Why Companies Don't Fix Bugs

I’ve personally always liked firebreak sprints. Every so often (3-4 times a year) in between other large pieces of work, take a week and give the developers free reign to individually fix the things they think are most important but never seem to get prioritised.

Yes, it talks to a disconnect between product and engineering, but working on that relationship at the same time doesn’t mean that both aren’t worth doing.

I've done exactly that as head of engineering. Works great!

The Shape Up model (originally from Basecamp) builds in a 2-week "cool down" period after every 6-week "build new stuff" period. We further designate one of those weeks as a "bug blitz." That 1-2 weeks in every 8 cadence really helps encourage fixes not just new features.

Just started this at my company. I’m excited for the boost to dev morale.