What is your business debt? I don’t mean loans and cash. I mean as an analogy to technical debt. I suppose I mean operational debt, but I also mean customer experience debt because that’s where the impact is often visible.
In the fast moving world of agile software development, technical debt is considered something that unavoidably happens because the focus is on providing the highest priority feature that brings the most value to customers. Things that may make the product more robust get pushed down the backlog. And eventually have to be addressed.
But I digress…
The point is that eventually, you have to stop, take stock of what is going on, make decisions to update or abandon, and take the time to address things and make real change.
In your business do you know what you are NOT doing today because it’s more important than urgent? Do you know what your customers are tolerating about your product or engagement, because on balance they are getting what they need today? Have you future-proofed your product against changes you customers are facing in their own business? Are you delivering both a great experience as well as a great solution?
Most importantly, do you have plans in place to solve these issues before you start losing customers?