Hi,
You really want to spin up at least one non-prod env.
If queries are running slowly, first place to check is indexes: join, filter, sort columns. Beyond that, check the hardware sizing of the db, if vm bump its cpu/memory allocation as appropriate.
Failing all that, use nms:seedMember to host test records, with the caveat this will require significant manual effort or some light scripting/Excel to generate.
Thanks,
-Jon