I’ve been thinking about a question lately: when you decide to rebuild a product from the ground up, what’s actually worth keeping?
Many teams fall into a trap during a rebuild—treating the “familiar” as “valuable.” Old UI patterns, old information architecture, old user flows… because everyone’s used to them, people assume they’re “fine,” and simply copy them unchanged into the new version.
So what happens? A new system with the same old problems.
What’s truly worth surviving a rebuild is really only a few things: insights grounded in real user behavior, a core value proposition that’s been validated, and the lessons learned from the pitfalls you already hit.
Not designs. Not components. Not “we’ve always done it this way.”
In my latest newsletter issue, I break this question down—what should be kept, what should be let go, and how to make decisions during a rebuild so you don’t end up circling back to the same spot.
If your team is going through technical restructuring, product transformation, or preparing for a major version iteration, this one may be especially useful.
👉 https://newsletter.bearliu.com/p/what-survives-a-rebuild
Many teams fall into a trap during a rebuild—treating the “familiar” as “valuable.” Old UI patterns, old information architecture, old user flows… because everyone’s used to them, people assume they’re “fine,” and simply copy them unchanged into the new version.
So what happens? A new system with the same old problems.
What’s truly worth surviving a rebuild is really only a few things: insights grounded in real user behavior, a core value proposition that’s been validated, and the lessons learned from the pitfalls you already hit.
Not designs. Not components. Not “we’ve always done it this way.”
In my latest newsletter issue, I break this question down—what should be kept, what should be let go, and how to make decisions during a rebuild so you don’t end up circling back to the same spot.
If your team is going through technical restructuring, product transformation, or preparing for a major version iteration, this one may be especially useful.
👉 https://newsletter.bearliu.com/p/what-survives-a-rebuild