December 2023 Summaries

LaunchDarkly has integrated with FullStory to simplify the process of targeting specific combinations of flag values at a page level. This integration enables teams to evaluate feature performance by analyzing how customers interact with features compared to previous experiences using FullStory's session query tool. The custom functionality developed for this integration allows teams to attach page properties to FullStory sessions, creating a running log of all evaluated flags and their corresponding values. This unlocks the ability to execute queries within the FullStory session UI, providing precise observations and valuable insights into feature performance.

Feature flags and product analytics are powerful tools that can be combined for better experimentation and testing in software development. By using feature flags, developers can test new features with real subsets of users in a production environment while incorporating product analytics provides instant read on whether the new features are working as intended. This combination allows teams to run tests faster, quickly spot trends and anomalies, run robust experiments, and test web against mobile experiences. Different teams such as product, engineering, and marketing can benefit from using feature flags and product analytics together. Now is an ideal time for companies to implement this strategy due to increased software production costs and the need to do more with less resources.

LaunchDarkly introduces Funnel Experiments as part of its Product Experimentation features to help product and engineering teams optimize key customer funnels. The out-of-the-box solution allows users to categorize and track the performance of experiments by grouping multiple metrics across a user journey, understand the impact of their experiments in real-time, and connect directly to Snowflake data for deeper insights. Funnel Experiments enable teams to experiment, iterate, and improve their software products like never before, making it easier than ever to measure the impact of changes to key customer flows and make data-driven decisions effortlessly.

LaunchDarkly is being used by leading teams to deliver AI functionality into their applications while continuously releasing, measuring, and iterating on them quickly without compromising safety. By using feature flags as control points within the code, organizations can manage how they release, measure, and iterate on features such as AI integrations. This approach allows for total control over every aspect of a feature, from who it's released to, when it's released, and measuring its effectiveness within an environment. LaunchDarkly enables continuous iteration by allowing developers to adjust prompts, models, and other configurations without redeploying the entire application.

Product experimentation is crucial for maximizing the business value of software features and product changes. Companies like Amazon, Booking.com, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft perform thousands of experiments annually to drive smarter decisions about which features to ship and improve customer experience. However, most companies run less than a few dozen experiments per year with little impact due to cultural barriers. Building a culture of experimentation involves encouraging employees to stay curious, take risks, learn from failures, and value good ideas from any person or department. Key steps include setting clear goals and objectives, fostering a data-first mindset, implementing rigorous experimentation processes, promoting cross-functional collaboration, and investing in experimentation infrastructure like LaunchDarkly.

AWS re:Invent 2023 highlighted the latest advancements in DevOps and modern software development. LaunchDarkly shared insights on its platform's capabilities, including a new Generative AI offering powered by Amazon Bedrock. This feature accelerates experimentation by providing tailored guidance for designing and running experiments using large language models (LLMs). The event also featured customer testimonials from PowerSchool, who shared their successful migration journey with AWS and LaunchDarkly. Attendees experienced hands-on demos and challenges to learn more about feature flags and safely migrate to new databases while maintaining control at every stage of the process. Unforgettable experiences beyond the tradeshow floor included exclusive events and a gourmet tour of the Las Vegas Strip.