Rebuild or patch the plan
Not every messy schema deserves a rewrite. Signs a rebuild will pay for itself—and signs you should patch instead.
Rebuild when two squads cannot answer the same activation question with the same event. Patch when only a few properties are missing on an otherwise consistent plan.
Another rebuild signal: three generations of onboarding events nobody dares delete. Historical compatibility helps until it blocks every new report.
Treat a rebuild like a product launch. Freeze new event requests briefly, migrate critical dashboards, then sunset old names with a clear date.
Budget dual-writing during transition. Rebuilds that skip it create a silent month where nobody trusts the numbers—and that month is expensive.