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[ Engineering ]12 December 2024·6 min read
The cost of a database mistake (and how to avoid making one)
Schemas are decisions you have to live with for years. A few hours of modelling up front saves months of rework later.
We see it often: a startup ships fast, the database evolves organically, and three years later the team is paying a tax on every feature — because reporting is impossible, queries are slow, and nobody dares change the schema.
The three modelling mistakes we see most
- Overloaded “status” columns that try to encode lifecycle, type and priority into a single string.
- JSON blobs used as a substitute for proper relations — fast to ship, painful to query.
- Implicit ownership: data that belongs to a customer, but nothing in the schema enforces it.
A few hours, well spent
Two days of domain modelling at the start of a project will save you months of unpicking down the line. It’s the highest-leverage investment in any new build.
Written by Axia Design Studio. Have a project where this might apply? Get in touch.
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