Better Understand Customers with Feature Flags
Developers use a common architectural pattern called “Feature Flags” which allows code to be deployed to production environments before the feature is 100% complete. Once the feature is complete, the flag is typically removed, as well as any conditional code and complexity associated with the flag. However, for B2B SaaS platforms, these flags can be far more useful.
In B2B SaaS platforms, many times features are developed but not used by all customers, even after the initial launch. Other times, they are used by customers, but not by all locations. Keeping these flags in the platform provides value well past the development cycle as a simple “license” mechanism for core features, provided you manage this value for each customer.
For Product Managers, these feature flags can also help with prioritization. By analyzing how many customers have a flag on or off, you can begin to see the impact of making a change or the scope of a bug. If a feature has been in production for a long period of time and no customers have the flag active, it represents an opportunity to eliminate code. This also means reducing your testing effort.
By looking across several flags, you can begin to see patterns for how clients operate. By combining these flags with other settings, you make some really interesting insights. Analyzing patterns across customers can help you identify similarities, or “business models”, that you can convert into pre-built configurations for some types of customers. In turn, these business models can reduce your implementation and on-boarding time, eliminate some customer-dependent tasks, and generate revenue faster.