Exploring common types of trade-offs

Trade-offs in product management often appear at the intersections of different priorities. They typically fall into 6 recurring types:

• Technical versus design
• Technical versus business
• Business versus technical
• Business versus design
• Design versus technical
• Design versus business

Each combination represents a tension point where teams must make choices about what to prioritize.

For example, technical versus design may require choosing between a simple but less appealing solution and a more polished interface that adds complexity. Business versus design might involve speeding up delivery to capture revenue at the cost of refining the user experience. These categories help teams frame their discussions and understand what is really at stake. Some trade-offs are reversible and allow for later adjustments, while others commit the product to a path with long-term consequences. Making these categories explicit enables teams to evaluate options more clearly and avoid decisions made on instinct alone.