initial beta version of the course will cost somewhere around $750, representing a significant discount over the final price.
It'll start small, then we'll get feedback, iterate, and make it better.
If you're interested in being a beta tester, which carries absolutely ZERO obligation, go here: https://radixtypeform.typeform.com/to/YFnuz2wD
If not, stay tuned for the next edition of Translation Layer, it'll be along presently. Thanks!
Yours in translation,
j.