How did you approach your role as PM, aware of the tech debt but also reporting to an unaware CEO? Power through with new features at half the speed, or try to convince the CEO to allow refactoring/maintenance?
Sorry for the delayed response (no notification on mobile).
For some reason my relationship with the ceo was viewed as trusting whereas their programming team was not. I was able to get the time required (in 9 out of 10 situations) by explaining in detail why it was required.
We actually had a complete rewrite in the pipeline - an architecture written by myself - that was on the table. But they shut down before that was possible.
I don’t regret taking the position despite the frustration and difficult inherent to what I had to tackle. I got a very closeup view on technical debt that has assisted me throughout my entire career.
