It’s hard to build something. Going from 0 to 1 with a new idea. Working through all possible scenarios, juggling between many known unknowns. I’ve been there, talking from the experience.

Yet, it’s equally hard to maintain something good, keeping it as it is. Though everyone seems to talk about the “new thing” as our attention spans and consumption habits were radically altered by our inventions over the last 20 years, the art of holding something stable whilst every surrounding variable constantly changing deserves more attention. In a land where the “what’s next” mentality prevails, no one seems to talk about how something is craftily preserved. Not many are eager to talk much about a good product that defies time and transcends its shelf life.

This creation bias runs deep. Once we make it, we’re expected to jump onto the next. We are expected to shift our focus on the new thing and everyone is directed towards expecting the new thing. New users, new features, new something. This regrettably became the norm. Shareholders, stakeholders, reporters, and users; everyone’s gaze is fixed on what’s new, driven by media’s increasing fusion with commerce.

You can find traces of the same logic when it comes to user acquisition. The same mentality manifests itself as in acquiring users is hard. To a certain point, that’s the case. You study your personas, define and refine your channels with some twists to bring your prospective users to your product in which seamless onboarding flows serve specific use cases, and you create spot-on pricing packages that make sense for each of your user types. You toil to go from 0 to 1. You acquire users but, on the contrary, the job is not done, it has just started. Keeping what you have, and serving your guests to make them regulars is the job, even though most of the time “acquisition” steals the spotlight from”retention”.

Think of it like a water tank. Today’s products die not from lack of new users, but from turning a not-so-blind-but-quite-uninterested eye to existing ones. We keep pouring water into leaking tanks instead of fixing the leaks. Even though retention makes more analytical sense, understanding what we’ve already acquired isn’t championed enough.

However, repairing the leak instead of filling the leaking tank with more water makes more sense. Focusing on your actual users with a keen eye, and treating them as valuable as your new users is somehow overlooked but a critical task of the game. You need absolute clarity about who you’re serving. Regularly revisit everything you know about your users: what makes them think, what makes them hesitate, what motivates their decisions. As you plan for growth, this isn’t just another task—it’s the task.

Staying on the same path, you can only gain something from breakups if you have a clue what caused the breakup in the first place. Breakups, once thoughtfully analysed, tell you the unsaid, sometimes hard-to-hear truths. This is why asking “why you are leaving”, even though not always possible and may be left unanswered when asked without putting in effort, is the question that has the potential for your growth, personally or professionally. Though sounds a bit unorthodox, matching the effort and time spent on acquiring users with understanding a breakup is one of the most sensible investments you may make to improve your product.

Don’t be tempted by the allure of ‘new.’ Focus instead on perfecting what you have. Understanding how, when, and why people use—or stop using—your product might be the most valuable investment you can make. New is expected now, but excellence is timeless.