Why Most Technical Debt Cleanup Efforts Fail (And How to Fix Them)
Not all technical debt is equal. 20% of it causes 80% of slowdowns—yet most teams clean up the wrong parts. Here’s how to focus on the debt that truly matters.
Hey System Thinker,
When teams tackle technical debt, they usually follow the classic 80/20 rule—spending 80% of their time on 20% of the impact.
But what if I told you that most of your cleanup efforts are focused on the wrong parts of your system?
Here’s what we’ll explore:
Why technical debt follows power law distributions
How to identify the vital 20% that truly slows you down
How to reallocate efforts for maximum impact
Let’s dive in.
The Power Law of Technical Debt
Most codebases have a secret: technical debt isn’t evenly distributed.
Research shows that 20% of technical debt accounts for 80% of development slowdowns, bug reports, and system failures.
Here’s the kicker: the worst technical debt isn’t where you think it is. It’s not just in the obviously messy code that everyone complains about. It’s in the hidden architectural bottlenecks that quietly make everything harder.
Finding Your Vital 20%
To identify high-impact technical debt, you need to think in systems, not symptoms.
Instead of focusing on the ugliest code, track where developers spend the most time struggling. The biggest problems aren’t always the most visible—they’re the parts of your system that cause constant friction, force excessive context-switching, or make simple changes painful.
These are the real power law hotspots—the areas that developers avoid touching because they know it will be a nightmare.
Strategic Debt Reduction
Once you’ve found the vital 20%, resist the urge to fix everything.
Instead, take a targeted approach:
Create a dedicated task force focused solely on high-impact areas.
Let "harmless" debt remain in isolated parts of the codebase that don’t affect velocity.
Measure progress by tracking improvements in developer experience, not just code cleanliness.
This precision cleanup strategy delivers exponentially better results by acknowledging the power law reality of technical debt.
Conclusion
Technical debt isn’t democratic—some parts of it matter exponentially more than others.
By understanding this, teams can move away from ineffective broad cleanups and instead focus on targeted interventions that deliver massive returns.
Think about your system: Where are the 20% of debt instances that cause 80% of your team’s pain?
And what would happen if you focused all your cleanup efforts there?
Cheers,
Thiago V Ricieri
System Thinker @ Systematic Success
Engineering Manager, Apps @ Pluto TV / Paramount Global
Founder @ Ghost Ship & Co.
Digital Nomad @ Threads, X.com, Instagram, LinkedIn, GitHub, Website
PS… Learn 5 essential system thinking principles to help engineers manage complexity, anticipate emergent behaviors, and build scalable software. Discover how to avoid bottlenecks, reinforce feedback loops, and make better decisions.