Embracing Feature Flags

Today, I want to talk about a concept that has fundamentally changed the way I look at deployments and feature rollouts—Feature Flags. Yes, those little conditional switches in your code that may seem trivial but are secretly superpowers when used wisely.

You might be wondering: “Okay, so what’s the big deal?”
Well, hang in there. Let me walk you through the thought process.

Context

Let’s be honest—shipping code is stressful. No matter how much you test, there’s always that background anxiety about something going wrong once it hits production. Things get even more complex when you have a distributed team or you’re working on a product with high usage. Downtime? Not an option.

That’s where Feature Flags came into the picture for us.
Our situation was typical: multiple developers working on different features, some ready before others, some half-baked, and some too sensitive to expose to the whole user base in one go.
In short—we needed control without bottlenecks.

What Are Feature Flags?

In simple terms, a Feature Flag is a conditional check in your code that decides whether a particular feature should be turned on or off—without the need to deploy code again.

if (FeatureFlag.isEnabled("new-dashboard")) {
    renderNewDashboard();
} else {
    renderOldDashboard();
}

It’s as simple as that. But the impact? Massive.

You can:

• Gradually roll out features to a percentage of users
• Do internal testing in production environments
• Kill a faulty feature instantly without rollback
• Run A/B tests more confidently

Our Use Case

We started using feature flags during a high-stakes product revamp. Instead of going all-in on a risky backend orchestration overhaul, we gated it behind a flag. Internal team got access first, then beta users, then a full release.

This meant:

• We didn’t hold back other deployments
• QA could test both old and new flows in the same environment
• We had full control over exposure

It also helped the product team validate their assumptions without putting the system at risk. Win-win.

Pitfalls We Faced

Let me also share a few lessons (aka mistakes 😅):

• We once forgot to remove a stale flag and it stayed in the codebase for months. It caused confusion and unnecessary branching logic.
• Flag logic started sneaking into business logic, making code harder to read.
• We didn’t document flag ownership properly. Nobody knew who was supposed to flip it.

Take it from me—governance is key. Have a clear lifecycle:

1. Add the flag
2. Use it with a rollout plan
3. Monitor its impact
4. Retire it when done

Tools We Used

We created our own microservice that could handle setting up the feature flags and could also help us in retrieving the current status of the feature flag in an efficient manner. Since we had our own infrastructure and base for microservices covered, it made more sense to have our own in house service to handle such feature flags.

You don’t have to build your own toggle system. There are solid tools out there like:

• LaunchDarkly
• Flagsmith
• Unleash
• Split.io

These let you manage flags from a UI, add rules, do percentage rollouts, and track metrics. Some even support targeting based on user attributes.

Conclusion

Feature Flags may seem like a minor implementation detail, but they can become one of your most strategic tools for product delivery. They give you control, confidence, and flexibility—without blocking the team or endangering your users.

So, next time you're scared to deploy that feature... maybe don’t.
Ship it behind a flag, test the waters, and then flip the switch when you’re ready.

Let me know your thoughts!
Have you used feature flags? Built your own? Faced any nightmare because of them?