This post is part of the Monday weekly series where I write about my leadership playbook. Today’s post is Part-3 of a migration story. Read more about Part 1 and Part 2.

In this post, I will talk about the success metrics we established and most importantly, the lessons learned.

Measuring Success

Six months after the core migration was complete, the quantitative results validated the initial investment:

Category	Metric	Result
Technical Metrics	Reduction in frontend code duplication	65%
	Faster feature development (Build Once)	40%
	Fewer UI bugs (Single Codebase)	50%
	Improvement in test coverage	30%
Business Impact	Time-to-market for new features	Faster
	Maintenance Costs	Reduced (one UI to support)
	User Experience	Consistent across deployment types

Beyond the numbers, we saw significant improvements in Team Productivity (faster onboarding, better collaboration) and a clearer Broader Organizational Impact, leading to company-wide adoption of our shared design system and influencing other teams’ platform strategies.

Key Lessons Learned

Platform unification is less a technical project and more an exercise in organizational change management.

• Start Small, Think Big: Don’t attempt a “big bang.” Build confidence and organizational buy-in by starting with shared components before tackling major architectural shifts.
• Involve the Team in Design: The engineers doing the migration are your best resource. Their insights into technical challenges must be included in architectural decisions.
• Communicate the Business Case Clearly: Ensure everyone, from leadership to individual contributors, understands why unification serves the business goals, not just engineering efficiency.
• Plan for the Transition Period: You will be supporting both the old and new systems simultaneously. Budget for that temporary overhead and communicate the associated cost upfront.

When NOT to Unify

Unification is not a silver bullet. You should hold off when:

1. Products are Truly Different: If user needs and workflows are fundamentally distinct, separate codebases might serve users better.
2. Technical Debt is Manageable: If the maintenance overhead isn’t a significant pain point, the cost of migration might not be worth the benefit.
3. Business Priorities Conflict: If immediate, critical feature delivery outweighs long-term efficiency, delay the unification project.

If you’re considering a similar unification, treat it as a long-term investment. Done thoughtfully, it pays dividends for years; done hastily, it creates more problems than it solves.

Have you faced a similar platform unification challenge? What was your most difficult implementation hurdle, and how did you navigate it?