I routinely align feature specifications across 20+ brands. Even with a focus group of 10 people, we somehow end up with 15 opinions on the default settings. Should this be on for everyone, or only for selected user groups? Should it live only on our internal system, or also be visible to external customers? And is the nudge this feature gives really something we want to push on our users?
I have spent more hours than I’d like to admit facilitating conversations and debates across focus groups, management, and IT. At one point a button colour took three meetings. The button was fine. We were not.
Then I realised: build the knobs and dials. Defaults, it turns out, are just someone’s opinion frozen in place. Instead of deciding for everyone how our software should be used, put the right stakeholder in control. No need to get 20+ brands on the same page about whether a button should exist. All we need is an interface where the brand manager can decide. Knobs and dials to set things up the way they like. A feature flag: on or off, their call. Let them make it their own.
(Yes, there is such a thing as a settings page nobody can read. We will get to that another day.)
I have been working this way for a year now, and it has made life much easier. Decisions stop taking ages, and value reaches the people who want it, faster.
And the kicker? Our feature flags are almost never switched off. Not because someone is stubbornly keeping them on, but because nobody is afraid to use them.
What the decision makers needed all along was an off switch they can punch when things go awry. With one, they have the confidence to try something new, knowing they can limit the damage quickly if it goes wrong.
So feature flags are a bit like a fire extinguisher. Nobody keeps one by the stove hoping for a fire. We keep one close so that a small blaze never turns into a disaster.