Why temporary solutions exist

Temporary solutions are often the right choice.

They usually emerge when speed becomes more important than completeness.

This can happen under business pressure, when a specific customer request needs to be addressed quickly. It can also happen when the product lacks certain capabilities, and a workaround is introduced instead of addressing the limitation directly. In other cases, it takes the form of quick integrations or shortcuts between systems, created to move forward without investing in a more robust solution.

Temporary solutions are also commonly used to test or validate ideas that are not yet proven. Building something quickly allows teams to gather feedback and understand whether a direction is worth pursuing.

And sometimes, they are simply necessary. Fixing a bug, resolving an incident, or unblocking a customer often requires acting quickly rather than perfectly. This often happens under pressure, when urgency is perceived before it is fully understood.

In all these situations, speed matters. And that is exactly why they are so easy to accept.

But what all these cases have in common is that they optimise for the short term.

And short-term optimisations often turn into long-term constraints.

When temporary becomes permanent

Problems start when temporary solutions are adopted.

If a prototype starts being used by customers, it becomes much harder to change or replace. What was meant to be a quick experiment turns into something people rely on.

And at that point, the cost of removing or reworking it increases significantly.

The same happens with quick fixes for urgent issues. A workaround that solves a problem in the short term can remain in place much longer than expected.

And once something is in production, it becomes part of the system.

The point of no return

There is usually a moment when a temporary solution becomes difficult to undo.

It might be when:

  • Customers start depending on it.

  • Other parts of the system integrate with it.

  • Replacing it requires significantly more effort than keeping it.

After that point, the “temporary” nature of the solution is mostly theoretical.

The illusion of progress

Temporary solutions can create the impression that progress has been made.

The problem appears solved. The feature seems delivered.

But in reality, what has been built might not be designed to evolve, scale, or integrate properly with the rest of the product.

This is especially evident in areas like AI, where rapid experimentation is common, and customer expectations remain unclear. It is often difficult to understand how a solution will be used in practice, and early implementations can easily become something they were never meant to be.

A hidden trade-off

Choosing a temporary solution is always a trade-off.

It trades speed for future flexibility. It trades immediate relief for long-term complexity. This connects closely to how product decisions are mostly trade-offs.

In many cases, it is the right decision. But it should also be a conscious one.

What looks like a quick fix is often a decision that will shape the product for a long time.

Managing temporary solutions

Temporary solutions are therefore not the problem.

Their uncontrolled adoption is.

When building something temporary, it is important to:

  • Limit its exposure.

  • Be careful with its adoption.

  • Make its limitations explicit and clear from the very beginning.

Otherwise, what started as a way to learn and fix quickly can turn into a constraint that slows down future work.

Closing

Temporary solutions become permanent when they are allowed to spread.

Once they are used, relied upon, and integrated, they are not temporary anymore.

They simply become part of the product, together with their limitations.