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Product Talk · Free post · Execution, roadmaps & process · Metrics, data & experimentation

Why Ignoring Bugs Will Make Your Product Better

Teresa TorresNov 13, 2012
SourceProduct Talk
KindFree post
PublishedNov 13, 2012
Originalproducttalk.org ↗
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By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn

Teresa Torres argues that elaborate bug-management systems, with endless triage meetings and debates over priority and severity, waste product teams' time. She sorts bugs into three buckets: those that must interrupt work, those to schedule into the backlog, and those that can be ignored, which is most of them. Her test is a series of trade-off questions asked against current and next work, with the option to revisit a bug later if it reappears. The point is to redirect effort from managing trivial defects toward building a great product.

01Key takeaways

  • Most bugs can be ignored rather than tracked, freeing time for product building.
  • Treat bug fixing as a trade-off against both current and next work.
  • Let bugs that are actually important resurface on their own as evidence.
  • Reserve interruptions for urgent bugs and avoid debating priority and severity for them.
  • Stop maintaining large bug backlogs that will never be resolved.

02Key sections

Rethinking bug management
The essay opens by questioning large bug backlogs, priority meetings, and severity debates, calling bug management a waste of time.
Three categories of bugs
Bugs are grouped into those that interrupt work, those that get scheduled, and those that can be ignored, with the last being the majority.
Trade-off questions
Each bug is tested against current work and then next work; if it loses both comparisons, it is effectively never going to be fixed.
Handling mistakes
Ignoring a bug is low-risk because a wrongly dismissed bug will resurface, giving another chance to decide with more data.

03From the post

“Do you have a bug management system with thousands of bugs? Do you have meetings to review high priority bugs? Do you argue over how to use priority and severity? Why? Bug management is a waste of time. Bugs fall into three categories: Bugs that need to interrupt work. These”

“Bug management is a waste of time.”Teresa Torres · Product Talk
“Remember, everything is a trade-off.”Teresa Torres · Product Talk
“Stop managing trivial bugs and focus instead on building a great product.”Teresa Torres · Product Talk

04Frameworks mentioned

Trade-off Based Prioritization
Read the full piece at producttalk.org ↗

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.

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