April 2015 Summaries

The text discusses the benefits of taking smaller steps in both trail running and software development. In trail running, smaller steps reduce the risk of injury by minimizing force on landing and allowing for quicker stabilization if a step is misjudged. Similarly, in software development, best practices like agile methodology, continuous integration, and canary launches enable faster progress with more frequent feedback loops. The text contrasts this approach with a project that took nine months to develop but ultimately failed, highlighting the value of iterative, incremental improvements over a single, large-scale effort.

Giles Goodwin, CEO of Flite, has joined LaunchDarkly as an advisor. Goodwin's company, Flite, has been a partner in customer development for LaunchDarkly since its inception. The two companies have collaborated on feature flags as a service. Giles Goodwin is also the co-founder and CEO of Flite, which has grown to millions of revenue with satisfied SaaS customers worldwide. Both Giles and Edith Harbaugh, CEO of LaunchDarkly, previously worked together at Epicentric Portal Server and Builder. Their shared passion for long distance running led to a chance encounter on the Miwok Trail, where Goodwin became LaunchDarkly's first pilot customer.

Today, LaunchDarkly moved into Heavybit, a community for developer-focused entrepreneurs in San Francisco. Feedback from early customers indicates that LaunchDarkly is an essential platform for software development teams to "move faster, break less, and measure everything." The Heavybit team invited LaunchDarkly due to its feature flags as a service offering. At Heavybit, LaunchDarkly will be among companies accelerating development like Iron.io, CitusData, Apiary, and CodeEnvy. The community provides valuable resources such as speaker series, office hours with industry leaders, and mentorship from experts in various fields.

A canary launch is a method used by agile development organizations to slowly roll out new features to a small number of users, allowing them to assess the reaction and impact on the overall system. This approach helps in identifying potential issues early on and provides an opportunity for quick recovery if needed. Canary launches are different from internal betas, user testing, QA or performance testing as they involve real users in a production environment. Companies like Google use canary launches to release new features to early adopters. While traditional pre-launch activities improve product quality, they lack the component of testing features in actual usage. LaunchDarkly offers "canaries as a service" platform for feature rollout and reaction monitoring. Canary launches provide risk mitigation by allowing issues to be identified and fixed in a controlled environment before affecting all users.

Anne Dwane, a successful entrepreneur and CEO of Military.com, shares her experience as a startup CEO, emphasizing that while it is challenging and demanding, the rewards make it worthwhile. She compares the journey to riding a bike across the country solo, where every day brings new challenges but also moments of pure joy. In both cases, the ultimate goal and destination are what keep individuals motivated despite the difficulties they face along the way.