What it is
Visibility Debt is what accrues when an organization grows faster than its ability to create shared operational reality. It is not "bad reporting," and it usually isn't caused by missing data — most often the data exists, in exports that have never been compared, under definitions nobody has reconciled.
How it shows up
Leadership and teams operating from different versions of performance. Misallocated spend. Attribution that flatters the wrong channel. Good work becoming invisible and weak work appearing successful. Decisions made on incomplete evidence, then treated as ground truth by the next decision.
Why it compounds
Debt is the right metaphor because the interest is paid in decisions. Each choice made on an unshared number becomes the premise for the next one, and the organizations that have carried it longest are least able to see the balance — the capacity to see is precisely what the debt consumed.