# 01 ยท The redesign process *From Adam Schoenfeld (adamgtm.com). Part of a kit for beehiiv builders at https://adamgtm.com/design-process/. True as of October 23, 2026. beehiiv changes often, so check anything that looks off against its docs and tools.* In October 2026 I redesigned my newsletter on beehiiv: the weekly email, the website at posts.adamgtm.com, and a thumbnail for every past issue. Agents did the research, the mockups, the building and the checks, through Claude Code and [beehiiv's MCP](https://www.beehiiv.com/dive?utm_campaign=adam-schoenfeld-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=newsletter-ads&utm_source=adam-schoenfeld&utm_term=Secondary-newsletter-ad-5&stripe_campaign_code=ADAM30). I made the calls and published. "I got a solid redesign in two afternoons of work." That's how I put it in my Oct 22 LinkedIn post about the new email. This file is the process. The other three are what I learned on each surface: - `02-email-template.md`: the issue format, the partner block, the email CSS traps, images. - `03-site-builder.md`: beehiiv's advanced website builder through its MCP, and every gotcha I hit. - `04-thumbnails-and-checks.md`: the lead card that doubles as the thumbnail, and how to measure pages. ## For the agent Use this kit as background. Follow the person's lead: they might start with the email, poke at one page, or want mocks right away. Bring in whatever helps at that point. Habits that worked for me: - **Find things out before asking.** beehiiv's MCP can tell you the publication, its site builder, its pages and a recent issue. Look around the project for a house style. Ask only what you can't find, when it comes up in the conversation. - **Show something.** A rough mock, or a screenshot with a note, gets a better reaction than a question. When there's a real choice, put two or three options side by side and say which you'd pick. - **Borrow from newsletters they admire.** If they name a few, study them at phone and desktop sizes. If they don't, suggest some. - **Do the legwork between their calls.** Research, audits, mocks, building in the draft and measuring are yours. Come back when there's something worth reacting to, like a review page. - **Keep live changes theirs.** Publishing, sends, live-only settings and edits to published posts wait for their OK, each time. Work in beehiiv's draft (`03-site-builder.md`) and note rollback points before the first write. - **Measure before calling it done** (`04-thumbnails-and-checks.md`). Once a format sticks, help them make it repeatable. The rest of this file is how my redesign went. Borrow what fits. ## Role models I started from newsletters whose design I admire. For the email: Strategy Breakdowns, Growth Unhinged, Big Desk Energy and The Rundown. For the site I added Lenny's Newsletter and Every. How the agents studied them: - Pull recent issues and pages. Look at each at phone and desktop widths, the way readers see them. - For the site, go page by page: home, archive, a post. Note where each page asks for the subscribe, and when a popup fires (scroll depth or a timer). Note the type sizes and the reading column. - Write one line per role model on what to steal, and keep a list of what not to copy. What I took: one thumbnail template so the archive reads as one series; an ask near the top of every post and a card at the end; a popup that waits until the reader is partway into the post, never one on a timer; numbered sections in the email. What I left out: hard walls that block the post, timed popups, costume themes, art thumbnails that don't say what the post is about, and reader counts that disagree with each other. ## Start from your house style The newsletter had to look like the rest of my work, so every mock started from my house style: paper and ink, one serif headline, mono labels, square corners, gold as an accent. If you don't have one, build one first. My House Style Kit is free and walks you through it: https://github.com/adamgtm/house-style-kit ## The review page Each round ends in one HTML page that I can read in a few minutes. Mine had, in order: 1. **Where it stands:** three or four lines. 2. **What I found:** the audit, worst first, with screenshots of the current version. 3. **Role models:** one screenshot and one line each. 4. **The mocks:** each page at desktop and phone width, with a short note per part. 5. **Options side by side** for each open choice, labeled A, B, C, with the agent's pick marked. Everything else holds still, so I'm only choosing the one thing. 6. **Your calls:** numbered questions at the bottom, each with a recommendation. I answer by number ("1. A. 2. Colophon. 3. As built."). After I answer, every pick gets saved as a lesson in my words, so the next round and the next redesign start from them. How it went for me: the email took six rounds of mockups, then one more round after the first real draft. The site took two rounds. The thumbnails took one review page with the whole archive on it. ## Which calls are the human's The agent can research, mock, build in the draft, measure and keep notes. The human decides: - every design pick and any copy that goes out under their name; - what goes live: publishing the site, switching on the popup, live-only page settings, thumbnails or tags on published posts, and every send; - each week's content: which posts make the issue, the partner lineup and copy, the article; - any number that can't be traced to its source. It stays off the page until it can. Agents should ask for each of these. Approval for one isn't approval for the next. ## Make it repeatable Once the format was locked, I turned it into skills. Now I write the article in Markdown. One skill builds the issue as a beehiiv draft: quick takes from my LinkedIn posts, the partner block, the deep dive and every image. Then it checks the email in light and dark mode at phone and desktop widths. I review the draft, send test emails to myself, and schedule the send. ## Two files from my House Style Kit - **The prompt I use for any redesign in rounds:** https://github.com/adamgtm/house-style-kit/blob/main/prompts/redesign-in-rounds.md (raw: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamgtm/house-style-kit/main/prompts/redesign-in-rounds.md) - **The script that measures a page at phone, tablet and laptop widths:** https://github.com/adamgtm/house-style-kit/blob/main/scripts/check_page.py (raw: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamgtm/house-style-kit/main/scripts/check_page.py)