You’re Fixing Tech Debt - But What About Trust Debt?
Tech debt you can fix. Trust debt? That’s cultural
There’s a kind of debt most commerce teams are drowning in. And it’s not tech.
It’s trust debt. The internal kind.
The kind that builds up every time a new tool gets rolled out with a big promise, and quietly becomes shelfware six weeks later.
The kind that makes operators roll their eyes when someone says, “We just need to get better at using [insert platform name here]."
The kind that burns out good people faster than a Black Friday sale.
What Is Trust Debt?
It’s what you accrue when teams stop believing that the things they’re being asked to do will actually help them. When a new tool is pitched as a time-saver but adds five more steps.
When a platform is sold as "low-code" but needs a full-time dev to manage. When dashboards are introduced to bring clarity but nobody trusts the data source. Every time you break an internal promise like that, you chip away at confidence, buy-in, and morale. That’s trust debt.
Why It’s Worse Than Tech Debt
Tech debt you can log. Tech debt you can fix. Trust debt? That’s cultural.
It creates a cycle. Teams stop raising problems because previous feedback was ignored. Leaders mistake silence for satisfaction. New tools get rolled out on top of broken foundations. Morale dips. People leave. Knowledge gaps grow. Sound familiar?
Where It Shows Up
It shows up when someone asks for a report and the first question back is, "Which system do you want it from?" Or when ops teams quietly maintain offline spreadsheets because the shiny new ERP doesn’t actually help them do their jobs. It shows up in cross-functional meetings that become less about improving processes and more about defending tools nobody fully believes in. And it’s loudest in internal comms, where new rollouts are wrapped in hype, but followed by little to no real support.
Trust debt thrives in the space between what leadership envisions and what operators live through every day.
The Cost
Adoption drops. New tools flop not because they’re bad, but because no one believes they’ll be around long enough to matter. Progress slows. Every project gets harder to land because it comes with historic baggage. People churn. The most capable operators leave, and the ones who stay stop caring.
And here’s the kicker: brands start losing ground externally when internal trust breaks down. Customers feel the lag, the mistakes, the half-baked workflows.
How to Pay It Down
Stop selling tools as silver bullets. Talk about what will be hard. Be honest about trade-offs. Show your work, why decisions were made, how tools were chosen, and what success actually looks like. Include operators early. Not just in testing, in deciding what gets tested. Invest in enablement: training, documentation, office hours, internal champions. All of it matters. And measure trust, not just usage. Adoption is surface-level. Ask: do teams trust this to make their job easier?
Tech debt slows teams down.
But trust debt? That’s what stops them trying at all.
If you're wondering why your last internal tool rollout didn't stick, it probably wasn't the tech. It was the trust.
We help teams untangle this kind of mess. Tools, systems, expectations, and the trust that holds them all together.