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How to merge duplicate insights

Overview

Found the same insight captured more than once? Merging combines duplicate insights into a single insight, so your library stays clean and your scores stay accurate. This article covers merging for insights in the library.

Before you start

  • Merging works on active insights in your library. Archived insights and summary insights can't be merged.
  • Whether you automatically see duplicate suggestions depends on your permissions. Without that permission, you can still select the insights you want and merge them yourself.
  • If your company has AI enabled, TheyDo uses AI to write the merged insight's title and description for you.

What merging does

  • You select two or more insights that are duplicates.
  • TheyDo creates one new insight that combines them.
  • The originals are archived, not deleted, so nothing is lost and you can restore them anytime.
  • The new insight takes the place of the originals across your journeys, so wherever those insights were used, the merged one steps in.
  • Before you confirm, you see a preview of the merged insight and can edit anything.

A quick note on language: nothing is "kept." The insights you select are the sources, and merging creates a new combined insight. The sources move to your archive.

How to merge

  1. In the library, select the insights you want to combine.
  2. Click Merge.
  3. Review the preview that loads. It shows how many insights will merge, how many were skipped, and how many journeys are affected.
  4. Check each source on the left. Expand a row to see its full description and details.
  5. Adjust the merge if needed. Use Use for merge to base the result on one specific insight, or Remove to drop an insight that doesn't belong.
  6. Review the combined insight on the right.
  7. Adjust anything you like, then confirm.

Which insights can be merged

  • You can merge active insights in the library.
  • Archived insights and summary insights are skipped automatically. If you select some, the merge modal marks them as not mergeable and tells you how many will actually be merged.
  • The modal also shows how many journeys will be affected, so you know the reach before you commit.

What happens to your content

TheyDo pre-fills the preview with the strongest values from your sources, so you start from a sensible result instead of a blank one.

  • Title and description: if AI is enabled, AI writes a combined title and description for you. If not, TheyDo uses the insight with the highest score. If there's a tie, it uses the one that appears in the most journeys, and if it's still tied, the first one you selected.
  • Single-value fields like type, owner, status, experience impact, and emoji: TheyDo suggests the most common value across your sources. Empty fields are ignored, so a blank value never wins over a real one.
  • Multi-value fields like personas, tags, quotes, and linked items: everything is combined, so nothing gets dropped.
  • Score: recalculated automatically from all the combined quotes, so it reflects the full picture.
  • Comments and activity history: not carried over to the new insight.

If your duplicates have different values for the same field, TheyDo picks the strongest one for you, and you can override it before confirming. You can change any of this before confirming.

Edit the preview

The preview is a starting point, not a final answer. Before you confirm, you can:

  • Edit any field directly: add a persona, change the type, set a status, swap the emoji, and so on.
  • Remove a source if you decide it shouldn't be part of the merge.
  • Use a source as the base to lead the result from one insight.
  • Regenerate the preview once you've removed a source or changed the base.

Regenerate has two options that do opposite things:

  • Regenerate: a full refresh. Your manual edits are discarded and the preview is rebuilt from scratch.
  • Regenerate and keep my edits: anything you touched stays. Untouched fields like title, description, and owner may still update based on the new set of sources.

If you remove sources and then add the exact same set back, there's nothing to regenerate, so the button disappears and your preview stays as is.

After the merge

  • The new insight opens right away and shows it was merged from your source insights.
  • You can open any of the originals from there.
  • Changed your mind about one? Unarchive it to bring it back as an active insight. The merged insight still keeps the reference.
  • If you delete a source instead of leaving it archived, TheyDo lets you know. Deleted insights aren't tracked, but the merged one will tell you that one of the originals was removed.

Tips

  • Merging currently applies to insights in the library only.
  • The modal always tells you exactly how many insights will merge, how many were skipped, and why, so you're never guessing.
  • There's no one-click undo for a merge, but your original insights are archived rather than deleted, so you can always restore them if you change your mind.