Fynn GloverCo-Founder & CEO, Schematic · Co-founder & CEO of Schematic | Runtime monetization infrastructure for SaaS & AI companies

Shipping is the heartbeat of your company. Make your product alive. - Joe Ryan quoting Des Traynor

26 Sept 2024 · 2 min

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In this discussion, the speakers argue that feature management—particularly the use of feature flags—is still in its early stages and holds untapped potential for driving business value. They reference a conversation with former LaunchDarkly evangelist Brian Rinaldi, noting that extending feature flags into entitlements and monetization can reduce commercial and technical debt. By gaining granular insight into which features are actually used, companies can dynamically adjust packaging tiers, move features between plans, and keep their product "alive"—responsive to market shifts, new technologies, and evolving company culture. This continuous, data‑driven approach transforms software delivery into a heartbeat that sustains ongoing innovation rather than isolated bursts of brilliance.

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The idea of the control point is so compelling. And for me, what it draws is this idea that we're actually really still in the early innings of feature management. And in fact, I was talking to a former LaunchDarkly developer evangelist, Brian Rinaldi, and he said something to the effect of like, there's so much we can do with feature management and feature flags specifically. And if you take it back just to the entitlements use case and monetization, The feature flag as a primitive is something that now every developer is familiar with, but if you extended it into entitlements, the company doesn't run into a lot of the debt, the monetization debt, the commercial debt that you described you had to go through.
I think the more control and insight you have around features, how they're delivered, is going to put your business in a position where you can optimize and maximize pretty quickly. And build more, you know, build more value for your customers. Because you, you might find a feature sitting there, it's actually not used ever. Like, if we can give you that insight, like, or you, you know, in your packaging, hey, it's time to move that from the best package down to the better or good package. It's commoditized, or everyone uses it, you know. Getting that insight and thinking, uh, helps you create a product that is alive. And what I mean by alive is that it is responding to the market, it is responding to new technology and systems. And it's responding to your company culture too. That's gonna change over time. And so if you have something that's more static, it's harder to innovate. It's harder to like actually build really interesting things that customers care about. So the more that you can have software become a heartbeat within your organization, delivering software specifically, I think the more you can actually continue to innovate at a consistent pace, which I think that's always a hard thing. Like every organization has this. Moment of innovation or like this amazing product that they built. How do you keep that going constantly? And truly the greats are the only ones that do that.